The Vote

It's finally here! Election Day! The day we can bid a bitter but fond farewell to the endless campaign commercials, angry, ugly rhetoric, and Alec Baldwin's genius portrayal of the Republican candidate for President on SNL. Although, if I'm honest, I'd like to see a few more of those sketches, but I digress. In theory, in a few more hours we will know who will be the 45th President of the United States of America. Then the hard work will really begin, as there's the not insignificant matter of restoring a very fractured electorate.

I was proud to be part of that electorate this morning. The right to vote, preserved by the 15th, 19th, and 26th Amendments to the U.S. Constitution, allows us an unrigged voice. This truly is a freedom. It is not compulsory, although the Australian system of compulsory voting may not necessarily be a bad thing. It is a freedom that we can choose to exercise. It is a freedom that we can easily take for granted or not even exercise and therein lies the danger. President Franklin D. Roosevelt once said:

Nobody will ever deprive the American people of the right to vote except the American people themselves and the only way they could do this is by not voting.

I am delighted to report, though, that based on my 40 minute wait to vote this morning that the good people of our little town (population 10,000-ish) here in Connecticutistan chose to exercise their right to vote in force. In an organization decision I am still grappling with (call me simple), we were organized by, wait for it, street name as follows: A-D, E-N, O-Z. Based on the length of the line, most of us live on the O-Z streets. Once I was in the voting cubicle, I was proud to cast my vote, knowing that my voice, albeit just one, would be heard.

President Ronald Reagan once said, "The right to vote is the crown jewel of American liberties..." and I am glad that my vote today added to the brilliance of that jewel. Every vote cast today, no matter the outcome of the election, helped to that crown jewel shine even brighter today.

America the Dystopian?

Recognize this? Look like any part of the United States?

Yesterday, I got something in the mail I'd been anxiously awaiting. It was my new passport. In the 35 years since I got my first one, this passport is my 5th, maybe 6th. I burned through a couple of them during my most frequent travel years. My passports have allowed me to see the world and gain an appreciation for the physical beauty of this world as well as the goodness that is at the root of people, regardless of skin color, how or whom they worship, or their bank balances. It's also allowed me to appreciate what is to be an American citizen and to live in this country.

Apparently though, I, no all of us really, have been fooled. Unbeknownst to me, America has become a dystopian nightmare where violent crime, lawlessness, and general mayhem abounds. Apparently, to leave your house is to subject yourself to assault at any moment by illegal immigrants. Apparently, to leave your house is to subject yourself to terrorist attacks that are rampant and occurring every waking moment of every waking day. All of this because an African American man (clearly he did not know his place) had the testicular fortitude to be elected President and now it will only grow worse because a woman (A WOMAN!!!) is a candidate for the highest elected office in the nation.

This dystopian nightmare was brought front and center last night by the Republican Party's freshly nominated Presidential candidate, Donald J. Trump. What he pitched last night in his petulant scare tactic speech was a vision of an America that simply does not exist. Fact check his speech, as hundreds of sources already have, and you'll know it doesn't. Look around your neighborhoods and tell me you are living in a nightmare of lawless mayhem. You are not and you know you are not. He bloviated that he is my voice and the voice of Americans everywhere. No, no he is not. Here's just a few reasons why:

I am not a bully. I am not a philanderer.
I am not a misogynist. I am not a bigot.
I am not a liar. I am not getting my news from the National Enquirer.
I am not capable of bankrupting multiple businesses, multiple times, including a casino. A casino! People literally throw money at you in casinos. How do you bankrupt a casino?
I am not capable of engendering hate on a scale that will literally destroy a venerated American political party.
I am not endorsed by the current and former leaders of the KKK.
I am not so reviled that the only people I can get to vouch for me are my children, who just happen to be on my payroll too.

So, no, he is not my voice. But his voice is scary, stupefyingly so. Consider his performance last night and then let this gem sink in:

Voice or no voice, the people can always be brought to the bidding of the leaders. That is easy. All you have to do is tell them they are being attacked and denounce the peacemakers for lack of patriotism and exposing the country to danger. It works the same in any country.

Hermann Goring, a Nazi (A NAZI!!!), said that. Goring helped Hitler assume power in Germany and was Hitler's number two man, until like any one of Trump's former wives (and for Melania, don't think for a second that the Michelle Obama cockup in her speech won't be included in the list of reasons that she'll be joining that "Ex"club), he no longer had use for him. Is anyone else utterly horrified that this quote seemed to be the central theme of the "Law and Order" candidate?

