Uvalde massacre continues to expose perhaps America’s greatest failure.

 

“Of all the liars in the world, sometimes the worst are our own fears.” - Rudyard Kipling

I won’t bore you with statistics that are now well known about America’s gun violence problem.  We are the epitome of a large industrial country who simply can no longer manage a crisis that other countries have managed relatively well.

The gun craze by some in this country has exacerbated any rational discussion about sane gun control measures.  But though a majority still wants stricter gun laws, Gallup polls shows that number diminishing over the last few years.  Dropping from 64% in 2019, to 57% in 2020, only 52% polled last year are in now in favor of stricter gun laws.  This is diametrically in contradiction to the reality of gun deaths in this country, as the statistics above show.

What could possibly lead people to abandon a rationale that sits juxtaposed to the insanity which ignores how diseases are the only other cause of death in America greater than that caused by guns?

With the number of gun sales increasing by leaps and bounds each year, about 1 in 3 Americans now possess a deadly firearm, many in households with children.  A condition that “is prospectively associated with later adult criminality and suicidality in specific groups of children.”  Both the Uvalde and Buffalo mass murderers were 18-year adolescents.

You would think that the adults in this country would react in a responsible manner under this nightmare scenario, and many of us are willing to.  But where it counts, the adults who would truly impact this brutal and mindless behavior, are most likely the ones that are sustaining and even feeding it. 

The gun industry’s lobbyist, the NRA, is usually one of the first groups to create barriers to sane gun control legislation, with their toadies on the the air waves and the internet feeling emboldened to feed the public a steady diet of extremist hyperbole about how any action to limit any American’s firepower, including the use of military-style accessories like body armor and high-capacity magazines, will violate their exaggerated view of the 2nd amendment.

To these profit and power-motivated purveyors of people who have been led to believe that more guns, not less, will solve our gun violence problem, it was always about the benjamin$.  Increased gun sells means higher profit margins regardless of the cost to American society.  Working with self-serving dimwits in government to obstruct any effort to keep their product from getting into the hands of the least stable and most naive people among us, is simply a business practice to gun manufacturers that enhances their bottom line.

But the true perpetrators of this national scourge are the feckless and spineless politicians, who offer little more than “thoughts and prayers” to a problem immune from such inane suggestions.  These “leaders” are actually cowardly followers of the gun industry and the financial influence they exact with their higher earnings.  Our own Governor Abbot encouraged Texans to buy more guns in a 2015 because, it seems, he was embarrassed that Texas ran a paltry second to California’s gun purchases.   "Let's pick up the pace Texans." he wrote, tagging gun rights advocacy group the National Rifle Association of America (NRA).

We’ve known for years that states with the highest gun ownership rates also have the highest gun deaths.  Only a mindless idiot would ignore such trends just to satisfy a an oft-angry contingent of the “don’t tread on me” crowd.   The same type of people who thought they were emulating early American patriots when they overran the Capitol on January 6th, 2021 - destroying public property and attempting to stop the legitimate election that had Donald Trump confronting his loser status.

These are people that get re-elected and continue to do nothing to end America’s gun death nightmare.  Not one Republican is willing to pass legislation that will help deter this mayhem by expanding back ground checks and employing red flag laws that keep guns out of the hands of those who have killed 169 school children since the 1999 Columbine massacre, as well as some 311,000 children who have suffered some form of gun violence during school hours since that day two decades ago.

This insanity can be brought to heel as it has in other countries around the world.  It just takes the political will of parents with school-aged children willing to elect representatives who have the courage to stand up the NRA and their sycophants and make this country safe enough to send our kids to school, to shop at our favorite stores and go to church without fearing they won’t return home.
 

When political recalls only serve a small group’s self-interest

 

“Those of a conservative disposition who feel unsettled by change might well be prevailed upon to oppose measures that threaten to upset the status quo and replace it with something unknown.  This is not necessarily because they oppose the content of the proposed reform, just that they oppose change itself.” - Dr. Madsen Pirie,  The impact of interest groups on public policy

Upon reading former City Councilman Don Duff’s reason for initiating a recall on District 4 Councilwoman Allison Maguire in the Denton R-C’s May 6th article, The basis for a recall petition against Alison Maguire? A meme on Facebook, his justification appears transparently flawed, unless of course you are part of the crowd these days who seek to gain political power by any means possible, despite what voters have shown their preference for.

