What Lies Ahead?

     As some of you may know my day job is that of a clinical psychologist. I have already been contacted today by a number of people from all over the world in which they are expressing their concerns and fears about what lies ahead for America and the world. For quite a while I have been amazed at seeing people repeatedly vote against their own selfish best interests. I know I do not fully understand the phenomena.
     As a therapist it has been my experience that people do not call to make an appointment because it is a good idea. There are perhaps three smokers somewhere in the world who don't know that smoking causes cancer. All the remaining millions of smokers do so even though they are causing themselves harm. It has been my experience that people do not call me to talk because they have heard that I am an interesting person to speak to. They do not call me because they are in a lot of pain. Most people are walking around with their own reservoir of pain. People call me when both their level of pain and their level of desperation exceed their capacity to endure. Such a moment will be experienced as a horror for both the individual and those that love him. While this is true it is also true that these are perhaps the only conditions under which there is an opportunity for change. I am not yet sure that most Americans are at this point at this time. It does appear that the coming months and perhaps years may bring us to that point. Since I believe it is an essential moment for us to get to I pray that it happens sooner rather than later and that whatever takes place between now and then does not destroy those aspects of our society that function for the greater good of all. I know that this too shall pass.

     It is perhaps now our task to seek out that place of goodness that resides in all of us rather than to focus on our need to emphasize differences and demonize the other.

Rev Ken

On 5/22 had had the good fortune to attend a Sunday service at Crathie Kirk Church. This is a very small church in Ballatar, Scotland. The service was led by Reverend Kenneth Mackenzie who is referred to as "Rev. Ken" by the members of the congregation. I met Rev. Ken the evening before as he attended a charity concert in which my wife was performing. He was friendly, talkative, and very much alive. This meeting gave me no indication as to what was in store at the service.
     Rev. Ken started the service by talking about numbers. He stated that the numbers one and two weren't really numbers at all. It was only with three that numbers started to have meaning. He spoke about how three was the beginning of diversity. He then spoke about the mystery of the trinity. He emphasized that this mystery could not be fully known. It could only be experienced. He then reemphasized the necessity of diversity. Diversity of experience, interpretation and people. He stated that it is only through such uncertainty, diversity, and necessity of experience could the trinity begin to be understood. He then spoke about the necessity of being of service to others as that was how the message of Christ could best be kept alive.
     So here sat this aging Hinjew in a Church of Scotland service with tears of gratitude in his eyes. The most difficult aspect of living in Nashville for me has been my introduction into a definition of "being a Christian" that horrifies me at best. In Nashville I've experienced a doctrine of absolute certainty. A doctrine that separates, excludes, demeans, diminishes, and causes so much needless suffering in the name of Christ. I cannot tell you how many clients I have here that are tortured by guilt and shame as a result of their religious experience. Last year a female Pastor asked a State Senate Committee to defeat a bill that would have expanded healthcare to the poorest people in Tennessee. She stated, "...let the people know that our (healthcare) coverage is the same as with Moses and the children of Israel when they went through the wilderness with only the divine providence of almighty God", (i.e. none). The legislators did their "Christian duty" and defeated the bill. Just last month that same legislature passed a totally unnecessary bill allowing counselors to refuse to see a potential client if that client's concerns went against their own religious beliefs.
     At the end of the service I had an opportunity to talk more with Rev. Ken. I asked him just how much of a weirdo he was within his church and he assured me that rather than being a weirdo he was quite mainstream. I then shared a bit of what is going on in Tennessee and told him how much it saddened me and scared the shit out of me. His immediate response was, "Amen."

How Obscene

     I recently watched the movie "Spotlight." The movie is about the Boston Globe team that did an expose about the sexual abuse of children within The Catholic Church. As a sexual abuse survivor I wasn't sure that I was going to be able to view the entire movie. The movie is very well done and I had no difficulty with any evoked strong emotion except for the normal shock, horror and repulsion, that any human would have to the content. As the movie ended I was thankful that I was not overly upset. But my night was not over.

     I rarely watch the final credits of any movie. As the final scene faded to black they posted a sentence that stated that their research had revealed that similar events (to Boston) had occurred in the following locations... As I watched row after row, page after page unfold I got quite nauseous. I was aghast at the numbers.

     Every week our "great guardians of morality" seek to terminate funding for Planned Parenthood supposedly because one doctor misspoke about "selling fetal tissue." Regardless that subsequent investigation has clearly shown that Planned Parenthood is not in the business of selling body parts they remain steadfast in their moral indignation. The volume of their hypocrisy is amplified by their silence and inaction with The Church. 

     As I listen to the Republican contenders for the presidential nomination try to outdo each other with their war talk and repulsion for outsiders I remain totally dumbfounded that they claim to speak for God and morality. Yes, let's turn the desert into glass and carpet bomb everyone in the area. Yes, let's save a few dollars in Michigan by providing lead tainted water.  Yes, let's try to convince people that "big government and over regulation" are the problems.    

