Sam Smith –Back in 1957, I covered my first story for an all news radio station in Washington. Since then, I can’t think of any time when I have been as worried about the future of America as I am right now. It’s not just Donald Trump but also a lot of cultural changes that made his power possible, things like the rise of television, advertising and public relations.
Truth, collective concern and community action don’t mean the same thing anymore. Instead, people like Trump have become far more important. When I consider my own past and some of things that guided me, I come up with memories like a Quaker high school, working on a Maine farm in the summer, activists who led folks like me during the sixties, playing in a band, living in a strongly bi-ethnic DC, and serving in the Coast Guard. In short, a life where you acted with and learned from others rather just telling them, because of your status, what to do.
Where we are now is far from anything I can recall. Even Nixon and Reagan were not as self centered and power hungry as Trump. And today’s Democrats fail to offer strong alternatives although we still have those like independent Bernie Sanders to remind us that of what real change used to look like. Having lived under FDR, Harry Truman, Lyndon Johnson, JFK and Barack Obama I know what a really active Democratic Party is like and nationally there’s nothing like it at present. Our leaders are not the fellow Americans we used to have to guide us. We have to turn off the TV news and start rebuilding our country with our states, our towns, and our neighbors.
No comments:
Post a Comment