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Archive for the ‘Opinion’ Category

A Deliberate Pause

Posted in Current Events, Neat Stuff, Opinion, tagged , , , , , , , on October 14, 2009| Leave a Comment »

Robertson-Deliberate Final CVR A year or two ago, I was interviewed down in Alexandria by Larry Robertson, who was conducting a couple of hundred interviews with people on the idea of entrepreneurship.  Larry is an expert and consultant on entrepreneurism, advising many enterprises  and lecturing often on the subject at Georgetown and Cornell Universities.  We had met several years before at an opening for my work at the Principle Gallery in Alexandria, when he had obtained a painting of mine.  several years had passed and at an opening a couple of years ago, Larry approached me with an invitation to be interviewed for a book for which he was researching.

So we met a few months later and sat for a couple of hours.  I knew that there was a certain amount of entrepreneurism in being an artist, in that you had to create a product of your own design and establish a network for distributing it out into the wider world.  Basically, you must take your own vision and make it available for others to embrace.  But I thought I had little to offer Larry for his book.

That day Larry explained to me some of his concepts that would be laid out in his book.  He described how he had observed the growth of my career in the Alexandria area and showed me in a small chart how my work acted as a pebble which, upon striking the surface of a pond (which would be the initial successful sale of my work there,) sends out waves that spread along the surface, creating more and more opportunity for my work to be seen and be successful.  He said the success of my work  was a perfect template for success for enterprises of all sizes.  I hadn’t thought of it in that way.

I came away from the interview thinking that I had indeed taken more from the interview than I had given.

Well, Larry’s book has hit the shelves.  It’s titled A Deliberate Pause: Entrepreneurship and Its Moment in Human Progress and is a really engaging read.  He features wonderful guidance from his hundreds of interviews from a wide and varying group of entrepreneurs including Nobel Prize winner Muhammad Yunus , the developer of microcredit where very small loans are given to the very poor so that they may pursue their own vision of enterprise, along with a multitude of  other well known names.  If you have even a small amount of the entrepreneurial spirit running in your veins, this is an invaluable guide with much to offer.

I think that this spirit of innovation and individual creation of vision,  as described in this book, will be a major force in forming the future economy of this country, in pushing along new technologies and new ways of approaching old ideas.  You can go to Larry Robertson’s website for his book by clicking on the book cover shown.  Well worth your time…

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What Certainty?

Posted in Current Events, Opinion, tagged on October 11, 2009| 7 Comments »

arn-the-knight-templarI’ve written before about how I am intrigued by the certainty that many people have concerning the truth and validity of their own beliefs and opinions.  It’s something you most often see concerning religious beliefs, where a person may feel that theirs is the only true religion and all others are somehow blind to this truth.  This certainty has led these people into many wars, has caused the ruination and deaths of those who do not share their belief systems and has carried them across many oceans to take the lands of native people, claiming it through some sort of divine right that their god alone grants to them.

This is the pattern of history, east and west, throughout the recorded ages.

I wonder about the certainty behind this belief, how these people can never doubt for a moment the veracity of their beliefs, can never ponder the sheer possibility that they may not be completely right.  I realize that in ancient times one had to have total commitment, both in beliefs and actions,  in order to merely survive, politically and physically.  I’m sure this is how this certainty was created and has evolved though time.  And as it moved through the ages, this certainty became a complete way of thought and a basis for the lives 0f many.

You should do this.  You must do that.  You will not do this.  You must live as I live.  Think as I think.  To do otherwise makes you a danger, a cleaver of my beliefs.

This certitude is evident today beyond the religious spectrum, although much of it stems from that background.  I see it as I peruse many blogs, particularly those of the extreme right.  They have absolute belief in the correctness of their opinions, absolute surety that they have only true path to a righteous life.  They alone can see the flaws in everyone else’s opinions, can clearly see the evil that lurks behind those with thoughts contrary to their own, can see ahead the future that is imminent without their guidance and pure thought.

They are, and always will be, right.

It seems, however to me, that there is a flaw inherent in this way of thinking.  This certainty leads these people to believe that they must be a majority, because how could so many people not see the rightness of their belief?  They come to  believe that their truth is the truth of the masses and they are therefore invincible.  It’s this arrogance of certainty that makes these people both dangerous and vulnerable.  By vulnerable, I mean that these people are so sure of widespread appeal of their beliefs that they become bolder and more vocal in airing their opinions which exposes to all the flaws in their logic.  They begin to show their weaknesses, their own words leading to a breakdown.

