(Opinion) I’m sorry to show you the above, which I noticed just a day ago on an otherwise politics-free sidewalk on Orange Street. It’s enough already. Enough of him.
I would rather tell you in this space about an act of kindness – a minor miracle, really. Yes, an uplifting story about people helping people, the kind of act that can restore peace of mind.
Perhaps, then, to benefit the mental health of readers suffering from the diseases of American politics, I’ll recap the incident once I finish my critique of this sidewalk art.
If the creator of the chalk installation in the photo intends to sway the opinions of pedestrians toward a more favorable view of the person lately known as the Former Guy, I doubt he or she had much success.
Certainly those readers who learned just yesterday that a new book alleges the Former Guy, during his official Oval Office duties, said to subordinates, “Hitler did many good things,” won’t be won over.
But that’s where we are, folks. We must face the idea that we live in a country in which ignorance and worse prevail in influential circles.
As do intolerance, destructive lies so absurd and large that many people, perhaps our sidewalk artist included, believe them. (This reflects the technique of Nazi propaganda wizard Joseph Goebbels, who never wasted untruths on little things.)
And also rampant: the resentment of the attention that non-white, non-“Real Americans” get at the expense, or so the story goes, of those who are truly discriminated against: the diminishing white, Christian majority.
We are not, by nature, rational animals, despite Aristotle’s claim. We can’t seem to leverage the power of reason to settle huge differences. We are, instead, protective of self-interest, desirous of things and status, resentful of the success of others.
And, whether consciously or not, we support the caste system. The top crowd can only exist and flourish if there’s a bottom crowd.
I’m not channeling Karl Marx here, but Nikole Hannah- Jones, the reporter who launched the New York Times’s 1619 Project, in which she documented the events and legacy of slavery. This winner of a Pulitzer Prize specializes in the potential rewards of pessimism. When she came to Yale Law School three years ago as guest speaker, she thanked the 100 or so attendees for coming “to what I promise won’t be an uplifting speech whatsoever.” And, lately, In interviews after being denied tenure for political reasons by the University of North Carolina, she has fought hard against the attempt of prominent members of the Republican Party to whitewash white cruelty.
A few days ago, she took a position at Howard University that would upend traditional journalism standards. She assigns blame to those of us who answer to the label of ink-stained wretches for clinging to “both-sides-ism.” That is, giving each view, no matter how unequal in terms of truth, equal treatment.
To hell with equal treatment, she argues.
There are not two sides to voter suppression, to dehumanization, to politicizing and denying history, to “alternative facts,” to inhumane acts, to presidential malevolence, to the clear and present danger to our government and our way of life.
We are in big trouble. And much of the reason is suggested by the five letters scribbled on an East Rock sidewalk. As I see it, the artist here is not a perpetrator but a victim of powerful forces.
Other than that, I am happy today. That’s because of the morning’s miracle to which I referred above.
A neighbor, after a hard day’s work, purchased a refreshing juice and water mixture at Atticus Market and, of course, in opening her car door, had made a point of putting her wallet on the roof. And then driving off.
Totally understandable. Always a tough choice: which of the two goes on the roof of the car, the drink or the wallet?
This morning, at work, she noticed the wallet was missing. And if your wallet is missing in a city like ours it is, well, gone. And you face days of the delights of waiting at the DMV for a new drivers license, canceling credit cards, and replacing the cash that you withdrew from ATMs and kicking yourself for your absentmindedness. But that’s where the miracle comes in.
A driver for the Connecticut Highway Department, looking out over the roadside, spotted something odd. When he stopped to examine it, he realized it was a wallet with its many credit cards, etc., strewn on the grass.
He presumably thought there were two possibilities: A driver threw his or her wallet out of the window, as so many drivers do, right? Or, a driver stopped a day earlier at Atticus Market, ordered a refreshing fruity water, and, in the act of getting in the car, placed the wallet on the roof, and then forgot about it.
In any case, noticing the owner’s address on a business card, he rang our doorbell, thinking she had to be in one of the apartments in our building. He asked us if we were the party missing something, and, when we said we were not, he explained his morning’s adventure.
We were stunned by his simple but rare act, and offered to pass along the recovered wallet to its rightful owner. After we did so, she expressed astonishment and gratitude to her benefactor.
Later, I understood the relationship of the sidewalk art and the return of the wallet within a few hours of each other were no accident of timing. They were meant to be, or beshert, as we might say, if we spoke Yiddish.
For even if “both-sides-ism” is still bringing down the craft of journalism and perhaps democracy along with it, in life it reminds us of our delicate balance, and that it is up to all of us, journalists or caring civilians, to restore decency and a sense of humanity before it’s too late.
Was I indecent, then, in referring to the Former Guy in the way I have? I don’t think so. Not calling him out, not assigning responsibility to his malicious actions, not being alarmed by how he and his cronies are bent on destroying democracy, would be the real indecency.