Republican Weather Reports

     One of the things that surprised me the most when I moved to Nashville from New Jersey was they way that people reacted to the weather. People seemed to freak out over the possibility of some form of precipitation. Unfortunately the presence of that precipitation highlighted the reality that the general population probably got their driver's licenses on the internet.
     Earlier this week there was a light dusting of snow in the forecast and that got all the juices going in the local TV stations. There were dire warnings about everything. The next day I watched a bit of the latest Republican debate and I was shocked to realize that it sounded exactly like the local weather forecasts. The style, tone, and even the words used all sounded the same.
     Modern day Republicans prey on fear, mistrust, and danger. They thrive on ignorance and prejudice. Of course there are times when people do need to be warned about real dangers both in weather and world events. But I would much rather live in a world that functions to engender understanding and compassion rather than hatred and mistrust.

I Couldn't Agree More

Sometime during 2002-2003 I was contacted by a woman identifying herself as a producer for the Dr. Phil TV show. She wanted to know if I would do some marriage counseling for a couple that she knew and then come on the show to discuss their treatment. My response was to tell that woman that I did not view therapy as a spectator sport so I declined her invitation. A few years later one of my wife's favorite activities was to watch me scream at our TV while we were watching the HBO series, In Treatment. The therapist was so inappropriate in his behavior and there was no way for the viewing audience to know it. The following is a posting from today's Daily Beast written under the pseudonym of Russell Saunders entitled, "Doctor: Why Quack TV Docs Like Dr. Oz and Dr. Phil Need to Go." http://www.thedailybeast.com/articles/2015/04/25/doctor-why-quack-tv-docs-like-dr-oz-and-dr-phil-need-to-go.html?via=newsletter&source=DDMorning

Dr. Oz has come under fire due to his ‘egregious lack of integrity,’ but he pales in comparison to the fame-whoring Dr. Phil. Here’s why it’s time to get rid of the ‘daytime doc.’