Take the tea-baggers, for example.  These are people who have passionate and absolute beliefs.  Unwavering.  Even when faced with irrefutable  evidence, they are totally convinced that theirs is the one and only true vision for America.  And as they yell louder, they begin to believe that, yes, we are the majority.

Look at us.  Hear our bellow.  We are so many: how can anyone doubt the rightness behind our arguments?

And they become louder and bolder and in doing so, expose their flanks, their flaws.  And inevitably they begin to lose steam as they are counter-attacked and have little, other than their certainty, with which to defend themselves.

Now, this is just one person’s observation and I have absolutely no certainty in its rightness.  What I don’t know could fill all the oceans and all the visible skies.  What I do know would barely fill my coffee cup.

Maybe knowing how limited I am makes me almost admire these people and their passion.  I don’t see the truth or logic behind their beliefs and am sometimes frustrated by their unwavering disbelief of fact and how easily they are manipulated, but I can’t deny their commitment.  It makes them truly formidable opponents to any sort of progress.  But so long as they keep screaming and we keep listening for the how’s and why’s,  hopefully a more inclusive vision of America will prevail.


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Matters of Empathy

Posted in Current Events, Opinion, tagged , , on October 3, 2009| Leave a Comment »

Empathy=Hipocrisy TomTomorrowI’ve been thinking lately, as I’ve been painting, about words that have big concepts behind them.  Words like reverence, devotion and empathy.

Empathy is a word that always comes back to me when I think of the chasm between left and right in this country.  I think that empathy is the quality, more than any other,  that really defines and divides both sides.

The right views empathy as a weakness, an admission that one can’t do for themselves and needs help.  Those who are without and need help obviously are out to take what the right has toiled to keep to themselves.  These people deserve only pity.  Not empathy, because how can we empathize with situations that we would never allow ourselves to be in?

The left has a large tent of empathy, looking out for everyone who has ever been down and needs a hand up, perhaps to a fault.  They have a sense of fair play that sometime opens them to being conned by those who would play upon their willingness to help.  They even sometimes treat their adversaries with empathy, giving them the benefit of their own doubt at times, allowing the opposition to hinder and sabotage even as they proclaim their desire for unity.

I know this is over-simplification to the nth degree and, god knows, I could be way wrong here.  But to me it’s just an illustration of how deep the chasm between these two sides remains and how incompatible their mindsets are.  This simple imbalance of a single human virtue on both sides makes any dialogue almost impossible and with every passing day we can see this in the news coming out of our capital.

Solutions?  I don’t know.  Perhaps if those on the left can absorb some of that self-righteous anger that has long been the province of the right and just swallow their empathy for a short time, something may be accomplished.  But until that improbable moment occurs, it’ll be the status quo.  Over and over again.

Thanks to Tom Tomorrow and his website for the cartoon.  I really like his style.

Tom_Tw-Liberal_Scum

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Always Been That Way. Always Will.

Posted in Current Events, Opinion, tagged , , , on September 22, 2009| 2 Comments »

Passionate Without the Hatred of the Tea-BaggersWe all know there’s a lot of debate and contention over the idea of universal healthcare here in the US.  People marching, people screaming and many people generally at their worst levels of behavior.  It’s passionate out there, as it usually is when there is the idea of change in the air, when people are forced to change the way they do or perceive things.  Always been that way.  Always will.

There are always going to be those who, for reasons that seem unfathomable to many, will oppose such change and seek to disrupt its progress in any way possible.  Always been that way.  Always will.

Take, for instance, the Civil Rights Acts of the 1960’s.  There was a Voting Rights Act in 1960 and a Civil Rights Act prohibiting general segregation in 1964.  The world has changed a lot since those days but it was only 45 years ago that a vast number of our citizens were denied their inalienable rights.  So much has changed and the idea of racial equality seems like such a no-brainer for those who like to believe that America is the land of the free that I’m sure that many folks today  take for granted that this legislation passed through Congress in a breeze.

Not so fast.

Like healthcare today, the idea of simply giving all American citizens equal footing was not a popular idea with everyone.  The final votes, in fact, had 27 of the 100 senators voting against the bill.  In the House, 130 of 420 voting voted against it.  As for regional support, only one Southern senator from Texas supported the bill- the other 21 learned men voted against something that we all take for granted today.  Equal treatment under the law.

Now looking at those numbers, there will be those who will say that most of those who voted against the bill were Democrats and this is true.  The Southern Democrat of pre-1964 was a much different creature than the Democrat of today.  In fact, this very Civil Rights Act’s passage paved the way for most, if not all of them to jump ship to the Republican party.  Strom Thurmond was such a party jumper in 1964.

