COMMENTARY:
GEORGE TEMPLETON
By George Templeton
Gazette Columnist
Shoes
“You won’t know me, or understand my blues; until you have walked awhile in my shoes. Until you have read every line in my face; until you have stood awhile in my place. You won’t know me, until you have carried my load; and struggled along this old dusty road.” We elect people who support the party instead of the public and who desire power instead of deserving it. We entertain ideas that reinforce our preconceived notions. We focus on reality as it relates to us. Our identity becomes independent of context, focusing on individual freedom as “the solution” instead of mutuality. We look at the world and don’t see the same thing. We don’t attempt to read between the lines. We encounter a world of brief tweets when only a focus on the details can save us from “us versus them.” Only when we realize that both stories are essentially true can we have respect for more than one version of reality. We take our own side instead of entertaining several viewpoints. Our polarization results from failing to recognize the breadth of beliefs and experiences of the demonized “them,” and we think it is patriotic to behave in this way. The rise of “people” corporations and super-packs testify that the solitary individual lacks power and influence. It’s human nature to bond with those who are like us and share our beliefs, but it divides us, furthering misunderstanding. We believe that we are right. To force our way, we will revise the Constitution and call justices to defend unpopular decisions before the House. We say, “Our way or no way” not realizing that conflicts are constructively resolved only by adaptation, participation, and becoming.
More Freedom
Greater individuality means becoming different from one another. It convolutes our relationships and tears down the commonality that is the foundation for communication. Trivial laws increasing freedom for “you” don’t set “us” free.
SB1065 cancels dog leash laws if the owner carries an insurance policy. My Cairn terrier, on a leash in my yard, was attacked by a Saint Bernard. With my dog in its jaws, it raised its head and began to shake it to tear flesh. I tried to kick the huge dog but missed. It was too fast. I punched down but quickly realized that standing I could not hit hard enough. I dropped to my knees and punched it in the gut. The big dog grunted and spit my terrier out. Growling, it turned to attack me but in the process took another hit on the nose. It turned and ran.
HB2211 would undo the law that requires cyclists to come to a halt at stop signs if they are above the age of 16. Driving home from work, I hit a cyclist who ran a stop light. The experience was deeply upsetting.
World View
Do we need politicians to outlaw inappropriate classroom language and magazines that treat partisan issues like climate change and evolution? How about fines for overweight Medicaid patients, and the severely mentally ill who miss appointments and weekly drug testing for welfare recipients? Insinuations that promote paranoia serve only the politicians who create laws in order to inflame, divide, and fool us.
Unintended Consequences
Unions negotiate over fair treatment, not just wages and benefits. SB 1485 would make collective bargaining for public employees illegal, but our governor has a bribe. She would give them a raise if they relinquish their right to arbitration. We extol the virtues of free enterprise and that the worth of anything is determined by what you can get for it, but then we don’t see that it is hypocritical to enslave public employees. It’s coercion, not Romney’s “God given natural rights that are America’s soul.”
Arizona Republicans have outlawed ethnic studies curriculum favored by Hispanics. Now we have a bill to provide an elective high school course on the Bible in American culture. For centuries, the world of Islam was in the forefront of human achievement and was the world’s leader in art and science. Will they teach Islam’s contributions to our civilization? How about teaching finance, fiscal responsibility, or probability and statistics?
The Republicans loudly proclaim “no amnesty” when they deport the innocent American children of illegal immigrants. The Clear Act (HR100) would build 20 additional detention facilities for them. Republican bill SB1407 chooses only to measure how empty the glass is and no wonder their data supports how immigrants in our schools “hurt” us. They don’t consider the costs of creating a hidden uneducated underclass or the contributions made by the parents of these children.
Anxiety
In Clarence Glasrud’s 1960 book The Age of Anxiety, he writes that man is “beset by a multitude of problems in all great areas of human concern, so that he feels cut off from every source of philosophical certainty and anxiously unsure of this way…" We have become anxious about unemployment, about the threat of socialism, about the Iranian Atomic Bomb, about the breakdown of the family, about racial tensions, about cancer …, about keeping up with the Joneses. So we sit in our upside-down houses staring out at a future that promises only aggravation of our present problems. And the words of Melville’s Captain Ahab grow increasingly haunting: “Dammed, most subtly and malignantly dammed, Dammed in the midst of Paradise!"
Fairness
Social scientists claim that the more unfair any society is the worse off everyone, rich and poor, becomes. During the Bush years we gave over a trillion dollars in tax breaks to the wealthy. Today our universities grant 100 business degrees for every physics degree. The loss of domestic manufacturing has caused the average American wage to remain flat over the last three decades when it should have increased by 60% had it kept pace with the economy. The top 1 percent garners 23 percent of the nation’s total income and some have salaries exceeding 100 million dollars per year. They would have to squander more than $274,000 every day non-stop year round to spend that. Do you think that it would destroy their incentive to pay a little more taxes?
We discovered that the limited government heroes of capitalism did not practice what they preached when Bush authorized 1.632 trillion dollars in economic stimulus packages and 800 billion dollars in fighting two wars. Worse yet, brilliant executives in failed firms that were bailed out by the public gave themselves multi-million dollar bonuses.
Theory X or Y
Are we good or bad, trustworthy or irresponsible, greedy or generous, desiring to participate and contribute or avoiding reality? Is it an illusion that competition and self-interest in a free-market economy are the fundamental human urges that most efficiently create the greatest good, prosperity, and individual happiness? Is our mindset the cause of the crises that threaten to destroy us? Our gutter politics is acknowledged to be highly contagious and effective. Positive emotions lead to cooperation and progress while negative emotion does the opposite. They say it’s all about jobs, but it’s much more than that. America’s future is not about the problems we face but rather about how we respond to them as we decide on the kind of world the future will be. Cooperation, not competition, will determine our success. We are not predatory, self-serving, solitary individuals separate from the rest of the world intent on winning our way regardless of the consequences to others. Wholeness and social connection drive the progress of society. There is no such thing as the free independent individual. We depend on each other.
Do we believe that people on welfare are inherently lazy avoiding work? Will helping those who are less fit hurt the greater society? We can “fix” health care if we leave illegal immigrants and the poor to die on the hospital steps. Would this help to purge the system of “undesirables” and make the bitter medicine of social support more tolerable?
We know that we can’t believe anything a politician says, but can we trust them? Trust is a necessary condition for participation and cooperation. Trust is a two-way street. The bottom line is that we have to trust one another but that only gets us to first base. Risky goals are needed to overcome great challenges. Trust does not come from demonizing your opponent. A theory holds that distrust is a consequence of simplistic ideology. A 1968 government book holds that the way to win an election is to enlist the forces of religious and constitutional fundamentalism, anti-intellectualism, egalitarianism, and patriotic moral nationalism. Candidates are instructed to never say anything that a third grader would not understand and to keep the message shorter than 30 seconds. The world is not so simple. We know that, and consequently we do not trust those who “pull our leg.”
Reformation
It’s time to recognize a broader definition of who we are. Only this builds collective pride. We have the opportunity to continue the progress of the last four years, to embrace a future with real freedom instead of coercion, and to stop trying to legislate morality. It is only when Congress demonstrates a greater shared understanding and connection that uniting our nation to excel, as we know we can, will happen. Our president is not an extremist. It is the Republican Party that has moved so far out in right-field that it is no longer in the ballpark.
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