Consider the plight of the televised health professional. There was a time when all it took was the right couple of letters in front of your name and the divine blessing of Oprah Winfrey, daytime TV’s resplendent queen, and you could find yourself hosting a hit television show. With just those advantages secured, both Dr. Mehmet Oz and Dr. Phil McGraw landed themselves eponymous programs with which to dole out their wisdom to audiences at home.
Alas, the bloom has begun to come quite noticeably off those particular roses. And it may be time to ponder whether or not these shows, each proudly affixed with “Dr.” right in their titles, have exploited their stars’ professional credentials well past their sell-by dates.
For Dr. Oz, it’s been a hairy couple of weeks. His current woes started with a much-ballyhooed letter from ten physicians calling on the dean of Columbia University’s medical school to boot Dr. Oz from the faculty there. Citing his “egregious lack of integrity by promoting quack treatments,” among other malefactions, the authors deem his presence at such a prestigious institution “unacceptable.”
This comes the year after Dr. Oz was hauled before a Senate hearing to explain why he frequently touted worthless “miracle” weight-loss supplements. (I should probably take this opportunity to admit that I did not give Sen. Claire McCaskill nearly enough credit when I wrote about it at the time. She gave him far more of a grilling than I thought she would.) Then as now, he was forced to spin the nonsense he spouted as some kind of feel-good self-help mumbo jumbo rather than actual medical opinion.
As it happens, I share the skepticism of some about the motives of those ten physicians, who are enjoying far more celebrity now than they likely ever have before, and who couldn’t possibly have expected an Ivy League medical school to give a tenured department vice chair the heave-ho just because they wrote a letter. Dr. Oz has gone on the offensive about the possible conflicts of interest behind the letter’s writing, and it’s within his rights to question the motives of his critics.
But whatever the academic upshot to this new kerfuffle, it’s forced Dr. Oz to do some damage control. And I am not buying what he’s selling.In an interview with NBC, Dr. Oz strains credulity to the breaking point by maintaining that his is not a “medical show” and that in the logo the “OZ” is really big but the “Dr.” is eensy-weensy so as to make that distinction clear. If anyone believes that Dr. Oz did not leverage his credentials as a selling point for his program, or that his viewers do not tune in in large part because of the legitimacy those credentials presumably give his daily pronouncements, then please contact me about an exciting purchase opportunity for a bridge between Manhattan and Brooklyn.
But it’s within that same interview that Dr. Oz accidentally tells a little bit of truth.
“The purpose is not to throw at you the biggest articles published by doctors that week. Frankly it’s not very much fun to listen to [those], either,” he tells NBC. And he’s right.
Speaking as someone who regularly scours various medical news services for topics that may be of interest to a general audience, the vast majority comprise items that I find fascinating or useful as a physician, but would be crushingly dull to pretty much everyone else. Real, actual medical science is often made up of studies that add little bits to the accumulated body of knowledge already out there, or explore some small treatment effect. The bigger and splashier the supposed finding, the more rigorous the study must be to justify it. Most of the big claims turn out to be baseless garbage. What you don’t do is just report the garbage anyway. (Or, at least, I sure as hell try not to.) You don’t promulgate nonsense you know to be based on shoddy science. You don’t decide that the demand for ratings trumps your obligation to properly inform your audience. I understand that trying to keep the topics limited to those that truly withstand scientific scrutiny would mean The Dr. Oz Show would both struggle to find enough material to fill their airtime, and would probably bore the dickens out of its audience. So perhaps it’s time they drop the “Dr.” bit entirely, rechristen the program “Mehmet,” and have him join all the other daytime entertainers crowding the airwaves with general interest content. It would be a lot more intellectually honest. But one thing I’ll say for Dr. Oz: at least he’s not Dr. Phil.
Another Oprah protégé, Dr. Phil McGraw has used his show to become America’s confrontational truth-spewer-in-chief. Heavily reliant on the questionably effective tactic of “intervention” with his guests, Dr. Phil uses his PhD to gussy up what is really just one more salacious offering wherein people expose their flaws and bad decisions for the entertainment of the audience. Dr. Phil’s unseemly mélange of exploitation, celebrity parasitism and credential mining goes back years, at least until 2008 when he went to visit a hospitalized Britney Spears in the midst of her high-profile troubles then issued a statement about it, much to her parents’ dismay. A couple of years later, after having a pair of serial shoplifters on his program ostensibly for help but mainly just to get them to dish about their deeds, the judge who presided over their subsequent sentencing called him a “charlatan” and a “terrible, terrible man.” Apparently having learned nothing from the Spears fiasco, Dr. Phil has more recently decided to do a deep dive into the fine art of filming minor celebrities when they’re at their emotional nadir. Despite being visibly inebriated and in absolutely no condition to discuss his mental health on camera, Nick Gordon, the boyfriend of Whitney Houston’s comatose daughter Bobbi Kristina Brown, was subjected to one of Dr. Phil’s famous “interventions,” the clinical benefit of which was highly suspect. And following the interview, he took it upon himself to gab to the gossip program Entertainment Tonight about how it went, sharing salacious, highly personal details with ET’s voracious audience.
“He'd go from being able to talk like we’re talking now to just all of a sudden collapsing and wailing,” Dr. Phil told ET. “And then he would pull out his phone and turn on a Whitney song and just start crying.” In a few days, another episode is set to air in which he browbeats troubled Real Housewives of Beverly Hills star Kim Richards about her recent arrest for public drunkenness until she runs off in tears, ending the interview.
Do these people need the involvement of trained professionals to deal honestly with their problems? Quite possibly. Does being confronted with the ramifications of their bad decisions have value for people with various mental health or substance abuse problems? Often it does. Is Dr. Phil actually accomplishing anything of benefit for his hapless subjects when he milks their travails for ratings? Not even slightly. Call this sort of celebrity bottom-feeding what you like, but please let’s not call it therapeutic. It’s a crass pantomime of psychology, no matter what Dr. Phil’s degree. He makes Dr. Joyce Brothers look like Carl Jung by comparison. Like Dr. Oz, if Dr. Phil wants to promote what his show is really about, he can jettison the “Dr.” jive, and take his place openly alongside Maury and Jerry and Montel. They all peddle the same prurient garbage, and he may as well be plain about it. I won’t tune in, but at least I won’t consider him a professional embarrassment. Junk doesn’t turn into worthwhile viewing just because you wrap a diploma around it, and it’s time Dr. Oz and Dr. Phil stopped pretending otherwise.

Selma

Over the past weekend I had the good fortune to go see the movie, "Selma." After seeing the movie I too find it outrageous that it did not get one Academy Award nomination. But that is not the intent of this post. I am certainly old enough to remember the events of the 1960s. Nevertheless I cringed as I watched with horror the events that are portrayed. I found myself crying and I intuitively knew that my tears were coming from a very deep place that went beyond what I was seeing.

There is no doubt in my mind that if the situation was reversed and the majority of the population were people of color who were treating a minority white population in a similar fashion the subsequent events would have been quite different. It is my belief that in this hypothetical situation the United States would view the threat of ISIS as a very low priority. It is my belief that in such a situation the white people of America would have armed themselves with Uzis and they would be out indiscriminately killing as many black people as they could. I find the fact that this has not happened within the minority community with the reality of America to be astounding.

As I now watch the efforts to once again disenfranchise the minority communities under the guise of preventing voter fraud I am quite nauseous. So many politicians like to refer to America as the greatest country in the world. It really would be so lovely if one day this was true.

