By Judith Gayle | Political Waves
As I contemplate my many blessings this year, what is probably least obvious to most people is the one thing I treasure most: our great discontent. I’ve waited for it to discomfort us. Nothing less would awaken us. Nothing else would shake us until our eyes popped open in disbelief. And nothing more will be required to make us understand that simmering in this hot-pot with all the other frogs is a choice. We can choose again. We can select anew.
When I was a young’un we had outdoor theatres — drive-ins — that, in California, were good to go all year round. Some increased their revenue by offering a 4-plex, placing their great screens in the classic medicine wheel configuration — north, south, east, west — with cars nestled in the middle, hoods pointed toward the movie they’d selected. Once settled in, it was simply a matter of mounting the squawk-box on the car window, running for the drinks and popcorn and waiting for sunset. Every so often I’d get bored with whatever we were watching, and flip around to view the other movies playing simultaneously. In those moments, I determined that lip-reading would be a rare and useful skill. Now, as reality shifts depending on which window we look out, I am reminded that the dialogue suffers when you can’t get a grip on it, leaving the story line up for grabs. Perhaps now we can make up our own ending, rewrite the script, like I did as a kid, looking out the back window of the family car. In fact, I’m pretty sure the script-writers have all lost control and the future is ours to create.
For instance, I don’t follow sports, so I didn’t fall into deep depression upon hearing of the Penn State hysteria. Within a few days of the headlines, Bill Maher called bullshit on those who worried more about the fate of a ball team than the fate of sexually abused children. I still wonder how so many people could turn a blind eye to the suffering, the perfidy and the blatant illegality of this sad tale. More of Sandusky’s victims are coming forward as we speak, and I have to wonder how this man sees his reality. Campus security, the police and even the governor having knowledge of his behavior surely must have given him a sense that he was safe to continue raping children.