The slow demise of unvarnished facts on the YBR. Is truth on life-support?

I am neither a scholar nor a sage. In truth, no one gives a rat’s ass what I have to say, but say it I will even if no one reads this blog post.

In the spirit of being transparent, I will admit without embarrassment that I am a fact-checker despite the fact that I am continually told that I should not let facts get in the way of a good story. Should it matter if the family event happened on Thanksgiving in 1982 or if it happened at Easter in 1983? It shouldn’t matter as long as the purpose of the story is told as folklore, but not to “prove” something of some importance. That’s when facts matter. But, what is just as important (in my opinion) is if the facts are
unvarnished and not tainted with prejudice. I would also add that a fact not told is as bad as a lie.

I am an ardent believer and supporter of “facts” when those “facts,” after being scrutinized without prejudice, are deemed to be “unvarnished.” Then and only then can a just “argument” be made.

Arguments are actually meant to clear the air and bring about change that is true and just. Unfortunately, arguments today fail to take “all” the facts into account. Despite the “fact” that I might want something to
be “true,” I have to be willing to fully evaluate the unvarnished facts before what I believe is actually true,

I love to harvest facts. I harvest them by listening to different voices. I do not limit my reading and research to one set of “beliefs.” Of late, I am of the opinion that we have lost the ability to find out what is
true. We are more interested in “proving” our point, instead of finding or learning the truth.*

The airwaves, internet, and print are filled with stories coming out on the June Sixth hearings and the Hunter Biden Laptop. In both cases, I don’t believe either the arbiters of the hearings or the investigators of the laptop are out to find out what is true. I fear that in both cases the decision of what is “true” was decided long before any hearings or investigations began.

We have become so divided that to use a trite expression we can’t see the forest for the trees. I listen to the ladies of the View and to the WABC radio hosts. etc. While I admit to being “View-sided,” I don’t take sides before I can harvest the facts. The problem with many facts is that they are not sagebrush. Facts have long roots that run deep. There is no denying, again in my opinion, that what happened at our Nation’s Capitol on January 6, 2021 was a travesty. The how and why it happened needed to be investigated. But, instead of an unprejudiced hearing, a mob mentality often tainted the proceedings. 

There have been a plethora of “facts” divulged by the “witnesses” at the hearings. Is what they said the truth and nothing but the truth? Or were some of the “right” questions not asked because the answers might have challenged some of the other facts? 

The same logic applies to the Hunter Biden laptop investigation. If the investigators are only out to prove they are “right,” more than likely they won’t be asking questions that don’t fit their scenario.  There is, I “believe,” a greater truth in all that is happening today. And that truth is we are so divided and so angry that we have become blind to the truth. Hatred is killing all of us. If we can no longer be objective when it comes to finding the truth, we will be a nation built on a mountain of opinions.

And that I believe is our current state of affairs. Statements are made by politicians, broadcasters, and people in the media in a “factual” tone. Many of us take these statements to be solid, unvarnished facts when in truth they are not.

Call me an “unbeliever,” but when facts are thrown at me, I need to do some homework. And even then I often need to do more “fact-checking.”

OZ NOTE: To tie this into the YBR. Emerald City was not green. When the young man who landed in Oz after a balloon mishap was declared the Wizard of Oz, he set out to build “his” city. Since he loved the green of the Land of Oz, he called it the Emerald City…but since it was not green, he made all the people wear glasses with green lenses. The people never took them off. The fact that Emerald City was not green didn’t matter to them. Hmmm. Does that sound like us?

*I use the word truth here with some hesitancy because “truth” is a philosophical/religious construct. It is about “self-evident” matters. Truth and true are not the same things.

 

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Looking back on the rocky Yellow Brick Road.

May 4, 1970. 51 years. A life time? A memory? A veritable smudge on the American Canvas? It was the month I expected to walk across a raised platform and be handed my college diploma from the president of Marist College. But, a terrible thing happened on the way to an event that would mark my first step on the “real world” Yellow Brick Road.