The State of America

I have never done this before but this article communicates what I'd like for you to read. It is from "The Nashville Banner" and was published on February 4, 2015.

The Republicans Eat Their Own

And other thoughts on Haslam's failed health initiative

By Bruce Dobie

| February 4, 2015 4:44 pm |

Death to the legislation, which arrived on a stretcher anyway, came quickly. Gov. Haslam's plan to join ObamaCare, and insure hundreds of thousands of Tennesseans at virtually no cost to the state, came loaded with the political baggage of being tied to Obama. Tennessee's Tea Partiers seethed. Conservatives raged. The right-wing came unstuck.
To those in the fact-based community—moderate Republicans, businesspeople, those in the health care community—the facts were inarguable and arrived at a different analysis: at little to no cost, hospitals would stay in business and hundreds of millions of dollars would be pumped into the state's economy.
What's not to love?
On top of that, there was a public policy argument to tug on the heartstrings. For poor people, this was a solution. The plan would add a measure of comfort to thousands of the impoverished, and hey, isn't that what we humans are all about?
In the end, though, as even Haslam seemed to suggest when he called the session together, the death knell to the plan was its association with a Democratic president, one who is despised by many of our state lawmakers. Yes, the proposal might have seemed a no-brainer. But it is also true that no-brainer arguments are hard to intellectually absorb when you don't have a brain to begin with.
When the Senate was called into session to consider the Haslam plan, the preacher reading the invocation asked God "that we would not be forced into these edicts from Washington D.C." Instead the preacher prayed that we "let the people know that our (healthcare) coverage is the same as with Moses and the children of Israel when they went through the wilderness with only the divine providence of almighty God."
What is one to say?
Have we lost it?
Maybe, to extend the preacher's primitive religiosity, we should all abandon our health insurance. Maybe we should all go Paleo and descend into some pre-historic living undertaking, in which we commence to eating locusts, and commuting to Jimmy Kelly's after work on camels, and doing without any modern healthcare whatsoever because, darnit, if Moses could get by without a Blue Cross Card, then we all can.
Were one to identify positives, I can find one, optimist that I am.
Opportunities are always rare for Democrats. But here is some advice to the new Democratic Party chairwoman, Mary Mancini: Affix sign to door. "The Democratic Party is Open for Business."
Tell every health care company in Tennessee—and Nashville is ground zero for corporate health care in the United States—that the NEW Democratic Party here would like to see health care endeavors thrive, but that Republicans do not. Spread the same message to those in the construction industries, to small business owners, to Chambers of Commerce, and to doctors and nurses everywhere.
Now is an opportunity to announce on friendly terms the Democrats' willingness to work with business, because in a strangely cannibalistic way, the Republicans are avariciously chowing down on the hands that feed them. The mostly small-town, non-business-minded, religiously occluded conservatives in the party are in control; the more urban, urbane, business-oriented Republicans are left to suffer the consequences.
The moneyed poo-bahs of the GOP have taken a big hit. So Mary, go offer them a home. At the very least, outline a partnership where the quacks and the crazies aren't in control any longer.

THE FAG TIP

     A few days ago a  20 year old waiter in Missouri received the following message instead of a tip from a couple he had just served. "Thank you for your service, it was excellent. That being said, we cannot in good conscience tip you, for your homosexual lifestyle is an affront to GOD. Queers do not share in the wealth of GOD, and you will not share in ours. We hope you will see the tip your fag choices made you lose out on, and plan accordingly. It is never too late for GOD'S love, but none shall be spared for fags. May GOD have mercy on you."
     It is fascinating to me that many in our society would like us to believe that Islamic Fundamentalism is a threat to the survival of our enlightened existence. The notion that a loving God would be offended by any of HIS/HER children's sexual preference alone makes no sense to me. The couple praises the waiter's behavior but insults his being for no other reason than their prejudice. The wisdom of the separation of Church and State by our Founding Fathers has served all of us exceedingly well. I pray that it continues.

WELCOME TO 1984

          In 1966 I was a college student in Queens, New York. It seemed apparent to me and many of my friends that the war in Vietnam was a mistake. We felt compelled to participate in protests in New York and in Washington, DC. We did not think of our actions as any big deal. We were doing what we could to change governmental policy. In the intervening years that passion and awareness appears to have entered into a comatose state across America.

         In his book, "1984", George Orwell made popular two terms that appear to have become our norm. Those terms were, "doublespeak" and "doublethink." Orwell did not invent these terms but he made masterful use of them in his novel. "Doublespeak is language which pretends to communicate but doesn't. It is language which makes the bad seem good, the negative seem positive, the unpleasant seem unattractive, or at least tolerable. It is language which avoids, shifts or denies responsibility; language which is at variance with its real or purported meaning. It is language which conceals or prevents thought. William Lutz, "Doubts About Doublespeak." State Government News, July 1993.

