The (Not Archie) Bunker Mentality

One of these things is not like the other

Growing up on the tough (and by tough I mean 'Mom, why can't I ride my bike to Smitty's to get a slice of pizza?') streets of Scottsdale, Arizona, it wasn't like we were in the thick of the cultural tumult that was America in the 1970's. Trust me when I tell you we weren't. Diversity came through the magic of one of the five measly TV channels we got at the time in the form of 'The Jeffersons' and 'Soul Train.' Controversy wasn't very welcome in our home which is why 'All in the Family' was pretty much verboten. Although I was not yet five years old when the show debuted, it ran until 1979 and I can remember furtively watching it from time to time, not appreciating the satire at play, but sensing this Archie Bunker guy really was some kind of a tool.

'All in the Family' served as vehicle to bring the uncomfortable truths (e.g. racism, war, xenophobia) America was facing at the time into the national discussion. Served up in the form of comedy, it made  talking about those issues easier. Somehow, laughing at the bigoted "U.S.-born, heterosexual White Anglo-Saxon Protestant male") rantings of Archie made his rants seem ludicrous. Seeing Archie bloviate about the black family that had just moved in next door gave viewers the chance to see how inane that attitude was in reality. Ironically, Mr. Bunker's vain attempts to understand the world helped viewers to break free from their own states of bunker mentality.

A bunker mentality is defined as an attitude of extreme defensiveness and self-justification based on an often exaggerated sense of being under persistent attack from others. Archie Bunker certainly displayed that mentality and it was probably no accident that the creators of the show gave him that last name. While Archie Bunker served as a comedic foil for the angst that the United States faced more than 40 years ago, there is a far less funny (and by far less funny, I mean not funny at all - if you are looking for proof, see his recent train wreck appearance on "Saturday Night Live") and truly bigoted "U.S.-born, heterosexual White Anglo-Saxon Protestant male" making what Archie did look like child's play.

I speak, of course, of Donald J. Trump. It appeared for awhile, at least, that his position behind the steering wheel of the Klown Kar that is the Republican Presidential Campaign was more of an exercise in self-promotion the likes of which our nation has never seen than anything else. From overstating his ratings performance while at NBC, to calling the voters of Iowa stupid, to bullying other candidates as if he were Nelson Muntz come to life, to suggesting he'd date his daughter, he could not outcrass himself, and somehow the people answering pollsters questions could not get enough of him.

Then came his xenophobic and Hitler-esque assertion that he would register all Muslims living in the United States. But he reminded us all that he's not a bigot. In the wake of the mass shootings in San Bernadino perpetrated by an American citizen, a Muslim, and his wife in San Bernadino, Trump let his bunker mentality freak flag fly higher than ever when he proposed a ban on Muslims entering the United States and peppering that with the idea of internment camps for Muslims as well. But he reminded us all that he's not a bigot. Methinks he doth protest too much.

Ask any Japanese-American who lived in the internment camps the United States established during WWII about how that went for them. Spoiler alert - it didn't go well. Read "Infamy" by Richard Reeves for more about the camps. I'd suggest that Trump read it but since his name is nowhere to be found in its pages, he won't be picking it up anytime soon. Despite that dark chapter in our history, the U.S. is not a nation prone to rounding groups of people up and imprisoning them based solely on suspicion and ethnicity. In Trump's bunker mentality version of U.S. democracy, it appears round ups would be all too real. It was all too real for the Jews and anyone else who didn't fit the Aryan ideal under the madness of Hitler. Look how that turned out. Spoiler alert - it went well for no one.

Winston Churchill once said, "Those that fail to learn from history are doomed to repeat it." I'm afraid that since the lessons of WWII to be learned from Japanese internment camps in the United States or the xenophobia that a bigoted megalomaniac created in Germany are lost on Trump since his name is not mentioned in the history books, it will be up to the American people to make this madness stop. Norman Lear helped us see the inanity of racism through the bluster of his character, Archie Bunker, and our nation changed bit by bit. Maybe this time, it'll be Twitter that gets the job done.

@JebBush Donald Trump is unhinged. His "policy" proposals are not serious."
@JennyJohnsonHi5 It's like Donald Trump is running for the office of America's Angry Racist Grandma

Even Satan himself isn't having it:
@s8n Comparing Donald Trump to me is really insulting

You know it's bad when Satan has been offended.

C'mon, America. Seriously. We are better than the paranoid state an unhinged megalomaniac would have us believe. We are better than this.

Pioneers

@empyreanbooks.com

For any of you that have ever done / spent time Behind the Zion Curtain in July, you know that this day, the 24th of July, is a big day in the Beehive State. It's a state holiday wherein the place pretty much shuts down to celebrate that fateful day in 1847 when Brother Brigham arose from his wagon, looked out over the desolation before him and declared, "This is the place!"

