{"id":74465,"date":"2014-02-22T02:09:38","date_gmt":"2014-02-22T07:09:38","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/planetwaves.net\/news\/?p=74465"},"modified":"2014-02-22T10:30:50","modified_gmt":"2014-02-22T15:30:50","slug":"on-the-see-saw","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/planetwaves.net\/news\/by-judith-gayle-2\/on-the-see-saw\/","title":{"rendered":"On The See-Saw"},"content":{"rendered":"

By Judith Gayle | Political Waves<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n

It’s been an impressive week for news watchers, with inflammatory speech and action apparently an acceptable new norm here at home. Meanwhile, eyes still turned toward the Olympics in Asia, we find Cossacks wielding horsewhips and pepper spray in Sochi, and Kiev going up in actual flames. The Dark Side is really pulling out the stops to herd us back into our previous sleepy submission — working non-stop at several low-paying jobs, shopping ’til we drop from anxiety over rising costs and issues of survival, and shrugging our shoulders about political maneuvers that we don’t have time or energy to address — but it doesn’t seem to be working. The world is watching like never before, witnessing a kind of emotionally-wrought overkill that seems almost fictional in its scope.<\/p>\n

\"Political This month’s chapter in the ongoing saga of sanctioned death of young black men in Florida offered a hung jury in the Michael Dunn murder case. Dunn shot numerous rounds — three separate volleys — into a car of teens attempting to flee after he complained of their loud music at a gas station. Seventeen-year old Jordan Davis died in the assault,\u00a0the gun Dunn accused him of\u00a0carrying\u00a0never found. While side-stepping the obvious question of premeditation, Dunn was still found guilty on several counts of second-degree “attempted murder” and will likely die in prison.<\/p>\n

Although Stand Your Ground wasn’t specifically mentioned in this case, it was the elephant in the room, tying this kind of armed overreaction with the Zimmerman\/Martin case and reminding others of the Colorado case of a “threatened” former policeman shooting a young father for texting his baby-sitter in a movie theatre, putting a round through his wife’s hand on his chest and killing him after he threw popcorn. It should be noted that the Stand Your Ground law works best for white people, with less than one-percent of black citizens finding it a useful plea. One also has to wonder what would have happened in any of these cases if the principals were not carrying lethal weapons.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

Giving the civilized world a bad case of cat-scratch fever, former rocker and self-professed “madman”\u00a0Ted Nugent<\/a>\u00a0— campaigning in Texas with gubernatorial candidate, Greg Abbott — referred to President Barack Obama as a “subhuman mongrel.” Got to admit, that took my breath away. Mudblood, anyone? So dark!<\/p>\n

Only the hard-core Dixiecrats are defending this level of hate speech, but it strikes me as more than simply racist. It’s cloyingly dangerous, with crib notes straight out of Mein Kampf<\/em>. After\u00a0decades of scrutinizing the psychological mindset of mainstream Germans that allowed them justification for the Holocaust, I find most persuasive their insistence that the Jews were not quite human and therefore expendable, especially as\u00a0der F\u00fchrer<\/em>\u00a0pushed to make his dream of German purity and dominance a reality. Yes, a darkly racist zeitgeist in a deeply unquestioning, patriarchal society, and ultimately, lethal in the extreme.<\/p>\n

There’s a little too much historical echo in Nugent’s words and attitude to allow me to laugh it off. Too many old, white, gun-totin’ citizens on the right consider him a patriot, and do not see him, as aptly referenced in the Daily Beast article, ” … in all his unhinged glory.” Those who watch these things carefully had already noted the disrespect (no doubt intended) in Texas Rep. Steve Stockman bringing Ted as his guest to the recent State of the Union address.<\/p>\n

Thanks to the Phil Robertson dust-up, some pundits also objected to the presence of\u00a0Duck Dynasty CEO Willie Robertson wearing his iconic (Stars and Stripes) headband while attending the\u00a0address with Louisiana Rep. Vance McAllister. Small potatoes.\u00a0Ted’s appearance was less reported while a zillion times more controversial, if not entirely repugnant from my point of view. Turns out Willie and the Prez are equally kicked back and\u00a0easy with one another<\/a>. I doubt Ted would say the same, despite his\u00a0quasi-apology<\/a>\u00a0issued today, more regretful for discomforting the party than for insulting the president, or even the office of the president.<\/p>\n

It’s crazy making, isn’t it? Light keeps trying to put its best foot forward, creating progress and inclusion, and not without gaining some ground — as found\u00a0here<\/a>\u00a0and here<\/a>\u00a0and\u00a0here<\/a>, for\u00a0example — but it continues to be accompanied by a desperate frenzy from the repressive right to reverse modernity and protect against all things diverse.<\/p>\n

For instance, conservative legislators across the country are going after the LGBT community with renewed vigor, reworking their attack by pushing attempts to legally codify suspension of services to people of whom they disapprove under the guise of defending their religious freedom. This looks to be an oppressive last-ditch effort at discriminatory law to stop the ongoing transformation of gender equality in this nation.<\/p>\n

There are already various versions of the Religious Freedom Restoration Act in 29 states, but Republicans in Idaho, Oregon, South Dakota, Tennessee, Kansas, Arizona, Hawaii, Ohio, Oklahoma, and Mississippi have doubled down on stringent legislation. According to\u00a0Truth Wins Out<\/a>, a Chicago-based nonprofit that promotes gay rights, “The fact that they’re doing it Jim Crow-style is remarkable, considering the fact that one would think the GOP would like to be electable among people under 50 sometime in the near future.”<\/p>\n