         Examples of doublethink from Orwell's book are: "The Ministry of Peace concerns itself with war, the Ministry of Truth with lies, the Ministry of Love with torture and the Ministry of Plenty with starvation. These contradictions are not accidental, nor do they result from ordinary hypocrisy: they are deliberate exercises in doublethink"... "Until they became conscious they will never rebel, and until after they have rebelled they cannot become conscious."..." Power is in tearing human minds to pieces and putting them together again in new shapes of your own choosing."

         For the past four or five years all we have heard is that our deficit is the biggest threat to our well-being. We have been told that there is no money to repair our infrastructure or to provide school lunches or adequate healthcare. In fact the Republican Congress has voted 40 times to repeal Obamacare. It is as if Obamacare is allowed to continue we will all die a slow agonizing death. It also appears that once Obamacare is repealed the next biggest threat to our national interest is National Public Radio. The runners-up appear to be making sure that the poor and minorities lose their voting rights, ensuring that the minimum wage never goes up and the abolition of all trade unions.

         Our esteemed leaders are now debating whether or not we should "punish Syria." Of course we should be aghast at the use of any weapons. But I find it curious that the rest of the world finds it so easy to sit back and watch us "take care of it." Wouldn't it be fascinating if in a few years we learn that the chemicals in our food have killed and maimed far more people than anything done by Bashar al-Assad.

         In the world of doublespeak we have a president who has won the Nobel Peace Prize while at the same time ordering a surge of troops in Afghanistan. The following figures may not be exactly accurate but I do believe they are fairly close. There were 2996 people killed in America as a result of the attacks on 9/11/01. Since then 3274 coalition troops have been killed in Afghanistan along with approximately 17,000 Afghans. Over 8000 coalition troops have been killed in Iraq and the civilian estimates are between 200,000 to over 1 million. During this time period we had fired over 2000 cruise missiles. The estimates for the cost of one cruise missile go up to $1,400,000 apiece. When I used my calculator to total this it just read "E" because the number of zeros exceeded my display. And this total is just a very small percent of all the costs associated with war. Remember we can't afford to feed our children. We can't afford to provide healthcare. It may be the case that the zombie apocalypse has already happened as manifested by the silence of all the parents whose gorgeous children have been maimed while "protecting us." These same children get inadequate healthcare and they can't get jobs once they come home.

         It isn't exactly clear what the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq have actually provided for us. We are told that Al Qaeda is in ruins. But 13 years later we have instability all over the Middle East. Terrorist attacks have occurred in the Philippines, Bali, and numerous other places around the world. Many believe that the prison in Guantánamo has resulted in far more youth all over the world being recruited into the ranks of those that hate what we have done. I also find it quite ironic that the war in Iraq did not result in America controlling Iraqi oil and the first mining contract in Afghanistan has been awarded to China. Why aren't the Tea Party geniuses screaming that we can't afford another war?
     In 2008 I wept tears of joy when Obama was elected. In true doublespeak fashion the man who was going to bring change and the end of the abuses of the Bush administration now has the NSA checking the contents of our farts to see if we have ever eaten hummus.

         Our schools produce children that don't know how to make change if the cash register is broken. Our children have the attention span of 140 characters. A few days ago the British Parliament said no to Britain's participation in Syria. I was able to watch that live because my cable network carries AlJazeera. No American network covered it live. We appear to have the best government that money can buy. I wonder what it will take to wake us out of our coma.

OCTAGENARIAN ASTRONAUT

     As some of you may know I am a clinical psychologist in my day job. One of my sub-specialties is the use of hypnosis for pain control. It's a lot of fun for me to do this because most of my clients experience some relief during their first session. Two weeks ago a physician colleague referred an 88-year-old woman who is in a great deal of pain. When she came in for her first session she told me that I was her last resort so she would do whatever I told her to do.

     During my first session I typically offer my client the opportunity to experience what trance will feel like for them. If things go well I use the second session to teach them how to put themselves into trance. Part of that process involves a person taking themselves to a place that they experience as scenically very beautiful and very peaceful. In my 31 years of teaching hypnotic techniques most people take themselves to a beach, a lake, or some other quiet place in nature. Well this wonderfully alive woman took herself on a spaceship hovering over New York City! She made it clear that her ship was white and it had a white control panel. While she was on her own personal craft she was feeling no pain. The unencumbered spirit is such a joy and gift for me to be able to see.