The war in Viet Nam had been raging for what seemed like forever. Many students had either crossed the border to Canada to escape the draft or were drafted. Or…signed up for the National Guard. Or…for people like me, it was life as normal. The only problem…after the shooting and killing of four war protesters at Kent State by members of the Ohio National Guard, normal was turned upside down and inside out.

Marist, like hundreds of colleges across the country put up a “closed for business” sign. There were to be no final exams. Commencement hung in the balance. (In the end, Marist decided to hold a very solemn and subdued Commencement.)

What do I remember most about being on a ghost campus until Commencement exercises? I remember the “Wizard of Oz.” Literally remember it because I was part of a cast of the play rehearsing for a bus and truck tour of the Marist production that was to take us into the poverty belt of Appalachia in Kentucky.

Looking back, it was odd and ironic to be lost in Oz when the world was in mourning. Oz was about escaping from a grey world and finding what was over the rainbow. It was all about going to the Wizard to be awarded what we already had. It was realizing that there was “no place like home.”

If home was anything like the real home where innocent students could be killed, who would want to go home?

51 years after the Kent State shootings, the Yellow Brick Road is not paved with gold. Rather, it is paved with the result of our short-comings.

Is it possible that we left Emerald City without what we went there for? It doesn’t appear we are using our brains the way we should be; our ability to love is torn by so much hatred; and we seem to lack the courage to stand up and do what needs to be done.

We’ve got to do better.

Today’s blog is dedicated to Allison  Beth Krause, 19, Jeffrey Glenn Miller, 20, and Sandra Lee Scheuer, 20, who died on the scene, at Kent State, and William Knox Schroeder, 19, was pronounced dead at Robinson Memorial Hospital in nearby Ravenna shortly afterward.

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The 2020 Presidential Race with Muck and Mire on the YBR? Is history repeating itself…again?

Preface in the name of transparency: I could never run for political office because I don’t wear a hat I could throw in the ring. I never have and never will wear a MAGA hat. I also won’t wear a hat bearing any symbols of the party that embraces donkey icons.

The 2020 Presidential Race on the YBR. Here we go again.

This is not the first presidential race where I scratch my head and say, “is this the best we can do?”  And while every presidential race is important, this one, I firmly believe, carries with it a weight that might even surpass that of the elections during World War I, the Great depression, and World War II. In 2020 we are going to the polls not only to elect the next president of the United States but of a world leader with 20/20 vision because POTUS has to have a world vision.

I ask, is this possible since we have, for lack of a better name, Muck and Mire running for office.

So we are all on the same page here, let’s refer to Mr. Funk and Mr. Wagnalls: muck is slimy mud while mire is deep mud.

Donald Muck is, without a doubt, slimy mud.  Putting aside both the ass-kissers who would follow Mr. Muck into hell and the brainless haters of the Muck who wouldn’t approve anything he did even if he walked on water, he is slimy. Giving him credit where credit is due and calling him out on some of his most egregious decisions, there is something slimy about the man. And that is not meant to be a disparaging term for a man who holds the highest office in the land. President Muck came up through the slime that comes from years of wheeling and dealing, rolling in the money, playing kissy-kissy with mindless jet-setters, and playing the part of a celebrity.

There was no way that anyone who lived such a life could not have been covered with muck. And as far as I know, there doesn’t seem to be a cure for muckiness because an inflated ego can never be cleaned.

At this point in time it appears the former Vice-President Joe Mire is going to be the candidate endorsed by the Democrats.  Joe Mire appears to be a nice and decent guy. In fact the first word that comes to mind is “harmless.”  Harmless? Is that the penultimate quality we want in our next president?  He might have served as vice-president under President Obama for eight years, but the only image I have of him reminds me of a great-uncle who smiled a lot, but was never in the room when important matters were discussed.  (And let’s be honest, Obama was playing it politically cool during the early days of the Democratic run-for-the White House.)

Joe Mire didn’t get to his political pinnacle the same way Donald Mire scaled the heights of richdom, but Good ‘ol Joe is deep in the political mud.  He played the right games, kissed the right assess, and made the most banal comments to get him where he is today.

OMG! Muck and Mire!  If there is a God can we all get down on our knees and pray for a do-over.

