If You See Something, Say Something

Since September 11, 2001 as I approached the Minneapolis-St. Paul Airport from either direction I would see a sign s posted on the grassy shoulder of the road that read “If you see something, say something.” Everyone knew to what this referred. At the minimum the sign meant that we were responsible for the safety of each other against further assaults against the common welfare of citizenry of the United States that occurred on that awful day. If you see something, say something. And so I am wondering now where are the cautionary voices of the sycophantic Republicans who see and hear the assaults that Donald Trump has launched on the democracy of the United States as he threatens not to abide by the results of the free election? Of a president who now (and again) suggests that he may not leave office when his term ends and discovers to his surprise that he has not been reelected. Where are the strident Republican voices that claim to be guardians of our democracy, who have demanded that school children pledge allegiance to the flag and the republic for which it stands but who hear Trump threaten that Republic but who cowardly slink frightened under their desks or behind their closed office doors rather than say something or do something to safeguard our freedoms and our constitutional rights? If you see something, say something does not matter to Republican senators or congresspeople!

 

I think we are experiencing a very dangerous moment for the nation. At stake is the future of our democracy for which our leaders have supposedly pledged allegiance. Senators and Representatives take an oath to uphold the Constitution of the United States. And yet, from the Republicans not a word of protest about what spews from the mouth of the demagogue Trump. Not a word!  I think of Marc Antony’s oration at Caesar’s funeral. Speaking of Caesar’s assassins Antony speaks full with irony, “They that have done this deed are honorable;/What private griefs they have, alas, I know not . . . they are wise and honorable/And will no doubt, with reasons answer you.” Honorable men? Pah!

 

If you see something, say something. Hah!

 

Of Lying and the Liar-in-Chief

 I thought today to invite a guest write the blog. From Montaigne’s “On Giving the Lie:” 

“Lying is an ugly vice, which an ancient paints in most shameful colors when he say that it is giving evidence of contempt for God, ad at the same time of fear of me. It is not possible to represent more vividly the horror, the vileness, and the profligacy of it. For what can you imagine uglier than being a coward toward men and bold toward God? Since mutual understanding is brought about solely by way of words, he who breaks his words betrays human society. It is the only instrument by means of which our wills and thought communicate, it is the interpreter of our soul. If it fails us, we have no more hold on each other, no more knowledge of each other, If it deceives us, it breaks up all our relations and dissolves all the bonds of our society.”

 

So, go ahead, vote for the liar in chief. He holds us all in contempt and is prepared to destroy us for his own sick narcissistic egotistical demands. Go ahead. Vote your contempt for yourselves.

2020 Fall Amidst the Pandemic

 The weather has changed, as I had expected. Though the temperature will even reach the seventies this week, the air feels of Fall. The wind blows with certain purpose and there is a nip to the air. Squirrels squirrel over the ground catching up nuts and raisins to store for the long winter months. I watch them out of my windows scurry about. Soon they will gather fallen leaves, climb themselves to the tree tops and build their winter homes. I think of the story of the ant and the grasshopper.  The birds seem to feast at the feeders more voraciously as they prepare to migrate. I take my corduroy trousers out of the closet where I had stored them during the summer months and I make sure my sweaters are clean and ready for cold mornings and chilly nights. I look at the pages of the catalogs for flannel shirts. I know that there are still glorious days to enjoy ahead, but much will change with the leaves.

     Summer ends unofficially on Labor Day and officially three weeks later at the equinox. For me, summer has always served as the emblem of freedom. From the earliest cry of “No more pencils no more books, no more teacher’s dirty looks” to the silencing of necessary alarm clocks, summer has represented an end to the necessity of responsibility. Even when I did have to be gainfully employed during the summer months, the knowledge that it was temporary relieved the restrictions. And from those jobs I never had to bring any work home. Summer reading always consisted of unassigned books, sometimes even forbidden ones. During the summers I indulged in tomes such as War and Peace or Les Misérables or The Brothers Karamazov. Summer invited late lazy nights and endless days.

     And so the end of summer invites a certain sadness as the openness of the body to the warm even steamy air closes up and I experience a growing physical tightness. The end of summer had meant the beginning of the academic year. As a student I didn’t mind this event, but as a teacher and then a professor it produced a sadness at the end of the independence and autonomy that summer had offered. Even now in retirement, the familiar smell in the air of Fall inspires a physical twinge that is a spiritual sadness at freedom’s loss.

     I do love the Fall. The leaves turn magnificent colors before they drift down, and the days are often sun drenched and warm. But the air contains a certain crispness, even a cleanness as the Earth prepares for the deaths that Winter will bring. The heavy rains of Fall will weaken the hold of leaves on their branches and the winds will soon blow the browning leaves down. The end of summer portends the inevitability of the coming of Winter and the dormancy of all of Nature.