It wasn’t just that these men ( I hate using that term for them but I’m trying to maintain decorum here) voted against universal civil rights.  They also filibustered for 57 days, putting aside the work of this country’s congress so that they could maintain the status quo, the status quo that kept many as sub-citizens.  Besides racism, the idea of fighting so hard against something so basic to our definition of ourselves as Americans is beyond my comprehension.

And that brings me back to healthcare.

Many of the most shrill voices in the battle against healthcare, much like the battle for civil rights,  are Southern voices.  Joe Wilson from South Carolina, for instance.  What is the real motivation here?  Why be so passionately dead set against something that can only help your state, which ranks in the bottom two or three states every year in most rankings for most healthcare categories?

I think the anger of the protesters is misguided and if they would take a minute and think, really think about it, their anger would be just as passionate but at a different target.  If I lived in South Carolina I would be angry at Wilson for defending a health system in a state that has given us some of the worst healthcare in the country.  Some of the worst levels of infant mortality, premature births, teenage pregnancies, highest percentage of uninsured citizens and on and on across all categories.  These angry people, especially those from South Carolina who so wholeheartedly back this slack-jawed idiot as their representative in our government, should be asking Wilson why this is so and what is he doing to get us, the people he represents, the best healthcare they can have.  That they deserve.

But maybe that’s the point: They’re getting exactly the healthcare he thinks they deserve.

So, folks, again I apologize for meandering off my painter’s path.  I just wanted to point out that there will be resistance to any change,especially that which affects the most people,  but we, as a people, have to slog past those who try to slow or stop progress.  There will always be demonization by those who want to live in a past that has benefitted the few over a better future for the many.

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The Rise of Incivility

Posted in Current Events, Opinion, Quote, tagged , , , , on September 16, 2009| 2 Comments »

Is there a gas leak  in here?
What the hell is going on lately?
You’ve got Joe Wilson screaming at President Obama.  Serena Williams melts down at the US Open, swearing at and threatening a line judge.   Kanye West jumps the stage at some MTV awards show taking the microphone from the surprised winner and berates the crowd because Beyonce didn’t win.  On Saturday,  thousands  ( not millions, not even hundreds of thousands) marched on Washington, still quivering with anger and screaming that they want their country back and that Muslims were taking over Washington.  Bury Obamacare With Kennedy signs were distributed through the crowd.  Classy.
Last night I flipped on the Yankees game and there on the screen was a writhing mass of players, flailing away at one another.  Base brawl.  This ugly edginess that has been so apparent of late had even reached into the very thing I was hoping would be a refuge from all this craziness.
Why this anger, why now?  I wish I had answers.  There has definitely been a coarsening of society, a loss of the niceties and manners that once defined civil society,  something that has been pointed out a lot lately.   Maybe it’s that people feel they have lost their voice and that the only way to be heard is to scream.  Maybe it’s just the fact that with all media being omnipresent, every word, every act is recorded.  There is no timeout, no stepping back from the glare of  the spotlights to stop and think about the effect of one’s actions.  Every action causes a reaction and suddenly, while one is still dealing with the initial action, there is the reaction to be faced.  And the reaction to that reaction.  And so on and so forth until the universe folds into itself and there is nothing but a great void.

angrymanIs there a gas leak in here?

What the hell is going on lately?

You’ve got Joe Wilson screaming at President Obama. Serena Williams melts down at the US Open, swearing at and threatening a line judge. Kanye West jumps the stage at some MTV awards show taking the microphone from the surprised winner and berates the crowd because Beyonce didn’t win. On Saturday, thousands ( not millions, not even hundreds of thousands) marched on Washington, still quivering with anger and screaming that they want their country back and that Muslims were taking over Washington. Bury Obamacare With Kennedy signs were distributed through the crowd. Classy.

Last night I flipped on the Yankees game and there on the screen was a writhing mass of players, flailing away at one another. Base brawl. This ugly edginess that has been so apparent of late had even reached into the very thing I was hoping would be a refuge from all this craziness.

beckWhy this anger, why now? I wish I had answers. There has definitely been a coarsening of society, a loss of the niceties and manners that once defined civil society, something that has been pointed out a lot lately. Maybe it’s that people feel they have lost their voice and that the only way to be heard is to scream. Maybe it’s just the fact that with all media being omnipresent, every word, every act is recorded. There is no timeout, no stepping back from the glare of the spotlights to stop and think about the effect of one’s actions. Every action causes a reaction and suddenly, while one is still dealing with the initial action, there is the reaction to be faced. And the reaction to that reaction. And so on and so forth until the universe folds into itself and there is nothing but a great void.