My gut tells me that the next four years are going to be wasted years.  The Dems don’t want to present us with greatness in any shape and form for fear that it would destroy that candidates political career in a race against Muck. And of course any sensible (if there are any left) Republican realizes it would be impossible to offer America another candidate.

Politics is not only a dirty game, it is sinful.  Our two party system is totally outdated.  It’s like an eight-track player in a day when everyone is streaming their music.  Instead of having only two boring stations to listen to, people are listening to their music, their way.

At my age I won’t live to see it happen, but I pray that my children and grandchildren will live at a time when instead of another presidential race with the next Muck and Mire, they have a chance to vote for Ready or Willing and maybe a third candidate Able.

Wouldn’t it be wonderful to have a candidate who was really ready to take the presidential oath of office and swear they would uphold and defend the Constitution of the United States. How refreshing would it be to have a candidate ready to consider the needs of ALL Americans without playing petty party politics..even if it mean only serving one term.  Can you imagine a president ready to take on the challenges of helping the world become a place where all people are all entitled to those inalienable rights of life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness!

And what about a Willing candidate?  Is it possible to have a president who is willing to break the chains of partisanship? Can you envision a time when President Willing doesn’t have to reach across the aisle because there is no aisle that divides Congress? What a new day it would be if we had a president who was willing to put the people first instead of the party.

Candidate Able could also be a viable candidate, but, they might not be necessary as long as both candidates Ready and Willing were able to lead with the qualities found along the Yellow Brick Road… intelligence, heart, and courage…to do the right thing.

(Please note that no alcohol was consumed while posting this blog.)

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Fear on the YBR. It comes in all forms…even in the shape of the Coronavirus.

Life for a kid growing up in the 1950s was not “Ozzie and Harriet,” “Father Knows Best,” or even “Lassie.”  That’s what my generation was led to believe, but the truth did not have a laugh track.  Early Baby Boomers were afraid of nuclear annihilation.

60+ years after the fact I still have nightmares about the monthly atomic bomb drills we had. With our heads tucked under our hands and our little bodies scrunched up against the wall we were preparing for the inevitable dropping of an atomic bomb.

Fear. It was part of our food chart, right between fruits and vegetables and protein.

Fear is what drives us to be less than human because it causes us to lose all sense of compassion.  Fear of the unknown was behind the Salem Witch Trials. Fear of taking a stand against tyrants is what led to the Holocaust.

Fear filled Dorothy’s slippers the moment she stepped foot on the yellow brick road. Fear of the Wicked Witch of the West haunted her on her journey to Oz. But, fear was not Dorothy’s undoing as it is for many of us. Dorothy wasn’t afraid of her fear. (That’s what I think FDR meant when he said “all we have to fear is fear itself.”)

The 9/11 attacks gave us something to fear, but as a people we didn’t let our fear get the best of us. Instead, we turned fear inside out and we discovered something magical. We discovered that what was dividing us as a nation was our fear.  It took a tragic incident to wake us up.

Today,  fear has once again reared its ugly head in the form of another deadly pandemic. It doesn’t matter a hoot that pandemics are a part of world history.  It doesn’t matter that the bubonic plague wiped out nearly 75% of the world’s population or that the Spanish Flu of 1918 eventually stole the life of 50 million people world-wide.  What matters is what is happening today…and along with the Corona virus fear is spreading faster than the germs of a sneeze.

There’s no denying that our nation is divided. There is no doubt that ignorance is what is fueling our fear. Our fear is getting the best of us. That does not mean to say we have no reason to be afraid of what COVID-19 can and is doing. However, our fear is making us turn into very ugly people.

It hasn’t happened yet, and I pray that it doesn’t, but our fear could drive us to turn savage. God knows what could happen between two people fighting over that last roll of toilet paper.

It reminds me of a Playhouse  90 television show I saw as a kid. It was called Alas, Babylon, and it was about none other than the dreaded dropping of an atomic bond.

The scene was burnished into my brain. People were in line at a grocery store.  It was pure pandemonium. The shelves were empty. People were beating each other up over food.  (The scene made me very sad.)

We are like Dorothy, but instead of dropping a house on a witch, the house has dropped on us and we are all crawling out from underneath the rubble. The look of fear is etched on our faces. We are beginning to fear that this is the end times.