On the world stage, Vladamir Putin\u00a0has been seen daydreaming\u00a0about all the fabled unobtanium he\u00a0can gather, pushing\u00a0forward\u00a0his vision of a\u00a0reconstructed Soviet. What can be said of a leader who publically mourns the “old ideals” that were destroyed with the Soviet breakup, an event\u00a0he considered “the greatest geopolitical catastrophe of the 20th century?”\u00a0Seems clear that Putin is in favor of an attempt to return cultural, financial and military prowess to a united Soviet capable of defying the political authority of either China or America. He would lead it, of course.<\/p>\n

It appears that a peace deal within the factions in Ukraine, hastily slapped together in the last few hours, will turn back the constitution to its previous version and allow for early elections, but Russia is less than happy about the arrangement. Nor does President Viktor Yanukovich seem pleased by this compromise, as he faces bankruptcy without financial support from Putin. This situation remains too fluid to predict an outcome.<\/p>\n

The Ukrainian situation is vastly more complicated than just the ambitions of the Russian president, of course, but it’s doubtful that it would have become so bloody without Vlad pressuring for a Eurasian Union of the former Soviet block countries, undercutting cultural and economic influence from either Europe or America. For their part, Europe and the U.S. did no favors\u00a0to anyone but themselves<\/a>\u00a0by threatening sanctions and overtly siding against Yanukovich. Nothing is simple or straightforward, not in the world of geopolitics with each side looking out for its own interests. You won’t hear about that on CNN, citizen. In fact, unless you go looking for it — or read Planet Waves — you won’t hear that at all.<\/p>\n

Is looking out for ourselves — taking care of our own and nobody else — the ultimate expediency, configuring a way to keep power and “win” at any cost? Of course we can’t expect government to work against its interests, but can’t we expect some ethical conduct in the mix, especially since the way our little tribes shift these days, it’s hard to keep one’s footing?<\/p>\n

It \u00a0seems\u00a0obvious to those who stand back far enough, but probably still unnoticed by most of us, that politics has changed enormously in the last few years, going from Dubya’s\u00a0“us\/them” to Obama’s “just us.” The Republicans are deeply distressed by this outcome, others of us not sure it’s a bad thing, but not able to yet name what it truly is. Obama has been criticized for not having set a hard-nosed direction internationally or specific agenda nationally. The clean line that separated us — racially, politically, ideologically — just a decade ago has shifted and nobody seems sure exactly what to make of it.<\/p>\n

The far edge of zealotry has taken root\u00a0here, as it already had in the Middle East and other nations that endured economic and cultural repression. We didn’t expect it; we weren’t looking for the outliers to become so shrill and muscular. And if it’s confusing to the average bear, I wonder how dyed-in-the-wool power brokers\u00a0on the right\u00a0like Lindsey Graham and John McCain feel, as they face off against eager Baggers in their home states, ready to retire them as “too liberal” to serve the cause of political purity.<\/p>\n

In the other camp, progressives find themselves praising Obama for taking risks and making headway with environmental causes while sweating bullets over the possibility that he will approve the XL pipeline. We applaud his push toward populism while criticizing his reluctance to use the bully pulpit to achieve it. We approve his measured intellect while decrying his apparent moderation. Meanwhile, every step forward seems to come with an inevitable lurch backward. It often feels as if we’re on\u00a0a see-saw, going up and down, back and forth.<\/p>\n

But never fear, if we can take a big enough step backward for perspective, we’ll see that we’re making progress, informing ourselves, deciding what works and what doesn’t. Life is never a straight line, a linear path, a series of successes without the learning events known as “failures.” We’re on our way somewhere and we’re hurrying right along, which is why we must keep from falling into negativity and dismay.\u00a0If we remain “teachable,” we’ll get what we need to recreate ourselves.<\/p>\n

It’s not like we aren’t covering ground. We’re just not sure exactly where we stand, from moment to moment, which is why we need to look within ourselves\u00a0for the things government used to provide: safety, security, stability. All that dependable structure is dissipating, closing itself out as an obsolete concept in need of redesign, as it must if we are to rebuild. We\u00a0need to look to one another for\u00a0compassion and caring, to gather in service to planet and stewardship of her life forms. We need to evolve a newly configured ethic that will bring us into an end of separation and create that all inclusive larger tribe that we know ourselves to be.<\/p>\n

That’s an inside job, happening within each of us as we walk on this unstable terrain. Keeping our eye on the goal will make the see-saw less dizzying, while keeping our hearts open will bring results\u00a0sooner rather than later. As Neptune conjuncts the Sun\u00a0tomorrow, don’t let the shadows tug you down. Make time to daydream beautiful\u00a0visions of an awakened\u00a0tomorrow, a loving future. That’s the road map forward, written in your heart,\u00a0 aligned with your soul purpose, and mine.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

By Judith Gayle | Political Waves It’s been an impressive week for news watchers, with inflammatory speech and action apparently an acceptable new norm here at home. Meanwhile, eyes still turned toward the Olympics in Asia, we find Cossacks wielding horsewhips and pepper spray in Sochi, and Kiev going up in actual flames. The Dark … Read more<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"generate_page_header":""},"categories":[1744],"tags":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/planetwaves.net\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/74465"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/planetwaves.net\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/planetwaves.net\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/planetwaves.net\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/planetwaves.net\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=74465"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/planetwaves.net\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/74465\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/planetwaves.net\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=74465"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/planetwaves.net\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=74465"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/planetwaves.net\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=74465"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}