Okay, that’s the worst that could happen.  But the fact remains, we are a nation spoiling for a fight at the moment.  Can we simmer down without boiling over?  I don’t know.  Hope so, but the idea of thoughtful, civil discussion on any matter seems like a pipedream at the moment.  Especially given the invective and prodding from guys like Beck and Limbaugh whose very livelihoods depend on this anger and division being kept alive.  I just hope we can all take a breath and  find common ground to stand on.  Let’s just  hope our better angels haven’t flown the coop…

Just remember the words of Voltaire:

Those who can make you believe absurdities can make you commit atrocities.

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On Obama’s Address

Posted in Current Events, Opinion, tagged , , on September 10, 2009| 1 Comment »

Obama Health CareI have said it before that I am hesitant to talk about political things in this blog, instead focusing on my work as a painter.  It’s kind of like the old advice about not talking about religion or politics, especially given the fact that I am, in fact, a small businessman.  But there are some things that are too important and this is one of them: healthcare.

President Obama addressed the congress and the country last night in what I thought was a very effective speech.  I could’ve done without all the standing ovations which I thought sometimes disrupted the president’s rhythm but the shots of congress were very revealing.  It was very effective to see the sour faces of the Republican opposition all gathered together and to see the doubt on their faces at points as to whether they should  stand and applaud.  There was Eric Cantor disgracefully disrespectful as he twittered away.  There were some who stood and waved papers as though they were birthers holding up their birth certificates.

But most revealing was the shout of You lie! that  emerged as the President spoke about the plan not covering illegal immigrants, a point that has been verified by a number of non-partisan fact checking organizations.  The culprit was Joe Wilson, a South Carolina republican who showed the world the face of the party who has devolved into one of obstruction for their own short-term political gains rather than of one who fights for the betterment of the American people.  It was ugly and was an overt indicator of the disrespect the republicans have for the President.  He thought this was a town hall meeting, I guess, where you can yell down anyone even when you’re obviously wrong.  The only bright spot from this is that his opponent in the next congressional race, Rob Miller, has raised over $100,000 in contributions since last night .

I was glad to hear the President speak about the cost of reforming healthcare in relation to the cost of the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan  and to the costs of the Bush Tax Cuts.  The very same republican congressmen who wholeheartedly voted to ransack  our future to line the pockets of the the very wealthiest now claim we just can’t afford to do this now.  Well, the Bush Tax Cuts by most accounts will cost us over 2 trillion dollars over the decade with some putting the cost at closer to 2.5 trillion.  Close to a trillion dollars of that went to the top 5% of the population.

Now to be fair,  these figures don’t take into account the stimulative effect of the tax cuts but even right-leaning sources such as the Heritage Institute put that figure at about 25% of the total cost which means that these tax cuts still are almost twice as expensive as reforming all of healthcare.  And that’s before you factor in the stimulative effects of a better and more universal healthcare system, such as jobs being created to meet the needs of expanded care and costs being lowered via better preventative care.  The worst part of the tax cuts is that they directly depleted our coffers, reducing our income tax revenues to a point where we would be in trouble at this point even without the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, whereas the proposed healthcare will not,  in theory, add anything to our deficit.

So how any of these republicans who voted for the tax cuts can seriously declare that reforming healthcare now is simply another indicator of their willingness to sacrifice the betterment of the American public for their own political gain.  I hope President Obama was serious in his promise to directly confront those who spread lies and fear, to make them accountable for their actions.  This is also something we can do as citizens.

Be aware.  Check the facts.  Be proactive, not reactive.  Let your voice be heard.  Now.

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Potential

Posted in Early Paintings, Influences, Opinion, Painting, tagged on September 8, 2009| 2 Comments »

Elmira Street 1994This is an old piece from 1994 when I was still just beginning to realize that I might find something in all the time and effort I was putting into painting.  It’s not a great piece but there are things I like about, things that gave me a feeling of potential, at least in my own head.

I bring this up because of a brief conversation I had with a friend this past weekend.  I attended an opening at the West End Gallery and ran into a friend, also a painter, so naturally our conversation turned to baseball.  We were discussing a well known pitcher who had great abilities, great stuff, who, while occasionally displaying his brilliant talents, often performed far below his talent level.  His efforts seemed to betray his potential.