I think we have to go back and see what Dorothy did. More importantly we have to remember that she didn’t do it alone.  She found friends with a common goal and marched arm-in-arm with them to Oz.  Even though she and her three traveling companions…and Toto, too, were filled with fear, they supported one another.

We need to do that.  That doesn’t mean we have to be care-free. We need to be cautious as cautious as the travelers were on the YBR when they were in the deepest and darkest part of the forest. (Lions and tigers and bears, oh, my. Rinse. Repeat.)  Dorothy had already embraced the Scarecrow (brains) and was filled with heart (the Tin Man), but she lacked the courage she needed to vanquish her fears.

It was fitting that the king of the forest had not yet discovered his inner courage because that’s what happens to us.  We never know how brave we can be until we come face-to-face with fear.

While we have to place our trust in the hands of scientists and “leaders,” we are not helpless.  We can relieve our fear by relishing the love that we share with family and friends. We can face this pandemic by using our head, heeding our hearts and finding the courage to do the right thing.  And what is the right thing?  Spreading kindness wherever we go. Don’t let this pandemic reduce us to savage beasts. Let’s all rise to the occasion and be kind to one another.  Don’t kill each other over that last roll of toilet paper. Figure out a way to meet each other’s needs.

Who knows, when this pandemic passes maybe we’ll all remember how kindness won the day and fear was sent packing.

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Commencement 2019 on the YBR. Today is your gift. Tomorrow is your responsibility.

It is fitting that I was asked to address the class of 2019 of Emerald City University because this year mark the 80th anniversary of the film that turned me from a beloved character in a charming book to an icon.

80 years ago President Franklin Roosevelt gave us a new deal and the maniacal Fuhrer Adolph Hitler gave us a raw deal. It was not the best of times for anybody and it was soon to become the worst of times for the millions of young men and women who gave their lives to save the world.

Today the world is different. Or is it? There is no depression, but millions of people the world over are living in abject poverty. Adolph Hitler might be dead, but he has been replaced by dozens of madmen who rule the world.

The world you are about to inherit continues to be a work in progress. The world you are about to enter does not need spectators who criticize from the sidelines. The world needs people who are willing to role up their sleeves to make the world a better place for all, not just a select few.

You have been called the entitled generation. Everything has been done for you. We’ve cut your meat, combed your hair, pushed you to the head of the line, and done everything to protect you from harm and hardships. But have we prepared you to take your first step on the Yellow Brick Road?

As a child my world was grey and I was at risk of turning as grey as my environment. I wanted more because I knew there was more. I also knew that I had to take ownership of the world I wanted. It wasn’t enough to dream about a world over the rainbow because dreaming without action does not change anything.

You might have earned a degree but you have not earned the right to think the world owes you the good life. The world does not owe you anything, but you owe the world everything.

At this moment in time all you can think about is your career.  You spent four years preparing for your future.  Nothing is going to get in your way.

Over 400 years ago Michelangelo said, “The greater danger for most of us lies not in setting our aim too high and falling short; but in setting our aim too low, and achieving our mark.”

Don’t get me wrong. There is nothing wrong with having career aspirations. But there is something very wrong if our aspirations don’t inspire us to achieve greatness, and by greatness I mean by being a person filled with love, compassion, concern and a willingness to make personal sacrifices for others.

In mathematics the shortest distance between two points is a straight line. In life there is no shortest distance between any two points. Take it from me there are pot holes on the Yellow Brick Road and there might be some detours you have to take on your life’s journey.

As you begin your journey, keep this in mind, it is your journey. As hard as it may be not to follow in someone else’s footsteps, resist the temptation. Become your own person. Don’t take ownership of other people’s opinions. Don’t become a slave to any particular political point-of-view. Have the confidence to stand up for what you believe in. That means you have to have intelligence, a heart, and most of all courage.

In the end there are only two really important things. To love and to be loved. All else doesn’t matter.

I would like to end with a song. And not the song that you all associate with me, but a song that I believe should help you along on your journey because if you love and are open to being loved, you will never walk alone on the Yellow Brick Road.

Your graduation song

 

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