HOPEFULLY NOT THIS TIME

     Whenever I look at my watch these days it keeps reminding me that I've entered old fart territory.  A few things have happened during my 66 years that have been truly horrific.  So it's a bit confusing to me why the recent school shooting in Connecticut is having such a profound effect on me. I try to avoid marinating my brain in negative images so I tend to change the channel when the subject is shown.  Yet even now, each time I see a glimpse I begin to cry. Why this time and why this one? I don't really know.
     What I do know is that our society is in very deep trouble. We own more guns than everyone else on the planet.  We have more people in jail than any other country. We make movies that glorify violence.  Our children play video games that are astoundingly perverse and violent. We have politicians that talk about "legitimate rape."
     The NRA will defend to the death our right to bear assault weapons with unlimited supplies of ammunition. Yet they would never dream about being equally as passionate about participating in a societal change that would make it inconceivable for any of us to want to use one.
     The polarization in our society is not just about Democrats and Republicans.  There are numerous forces that actively work to ingrain a deeply felt sense of us and them. Carl Rove got an incompetent elected president two times with this tactic.  
     I worked as a Psychologist in a jail in the 70's.  The inmates were all class A adolescent male felons.  To qualify they had to have committed rape or murder. They had little or no difficulty in doing things to people that you don't want to know about. All one had to do to precipitate a fight with any of them is just utter the words, "Your mother." Isn't it fascinating that they could kill or rape your mother but you better not even mention theirs! Imagine a world in which all of them thought of all women as their sisters or mothers. That alone would probably eliminate more killing than any watered down gun control legislation we will see passed in a few months.
     Our society has not yet figured out how to cultivate the best that we have as humans. I'd bet any of you in America a lot of money  that you will not hear the word wisdom today. What school do you know of that teaches compassion.  What powerful forces actively seek to allow our children to feel for themselves the warmth and joy that comes from being of service to another? I don't believe that the existence of a gun is the real problem. 

THAT'S NOT TRUE

     There was for me a wonderful moment during the presidential debate on Tuesday night.  Mitt Romney had just made a statement and the moderator, Candy Crowley, immediately said to Mr. Romney, "That's not true." I can't remember the last time I heard someone who was functioning in the position of being a journalist actually doing their job. Most Americans now get what passes for news from television. As we all know the content of television is controlled by ratings. The networks are owned by the very same large corporations that have gradually gained control of our political process. "News" is therefore defined as whatever will generate the highest ratings rather than the information that is vitally important for us to have an educated electorate. That's why we know far more about what Lindsay Lohan had for breakfast than we do about the real consequences of Paul Ryan's budget plan.
   
    So thank you Candy Crowley for a brief glimpse of how great television could be.

OUR INTERESTING VALUES

     I am currently in Vail, Colorado.  While on a hike yesterday 5 people passed me on the trail.  They were rescue workers and they were going up to rescue a dog.  I was deeply touched to see these people on a late Sunday afternoon taking their time and energy to do such a lovely thing.

     And then I was struck by the dichotomy of what I was seeing before my eyes and the American political system.  Let me be clear, I have nothing against animal rescues.  I think it's beautiful to see. However I currently have two female clients who fear for their lives because of abusive husbands.  The rate of poverty in American is going up and if hunk Ryan has anything to say about our lives Medicaid and Medicare will be decimated.

     We have no money for people, bridges and education.  But we have all the money we need for cruise missiles.  I wonder how many people died of malnutrition and inadequate healthcare while these guys were saving the dog.   

NOT THERE YET

Fall Creek Falls, Tennessee, 10/09

Treat people and live amongst them in such a way so that when you die they will cry over you, and while you are alive they long for your company.

Traditional Muslim saying

We grow neither better nor worse as we grow old, but more like ourselves.

May Lamberton Becker

For NEW subscribers click here to receive the Dose:  http://www.bobshermanphotography.com/daily_dose

     As many of you know every day I send out a photograph of mine along with two quotes.  I call it the "Daily Dose".  Above is a dose from ten days ago.  I first started sending out the dose in 1997.  At that time it was one or two quotes from  spiritual traditions around the world.  My intent was to show my readers the similarities of these traditions and also to help them find their own spiritual path.  I started including one of my photos after 9/11.  We were about to blow up Afghanistan I wanted to put a face on the Afghan people.  I had been fortunate to have traveled through Afghanistan in 1974 and 1975 and I was one of my favorite places on the planet.
     Today the dose is read every day by thousands of people all over the world and I'm the guy who not only composes and sends out the dose but I'm also the one who manually adds and removes people from my distribution list.  On most days this usually means adding a few people.  During an average week one or two people might ask to be removed.  I'm always curious about when and why someone would ask to be removed.  On the day of this dose five people asked to be removed.  So I asked myself what's so special about this dose?  The picture may not be my greatest but it's not particularly offensive.  The quotes on the surface seem benign.  And then it hit me.  The attribution for the first quote was that it was a Muslim saying!
     The continued intention of the Dose is to share the beauty of the world in images and words.  It is my hope that with sufficient contact we will become far more aware of our similarities than our differences.  Isn't it sad that at this point in our country (none of the people who dropped out were foreigners) we are so polarized that just the word Muslim would prompt some to stop receiving any information that might allow them to expand their field of view. 
      