Wait, what? you may find yourself saying. If you were A) educated in the American public school system; B) grew up outside of Utah; and C) are not Mormon and you have no idea what I'm talking about, you're not alone. Pioneer Day as the 24th of July has come to be known celebrates the day Mormon pioneers, having been on the run from all manner of persecution, first entered the Salt Lake Valley and decided to call it 'home.' The story of the Mormon pioneers has been told many times and the stories of what they endured and the faith they demonstrated are amazing. The best I've ever read on it is in a book called "Journey to Zion" by Carol Cornwall Madsen. Madsen compiled the diaries and journals of myriad pioneers who made the journey to get behind the Zion Curtain and it is such a compelling read. I had ancestors who were a part of it and as I read Madsen's book, I could not help but be humbled and grateful for what these people experienced.

The 'pioneer' legacy looms large in Church culture today. The sacrifice of these people is legendary and is a part of the family history of so many members. Each year, literally thousands of youth groups from the Church recreate bits and bobs of the journey in the form of two and three day 'treks.' It helps connect youth to the past and to give them but a tiny, tiny sense of what happened all those years ago.

The stunningly patient and mighty fine SML and I, along with Our Lady of Awesome, did a trek together several years ago when we lived in California. We donned our 'pioneer' clothing, loaded up the handcarts (seriously) and with a large group of kids and other adults dragged our way through the high desert of scenic Riverside County (you know, the Inland Empire, or as it is truly known, 'The Land of Meth and Camaros on Blocks'). What made it all the more interesting is that the week before we were to make the trek I had fractured (hairline) my spine in a roller-blading 'incident' that we don't speak of anymore. The only way I made it through the trek was the modern pioneer's best friend, Mr. Vic O'Din. Some of you may know him. Anyway, it made it bearable. It also made it easier to forget some of the more challenging bits of the three days. I do to this day though, remember some of the actions of the kids on this trek. Watching them forget their own exhaustion and hunger and dropping everything to help pull another group's cart up what seemed like an impossibly steep hill stays with me today. It still inspires me.

That experience reminded me that I would have made for a lousy pioneer in 1847. Frankly, I'm not sure I would have survived. Let's face it, pioneering for me is having to fly Economy Class now because I've lost my elite status with a few airlines. Suffice to say, I am grateful for those who sacrificed and endured the way that they did all those years ago. They are for better than me.

Mad at Life's Histories

Last night, the stunningly patient and mighty fine SML and I gathered with other members of our church for an evening of worship and teaching. For whatever reason, and I lay that fault squarely at my own feet, I wasn't agog with excitement about this meeting. The day had been extraordinarily dreary (yeah, thanks for that Mother Nature, you never-ending shehag) and after this endless winter, perhaps one.more.day of dreary was wearing me down. So the thought of a couple hours of meetings wasn't exactly enticing.

Now, as the meeting opened, I was delighted to see the music on the program. We are fortunate to have a nationally known mezzo soprano, Tamara Mumford, in our congregation and she was a soloist at the meeting. Accompanied by a pianist and a cellist (that's about as crazy instrumental we get musically in our services, unless you count some of the organs with the fancy pants pre-recorded 'ringing bell' function), she killed it with my favorite arrangement of my favorite hymn. I am amazed by those blessed with incredible musical talent and am grateful for their willingness to share that talent. I reveled in the feelings that came along with the song. Yet, I still found myself getting distracted after that. My mind simply drifted.

It was during that empty-headed drifting when one of the main speakers mentioned 'being mad at life's histories.' That caught my attention and I immediately wished I could push 'rewind' on his full commentary. I was able to surmise that he was relating a story of someone who had been consumed by all the wrongs that had occurred in his/her life and how being mad at the past had made for a very unpleasant present. I've been ruminating over that statement - 'being mad at life's histories' - and what it means ever since.

As I've noted previously, our lives and how we live them are a series of chapters constituting the book of life that is each one of us. Not one of those books and the chapters within is the same. What happens to us in this life shapes those chapters. Thanks to things like forgiveness, we can edit some of the chapters as necessary. We can look back on those chapters and use them as learning touchstones. We should not use them as an albatross around our necks. I think that's why that statement from last night has stuck with me. There's no point in being mad at the past. By dwelling on it, we prevent ourselves from moving forward. We are no longer able to write our futures if we stay stuck on the issues from the past.

@quoteseverlasting.com

That's what is so great about these books that each of us is writing. We are writing them. The voice is yours. I'm not turning my life story over to some ghost writer in a smoky sweat shop in Manila (you think I'm kidding about that - check out how a lot of what you read in your newspaper is strung together now). I want to keep telling my story letting what I've learned in the previous chapters of my life influence my future chapters positively, not drag me down.

These books aren't 'put to bed' until our lives end. Can you imagine the library that awaits us? For a book nerd like me, it's a good thing forever is forever. That's lots of time to read all those stories.