In the conversation, I equated the pitcher to a painter we both knew.  I had followed his work for a number of years ever since he had graduated from a pretty good college program, having seen a group of his collegiate work at a time not too long after I had painted the piece above.   I remember being very impressed at the time.  Actually, envious is a better word for what I felt.  I saw real potential in that work and realized that I was struggling to achieve things that obviously came easily to him.  I remember being a little disheartened at the time at my own talents compared to his.

But his subsequent work has yet to live up to the potential I saw.  It has been okay but hasn’t made any leaps above that early work.  It’s always puzzled me and made me feel he was somehow betraying his obvious talent and potential.  I pointed this out to my friend this past Friday and he had a different take.  He thought I was seeing more potential in that collegiate work than may have been there, that while there was talent most of what I was seeing was the result of a lot of supplied direction from his instructors, not the result of his own natural output.  He also pointed out that the other painter had other avenues that he was following, that his real potential might not even lay in the same field I was seeing it.

At that point in my head I immediately realized that I was so wrong in my appraisal of this painter’s potential.  I was seeing his potential against my own desires, not taking into account his own desires, which might include goals that were a million miles from my own.  I was imagining what I could do with the talent I saw in that early.  I was assuming that he had the need to express himself solely through his art, the same as I did.  His failure to followup on the potential I placed on his work was not his failure, it was mine in not seeing that his potential had merely moved in different directions.

It made me look at my whole attitude on the expectations of other’s potential.  What I might see as important might not seem so important in the lives of others and vice versa.  I see this artist’s life and potential in a whole different light, one not shaded with my own expectations of what he could or should be.

Phew, that feels good to get off my chest…

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Labor Day

Posted in Biographical, Current Events, Influences, Opinion, Quote, tagged , , , , , on September 7, 2009| 2 Comments »

fasanella great strike lawrence 1912

If hard work were such a wonderful thing, surely the rich would have kept it all to themselves.

——Lane Kirkland

On this day, Labor Day, I am showing a a painting from the great American folk primitive  painter Ralph Fasanella, depicting the famed Bread and Roses strike that took place at the textile plants in Lawrence, Massachusetts in 1912.  I thought it fitting that something be shown that is closer to the spirit of this holiday which has faded from the public’s knowledge in recent years.

I was a union member in my first job at a Loblaw’s grocery store when I was sixteen years old and a few years later I was a Teamster at the A&P factory where I was employed for several years.  I was the union steward in my department for the last few years, a position that I took because nobody else wanted the hassle of it and meant that I was protected from being laid off so long as my department was operating.  The hassle came from the fact that there was always an argument to be had, either with company supervisors who tried to twist the rules to their advantage or with co-workers who felt the union didn’t go far enough.  It was a very educational experience.

The image of labor unions over the years has crumbled, perceived now as corrupt and self-serving.  Probably a well deserved image.  But the failings of these unions are the failings of men, the same failings that the company owners possessed that the early unions organized against.  Greed and a lack of empathy for their workers.  It doesn’t take much research to discover that the work conditions of the last 130 or 140 years were deplorable.  Long hours.  Low pay.  Incredibly unsafe conditions.  Dismissal for any reason.  No rights whatsoever.

Today, many view industry as this amiable, father-like figure but don’t realize how much blood was spilled by early union organizers and members to obtain the things we now take for granted as our rights.  Industry did not willingly give up anything to the worker without being forced.  I can imagine what our world would look like without the efforts of our unions.  This very holiday would not exist to have it’s roots forgotten.  The idea of vacations would only exist for the company owners.  The pay scale would be similar to those places on the Earth where many of our jobs have migrated, places that allow the avarice of the companies to override the rights and safety of the workers.  Places where sweatshops still operate, as they once did here.  Places where unschooled children toil in dirty, dank conditions, as they once did here.  Places where the health and safety of the workers is secondary to the profit they provide, as it once was here.

You may despise the unions now for their corruption but make no mistake about it- without them our country would look much different.  And not in a good way…

I will be posting more on Ralph Fasanella in a later post but for more info, check out this book from my friend Paul D’Ambrosio, who is perhaps the foremost authority on Fasanella and his work, Ralph Fasanella’s America.

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The Illustrated Man

Posted in Opinion, tagged , on August 5, 2009| 3 Comments »

Tattoo Art?When I was a kid I thought it would be pretty cool to have a tattoo.  A couple of my uncles had tattoos, a naked lady and a black panther among them, and I was always kind of fascinated by them.  They were older tats and kind of blotty in areas, the lines starting to break apart a bit.  But I still thought they were sort of cool.