TIME TO SHOW US

   For the past twenty-five years or so many of my female clients have bemoaned the "fact" that the men they are meeting are all Neanderthals who are not capable of true intimacy.  They yearned to be able to have one conversation with a man who has actually seen their face.  Recently there has been a lot of talk about how much better and less violent the world would be if women were in power.  Well ladies it appears that the Grand Old Party is determined to have you in the position of putting up or shutting up.
     The wisdom of the the best that the Republicans have to offer us has presented us with a Congressional hearing on women's reproductive rights featuring a number of male "experts".  A number of Republican controlled states have attempted to force women to undergo uterine ultrasounds.  And now we are learning about the essential differences between "legitimate" rape and all other forms of rape.  I bet you didn't know that if you really didn't want to get raped your body would not let you get pregnant.
     Ladies, please help us degenerate men to see the folly of our ways.  Please demonstrate if there is any truth at all that you have the capacity to stand up for us all and stop this madness before it gets any louder or more pervasive.  Please show us with your votes that you are not all Michele Bachmanns.

     I was sent this link after I posted these comments.  Perhaps there is reason for hope after all: http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=Anc_gP2_QeI

THE HUNGER GAMES

      Over the past weekend I had the misfortune to see the movie, “The Hunger Games”.  The movie was preceded by 7 coming attractions.  One was an animated film and the rest appeared to be trying to outdo each other in gore, brutality, and stupidity.  How staggering that our evolutionary process has culminated in an artistic endeavor about Abraham Lincoln as a vampire hunter.

     “The Hunger Games” was deeply troubling for me.  The thought of an elite ruling class that entertains itself on the suffering and death of the “little people” is no longer really science fiction.  The elimination of the draft in the U. S. has terminated any threat that the wealthy will ever have to dirty their hands.  With no threat to their own children they can so easily send “our volunteers” to do their bidding.  We appear to have all the money we need for bombs but none for social programs.

     I watch the Republican debates in horror.  Except for Ron Paul I have seen a bunch of old men trying to convince the universe that their genitals are so much bigger than Obama’s.  (I’d just love to see them all naked on stage.)  They scream for the destruction of Iran and talk so loudly about how Obama is an appeasing Muslim wimp.  Their rhetoric is very effectively picking up where Carl Rove left off.  There are now more militia groups in American than ever.  There are now more guns in circulation than ever.  This process of dividing and conquering is working.  Workers rights and unions are under direct and very clear attack in the states with Republican governors.  Women’s rights are under attack.  The ability of the poor and elderly to vote is under attack.  Medicare is under attack.  The lie is that the rich need their money so that they can create jobs.  It’s unbelievable to me that the masses have not noticed that the rich have gotten staggeringly richer over the past few years while the rest of us have lost our jobs.

     For me the thing that really sticks in my craw (wherever that is) is how all of  this is also guised under the pretense of “Christian values”.  The beauty of Christ was his love and compassion.  In Matthew 25:40 we are clearly told that, “… whatever you did for one of the least of these brothers and sisters of mine, you did for me.”  Somehow this has now been repackaged as “Socialism” and really bad. In my photography and in the Daily Dose my intent is to share a moment of beauty, a sense of connection between ourselves and others or our environment.  It is my belief that the more we know about others the more we can see ourselves in them and feel a sense of compassion.  For me this is a central core of my spiritual belief.  I don't understand a spiritual pursuit that results in separation and disdain.

     One of my friends has told me that “The Hunger Games” is a trilogy and there is a revolt in the second book.  I wonder how much worse it will have to get before the revolt is on CNN.

A PLEA FOR WISDOM AND DECENCY

I have this deeply felt sadness and ache.  I watch the Republican debates and I hear the crowd  cheer about letting people without insurance die.  Last night the crowd booed an openly gay soldier asking a question.  The candidates appear to be lining up for their chance to throw more meat at their hungry wolves.  My fear is that this movie won’t end well.

In my opinion leadership is not just about rallying the troops.  Appropriate leadership also educates.  Appropriate leadership does not sink to the lowest common denominator.  If this were not true then men like Hitler and Mussolini would be celebrated.  They each did a masterful job in getting a lot of people to do their bidding.  It was the direction that they led their followers to that was the determining factor.

It’s easy to understand that in our current political climate the Bachman’s, Santorum’s, Limbaugh’s and the rest of the Mensa corps that are the loudest in the Republican Party will have their moment in the sun.  But where are the voices of rationality and wisdom? Not everyone who has ever been a Republican politician takes their marching orders from the Koch brothers and some unfortunate directive from God.  Why their silence?  They have nothing to lose since they are out of office.