I don’t disagree that the meme Ms. Maguire used was lacking good taste, especially in an ever increasing environment where gun violence is rampant.  But had this been a Republican campaign ad who use guns to appeal to a common culture and common fears, would Duff and his ilk been equally offended or vocal about it?  Who can forget “Sarah Palin’s infamous attack-ad that seemed literally to ‘target’ 17 sitting members of the House of Representatives, including Rep. Gabrielle Giffords.”?

And his objection to “an absolute, dead right-on gerrymandering of the worst kind” seems laughable in the face of this State’s GOP efforts to create one of the worst gerrymandered voting district maps in the country.  Again, the hypocrisy here from someone who lives in Denton’s most solid Republican voter bloc is beyond shameless.

Equally ludicrous is Duff’s concern about Maguire’s comments in the DRC about Denton turning blue, admonishing her for stepping over the line in our tradition to keep city elections non-partisan.  You would have thought he would have at least equated this to a recent campaign flyer that invoked the “Republican” label in its support of Gerard Hudspeth for Mayor.  But sadly, his silence was deafening here.

The remainder of his reasons remain dubious at best from someone who never really actively inserted himself in meaningful policy during his brief, two-year stint as District Three’s council representative. On occasion he would be seen nodding off when City Council sessions went beyond 9pm.

But let’s cut to the chase here.  This can easily be seen as an ongoing pattern by far-right conservatives employing yet another tactic to remove those elected officials who fall outside the right’s ideological circle.  Councilman Brian Beck is right when he calls Duff’s efforts a ploy to change the current leadership on the City Council.  

Trump MAGA supporters opposed his impeachment following his abuse of power to influence a foreign government to find dirt on his opponent, Joe Biden.  Let the people decide his fate they cried when the election rolls around.  God-forbid such a notion should apply to Allison Maguire however, whose use of a misplaced meme comes no where near the transgression that’s evolved into the “Big Lie” and still persist in its efforts today to undermine our constitutional democracy.  But apparently principals in fair play apply only when it suits a special interest’s agenda to attain political power.

Has Denton’s nonpartisan policy for City elected officials turned a dark corner

“In a democracy, supposedly we hold power by what we do at the ballot box, so therefore the more we know about political power the better our choices should be and the better, in theory, our democracy should be.” - Robert Caro

A campaign mailer recently sent out by the Protect & Serve Texas PAC supporting Denton Mayoral Candidate Gerard Hudspeth raised a couple of concerns for me.  The PAC, originating in Austin, is throwing its support behind a local candidate who two out of its three Directors reside in the State Capitol and one resides in Dallas.  Not an uncommon practice for outside sources to support local candidates but one that shows its close ties to state government.  One that has routinely demonstrated their role as a “nanny state” over local governments.

But  perhaps one of the most disconcerting features of the ad was its decision to violate Denton’s somewhat sacrosanct policy of avoiding any party affiliation to City election campaigns.  It presented itself as the “2022 REPUBLICAN VOTER GUIDE, for the Mayor’s race.  The PAC’s choice was Gerard Hudspeth over current Place 6 City Councilman, Paul Meltzer.  Both of these men are well known acquaintances of mine and ones I feel comfortable calling friends.  Both have served Denton well but obviously my preferences lean more towards one than the other.

It is troubling to me that Mayor Hudspeth would allow this Austin-based PAC to cross the line of impartiality in their support of him, violating our City’s traditional, ethical standard by representing him as the “Republican” candidate.  It is no secret to most Denton voters who know which party the candidates likely align themselves with.  But these alliances remain off the public register and for good reason.
 
It is been the long-standing practice of city races to leave Party affiliation aside in the hopes that it will reduce the growing division amongst Texas voters and instead encourage citizens to practice meaningful researching of candidates and their policies.  Efforts that should make for sound voter choices.  Sadly, too many voters put aside this effort and merely look at the (R) or (D) next to the candidate’s name.  A lazy action that has led one major Party to elect people who seem to have no moral compass.

Labeling themselves as Republican or Democrats allows them to engage in hyperbole and misleading information, while giving give scant attention to matters important to voters.