When we moved in 1972 and I started junior high school in Elmira, a more urban setting than I had come from, I was exposed for the first time to the homemade tattoos that some of the rougher kids wore.  They were made by taking a pin or needle , wrapping it with thread and dipping it ink.  The thread would absorb the ink and would would deposit it under the skin as they poked their designs with the needle.  They were pretty crude.  A lot of crooked initials and “Mom”‘s . “LOVE ” and “HATE” on the knuckles- that kind of thing.  I was still fascinated but more in a “why the hell would you do that?” sort of way.

Years passed and I found myself working at Perkins Restaurant as a waiter.  When I first started I worked the overnight shifts, which were, for the most part, the province of the drunk and  alienated.  There were a lot of young adults who would come in and sit for hours, drinking coffee and smoking ( you could do that still) with no place else to go.  I came to know several of them and they liked me because I treated them well and listened to what they had to say. 

There was one guy who wanted to be a tattoo artist.  Tattoos were gaining popularity and you were starting to see them more and more.  He had bought some equipment and was practicing on himself.  He would come in and pull up his pant leg, showing me his calf.  It was covered in scrawls of unsure lines and letters and shapes.  It was awful, reminding me of the homemade tats from junior high.  I asked if there wasn’t a better way to practice, maybe an orange or something?  He said there was nothing like using the real thing.  

Over the years, I have seen some great tattoos and am always amazed that these people are so sure of who they are now and who they will be in the future.  As I’ve aged my view of the world is always changing, evolving with new knowledge and insights.  I would hate to have an emblem of who I was at age 18 emblazoned on my body for all to see.  It would be like being doomed to wearing a KISS ARMY t-shirt for eternity.

Tattoos have always been viewed as symbols of individualism, something that sets one apart from the crowd.  But as they become more and more popular, I’ve started to view them more as symbols of conformity.  It’s become so common that there I find myself less and less fascinated when I see one.  I still appreciate a well done tattoo that is composed well and executed with great care and really says something about its owner but I get a feeling from so many of them that it simply means that they are part of the crowd.  Almost as though they are being used to make the wearer blend in rather than stand out.  

So, I don’t have any tattoos and will never do so.  It would feel too much like conforming…

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40 Years Back

Posted in Current Events, Opinion, tagged , on July 20, 2009| Leave a Comment »

Apollo 11 MoonwalkToday is the 40 year anniversary of the Apollo 11 moon landing, back in the turbulent world of 1969.  It was an incredible testimony to our ability as humans to create a huge goal and come together to achieve that goal, facing and overcoming obstacles.  At a time when our country appeared to be tearing apart at the seams, the moon landing, for a moment, brought us together in a unified spirit.

There’s a certain symmetry in this anniversary and the passing this past week of Walter Cronkite, the legendary CBS broadcaster.  Cronkite, unanimously hailed  as the Most Trusted Man in America, was the very symbol and voice of this collective American spirit.  A sort of arbiter of conscience for the country.  You had the feeling that when Walter spoke, it was as the voice of America as we wanted our country to be.  There was never a feeling of him pressing his own agenda, his own partisanship.  It was never bitter and judgmental.  He gave us the information we had to hear and when he did speak editorially, it was only in our best interest.

I’m sure many would call this naive, that we have so much more access to information and news today with all the technology at our disposal.  There’s no disputing that.  We are inundated with every bit of data available to the point that we are floundering in minutiae.  We have so much more information and so many differing, partisan outlets for this info.   But where is our filter, our collective conscience?  Are we better served by our access to so much data or are we constantly splintered and misdirected by those who pass on their versions of the truth of this info? 

Last night, on a tribute to Cronkite, somebody said that there will never again be a person who could be called the Most Trusted Man in America and that perhaps that was a good thing because it would be such a dangerous thing to have someone with so much power over the viewpoint of so many.  For a moment I agreed then a sort of sadness swept over me from the realization that we have come to such a point where we have been so often deceived and taken advantage of that we now cynically believe that no one could possibly serve our best interest collectively.  It made me realize that perhaps in 1969, even as our country seemed in the death throes of turmoil, that we were closer to being a united nation than we now are today.

cbs_cronkite69moonwalkSo, it is with a wistful nostalgia that I look back to that day in 1969 and that look of sheer delight and childlike wonder on Walter Cronkite’s face when that space ship landed because, although I consider myself often naively optimistic, I don’t really want to look forward today.

It’ll have to wait until tomorrow…

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