George H. W. Bush stopped our troops from invading Baghdad.  He was able to have the wisdom to not destabilize that  country.  I wonder what would have happened if he had had the strength to openly criticize his son.  Honest differences of opinion is wonderfully healthy for growth and insight.  

Today's news was partially about Obama changing No Child Left Behind.  There is much talk about how the school system is letting our children down.  If the clowns on the stage are in fact the best that America has to offer it won't matter what we do with the school system. 

A Moment of Hope

The past few months have been a rather difficult time for me.  The national political system of America is not just broken it has become the repository of whores that can be easily bought by the highest bidder.  The elation that I felt when Barack Obama was elected has faded into an underlying sense of disappointment and despair.  I never would have dreamed that Obama's eloquence could have been matched by his absence of spine.  In addition the recent events in the stock market added yet another blow to my illusion that one day I might be able to retire and leave my children a modicum of inheritance.

     I live  in the wealthiest Republican district in America.  Marsha Blackburn theoretically represents me in the House of Representatives.  She is the Marsha Blackburn that espouses all the talking points du jour of the Republican Party and never heard George Bush say anything that she didn't love.  I live in an area that upon first meeting me wants to know what church I go to in order to ascertain whether or not I'm decent or worthy of talking to.  I live in an area in which the sign that I had on my lawn supporting Obama during the last election was destroyed 3 times.  I live next to the town that hosted the Tea Party convention.

     So it is within this context that I went to the movies today.  I saw "The Help".  I believe that it is a wonderful experience that should not be missed.  I will not give any details about the movie except to state that it is about Mississippi in the 1960's and what it was like to be a Black maid at that time.  There is a scene in the movie in which one of the maids exacts a small measure of revenge on a woman who was deserving of all that she got.  To my total shock the mostly White audience applauded.  I found myself instantly sobbing.  For a brief moment hope poured through my body.  How glorious that every so often I can still experience the possibility of better.

It Might Have Been Cialis

My guess is that we will never really know if Trump was ever serious about giving up his day job.  But today's news comes two weeks after The Donald got put in his rightful place by our President at the White House Correspondents' Association Dinner.  Back on 8/31/09 I did a blog post on my regret about President Obama's lack of backbone.  I am begging the chef at the White House to only serve whatever was on the menu on the weekend of 4/30 to 5/2.  I titled my last post "Obama on Viagra".  Well whatever he was taking it obviously lasted the whole weekend.  During that weekend our President took out both The Donald and bin Laden.  The former was a no brainer.  The latter took a lot of guts.

 

During his dinner monolog our President spoke the truth in front of his opposition.  His wit, eloquence, and capacity allowed for a clear knock out.  I wonder what it would take to get that guy to run for president?

Obama on Viagra

If you haven't already seen the video tapes from the 2011 White House Correspondents' Association Dinner last night you have missed some lovely moments. If you are not familiar with the format it is generally a roast of the President and the President typically gives a humorous and self-effacing speech. Last night our president did both but he also showed an ability to fight back. With Donald trump in the audience our president cut him up far better than last year's Thanksgiving turkey. He also took shots at many of his potential opponents in the 2012 election. I cheered and applauded as I watched. While at the same time I prayed that our president has for breakfast everyday whatever he had yesterday.

The master of ceremonies was Seth Meyers from Saturday Night Live. During his monolog Seth made one remark that was a perfect bulls-eye. He turned to Obama and said that he knew the one man who could beat him in the next election. That man was Obama, version 2008. I couldn't agree more. I doubt very much that we will hear "Change that we can believe in" during the next election. I doubt that we will hear very much about transparency.

What allowed Barak Obama to win was not so much who he was. Rather it was the amazing confluence of America's being fed up with Bush and the wonderfully inept campaign waged by McCain and his mean spirited, rather ignorant, hockey Mom that was to be one heart beat away from the Presidency. If the status quo continues and the Republican party continues to be controlled by the Conservative Right and the Tea Party wrong then Obama has a pretty good chance of being re-elected. I pray that once this happens he will spend 4 years on whatever form of Viagra he took yesterday so that we might hear truth spoken to evil. The Republican Party is waging a fairly flagrant war on the middle and lower classes in America. The staggering transfer of wealth that has taken place since Reagan does not seem to be enough. If we are not careful our children will soon be serfs.

I want to conclude with a brief note about the Donald. Prior to last night he appeared to be heading for his own Charlie Sheen moment. On Thursday he gave an obscenity laden speech in Las Vegas. On Saturday night he suffered a rather severe narcissistic wound by being repeatedly humiliated in public. If you notice he has been unusually quiet today. I don't believe his silence is coming from a place of repentance. Such a wound typically arouses a great deal of anger. It isn't clear at this time whether that anger will be directed inwardly or outwardly.