The Trump candidacy at first seemed like a bizarre little side show for a bombastic egomaniac. It's not funny anymore. It hasn't been funny for quite some time. With absolutely zero regard for international policy or for things like, oh I don't know, NATO, the specter of a nuclear armed Trump is beyond the pale. From his ghostwriter in a recent New Yorker article, "I genuinely believe that if Trump wins and gets the nuclear codes there is an excellent possibility it will lead the end of civilization."

Yikes. Just yikes. But, remember, it's America the Beautiful, not America the Dystopian.

On Independence Day

1976 - Honoring our nation's Bicentennial

Today, July 4th, 2016, the United States of America celebrates its Independence Day. It's been 240 years since that auspicious moment when the 13 colonies declared themselves free from their overlord and ruler, Mother England.

In terms of world history, the United States at 240 years old, is still fairly young. But what a wild ride its been! I'd rehash it but my non-American readers (who, let's face it, know more about our history than we Americans do) will probably call me out on a litany of errors, so I won't.

Our nation, like its history, is fascinating. We are a messy melting pot that believes wholeheartedly in its exceptionalism. We far too often take our freedoms for granted and forget that we aren't the only democratic society out there. We are at times impossibly divided (Would the 2016 Presidential Election please pick up the white paging phone please?) and yet will band together in moments of great trial. On the other hand, we see no problem in using weapons of mass destruction on the world. Of course, by that I mean the horrible Kardashians. I can only say how truly sorry I am for that. No, really, sorry, world. You did nothing to deserve that. Nothing.

This is a nation where I can still choose to wear my boss Chairman Mao t-shirt to a church Independence Day breakfast. Because who doesn't need a little discussion of cultural revolution over waffles? I really did do that today. The stunningly patient and mighty fine SML rolled her eyes as I left the house and told everyone she played no role in what I wore. Nor should she. I mean I am nearly 50 years old and can usually pick out my own clothes.

Oh, my country. There's no place else on earth like you. Where else am I going to get stellar guidance like this from the movie and cultural guidepost "Independence Day":

Once again, the L.A.P.D is asking Los Angelenos

not to fire their guns at the visitor spacecraft.

You may inadvertently trigger an interstellar war.

~ Unnamed Los Angeles newscaster

That's good advice for any of us, Los Angelenos or not, on any day of the week. Put down your guns and avoid an interstellar war.

Happy Independence Day, my friends.

Another Bicentennial celebratory aircraft

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.

Because 'Murica

Chuck Norris. Enough said.

 Another celebration of America's Independence Day is upon us. 239 years ago, the thirteen colonies declared themselves a new nation, paving the way for appliance sales, drunken barbecues, and treacly patriotic songs (Ladies and gentlemen, I give you Lee Greenwood's 'God Bless The USA'). It is precisely what the Continental Congress must have envisioned on that fateful July day when the Declaration of Independence was made, right?

I am proud to be an American. My US passport is proof of my citizenship and has unlocked the world for me. I've loved being able to experience different parts of the world, but coming home never gets old.

I am in awe of our unfailing sense of exceptionalism. One need look know further than Chuck Norris for that. Check out the pinnacle of his acting career in "The Delta Force." The film is in a word, hideous and exploitive (OK, two words, so sue me). But it's Chuck at the apex of his American bravado.

I love that our nation's press can a run a headline about a 'sleepover' hosted by a failed presidential candidate for two of the 382 vying for the nomination and no one bats an eye. Lest you were confused, these are U.S. presidential candidates having a 'sleepover,' not candidates for student body president at the local high school. One can only hope that the Romney's house help are able to find a place to hang the Trump piñata that Rubio is no doubt bringing.

This holiday also allows for the displaying of our flag in all manner of ways, both beautiful and unfortunate. Even in the borderline socialist, never met a tax we didn't love state that we reside in, flags line the streets right now and they are beautiful. Flags also are acting as pants, shorts, shirts, and swimming suits. By and large, this is unfortunate and anything but beautiful.

Unless you are the owner of a craptastic tae kwon do shop. Because who is going to want to take a roundhouse kick to the face from those pants? No one. Because 'Murica. Except for the United Kingdom, I don't recall seeing a country's flag used as apparel as unfortunately as it is here in the United States. It is a nutty phenomenon and I guess that it is one of those things that makes us unique. We are a nation that is free to let its flag free, no matter how awkward it may be.

In spite of the madness of letting the flag act as someone's Daisy Dukes, the United States is still an amazing country. Its geography is like other in the world. Its people are as diverse as they come. Its politics are an ongoing train wreck. It is a nation that embraces its freedom in all kinds of ways. It is a country I am proud to call my home. I love this place,

May God continue to bless America, in spite of itself.