Case in point on the Hudspeth-supporting PAC flyer is the deliberate attempt to muddy what the “defund police movement “ really represents and its alleged effect on growing crime rates in the nation.     By default, the mailer suggests that Hudspeth’s opponent supports the worst aspects of the PAC’s absurd claims.

You have to wonder too if the Protect & Serve Texas PAC’s attempts to attract more voters might not have the opposite affect.  Now it seems is not the right time to parade one’s “Republican” affinities before concerned voters, especially Independents.  Today’s GOP promotes no substantive policies and defends the out of control delusions of their twice-impeached President

More thoughtful Republicans are fleeing their Party because of its increased occupation with baseless conspiracy theories and their support of lunatic fringe candidates over their traditional conservative model.  

Role-modeling this behavior is our own Texas governor Abbot’s silly and needless blockade of commercial transports at the border, negatively impacting consumer costs that were already high from inflation.  Right behind him is the federally-indicted State Attorney General, Ken Paxton, who abuses his authority to intimidate one of Denton’s families raising a transgender child.  Also friends of mine.

I sincerely hope we start to see a reverse towards adult, responsible behavior with many of the GOP spineless leaders who demonstrate no shame in lying and one of the more extreme members of the House who urged the White House to declare “Marshall law” to overturn the certifiable 2020 presidential election.

Maybe this can start in our own backyard.   I hope my friend Gerard Hudspeth will take steps to block any further attempts to break with tradition that could set a precedent, dragging our city elections down to the base level we’re seeing throughout the Republican Party

Our future and being honest about the past

 

“In this new world, it may be that big, ideological changes are not caused by bread shortages but by new kinds of disruptions” - Anne Applebaum

In her book, Twilight of Democracy: The Seductive Lure of AUTHORITARIANISM, Anne Applebaum discusses events that led post-Soviet Hungary from a newly formed democratic-republic to its current, Russian-style autocratic state.   She goes on to make parallels there to what we are currently experiencing in the U.S. 

In an early chapter she reflects on a form of nostalgia that enables this anti-democratic transformation.  There’s the reflective nostalgics who miss and dream of the past but are content to leave it there, knowing that all was not as idyllic as some fantasize. 

It’s the restorative nostalgics however that pose the greater threat.  “They do not merely want to contemplate or learn from the past” Applebaum tells us.  “They want … to ‘rebuild the lost home and patch up the memory gaps’.  Many of them don’t recognize their own fiction about the past for what they are.” 

They’re in denial about the past’s dark moments, with its flawed leaders and lethal consequences of military victories.  “They want the cartoon version … and live it as they think their ancestors did, without irony.    Eventually, those who seek power on the back of restorative nostalgia will begin to create conspiracies theories, or alternative histories, or alternative fibs, whether or not they have any basis in fact.” 

Restorative nostalgia is indicative among those Lost Cause believers of the old South.  We’re seeing a more contemporary version of this with the MAGA crowd who’ve been led by Trump and his acolytes to believe his defeat was the result of massive voter fraud. 

The former President’s use of lies and unfounded conspiracies is alluring to people who feel the changes that have resulted with our more inclusive policies for people of color, women and the LGBTQ community have taken away the past they were more comfortable with.  One that was predominantly white, Christian, overtly heterosexual and conservative.

On this perspective, Applebaum refers to research by Karen Stenner who suggests that "authoritarianism predisposition ... is not exactly the same as closed-mindedness.  It is better described as simple-mindedness: people are often attracted to authoritarian ideas because they are bothered by complexity.  They dislike divisiveness.  They prefer unity.   A sudden onslaught of diversity  - diversity of opinions, diversity of experiences - therefore makes them angry."

As a response to today's socio-political complexities MAGA-ites have not only followed Trump's voter fraud delusion down the rabbit hole with the fraudit in Arizona and more repressive voter restrictions coming out of GOP-controlled state legislatures, many are followers of the QAnon conspiracies which perpetrate myths that should qualify them to psychiatric wards.  Anti-vaccers among them have been dismissive of the coronavirus vaccine due in large part to Trump’s flippant attitude towards it and the virus as well, putting millions at risk now with the rapid spread of the Delta variant.

Needles to say all of this is having a destabilizing effect on our society, with trust evaporating on so many fronts and making prospects for the future of our republic difficult to sustain itself.  Could this be the end game for Trump and his coterie of enablers?   A scheme to disrupt the current order so vast that a remaking of it to fit something that Vladimir Putin would be proud of may lay at its foundation?

Longing to capture an imaginary past that ignores its many unpleasantries along side its more admirable achievements means we have to be honest enough to dissect the delusions foisted by charismatic people whose grab for power is their only focus.  A false rendering of our past by those willing to bend our social norms for personal gain can create the potential for constitutional and political chaos, which can only end badly for all parties, unless you’re a fan of authoritarianism.

Franklin’s apprehension of America’s Future

Shortly after the Constitutional Convention convened in September, 1787, Pennsylvania delegate Ben Franklin was approached by Elizabeth Willing Powel, a pivotal woman of the founding era and asked Franklin, "What do we have, a republic or a monarchy?’’ "A republic", Franklin replied, “if you can keep it.’’

In a recent PBS documentary that made credible parallels between the rise of Nasism and today's Trumpism, educator and anti-fascist activist Ash Sarkar points out that “democracy is fragile because in order for it to be truly democratic, in a purist sense, it leaves itself open to being taken over by fundamentally anti-democratic forces.”   

In a similar vein, NYU Professor and scholar on Authoritarianism, Ruth Ben Ghiat explains how “one of the most crucial moments of authoritarianism capture is when traditional elites invite the Authoritarian-in-the-making into power”  believing he can be contained and controlled to accommodate their ends.

I believe we’re seeing this authoritarian cycle repeating itself.  Evidence of this is becoming more apparent almost daily.  

Former Trump ally and convicted felon, Michael Flynn, recently called for a military coup to overthrow our duly elected government .  Just prior to this, Trump co-conspirators Matt Gates and Marjorie Taylor Green made “inflammatory remarks on gun rights and armed rebellion”  at a Trump-style rally in Georgia.

Paramilitary thugs like the Proud Boys, Three-percenters and the Oath Keepers were in force at the January 6th insurrection.  Menacing groups not unlike Hitler’s Brown Shirts who were loyal only to the Führer, intimidating all who opposed the dictator, in and outside of politics.  We’re seeing a similar stratagem being played out here today.

 
Though not as prolific yet as Hitler's paramilitary hoodlums were, we have witnessed the handy work of Trumpian thugs in their nascent stages.  After Charlottesville there was the foiled kidnapping plot of Michigan’s governor, Gretchen Whitmer and serving as the template for the January 6th terrorist attack on the nation’s Capital.  An assault downplayed as little more than a “normal tourist visit” by  Trump todies in Congress.  These same people have now opposed a bi-partisan 1/6 commission for fear that it will expose many of them as being sympathetic to the insurrectionists.

Nazi Party office holders in 1930's Germany stoked animosity towards their Communist Party counterparts in the German Reichstag or Parliament to win over converts to their ill-fated cause.   Today, many congressional Republicans are copying this tactic, weaponizing their attack by mis-appropriately painting Biden and congressional Democrats as “Socialists”, intended to provoke their base while persuading Independents and defecting Republicans to join their grab for power.

Like their Nazi predecessors, GOP-controlled state legislatures are enacting legislation attempting to give credibility to their leader’s big lie about massive voter fraud.  Measures that are primarily designed to hold onto power in a Party that has lost its moral compass.

Today’s Trumpists represent a demographic in this country, not unlike Hitler’s supporters, who seek to establish a nationalist purity, spearheaded by a dominionist theology and white nationalists groups.  A mindset that too many of our relatives, friends and neighbors have identified with, most without fully understanding how ill-fated this is for sustaining a republic worth keeping.

The greater threat if Facebook doesn’t ban Trump permanently

“Those who stand for nothing fall for everything” -  Alexander Hamilton


After Facebook’s Independent Oversight Committee‘s ban on Donald Trump expires within the next six months, will Mark Zuckerberg’s decision to extend or end it be motivated primarily by financial concerns rather than issues of truth and preserving our democratic-republic?

Facebook and Twitter took the correct action they did to muzzle the treasonous rantings of a loser who never takes responsibilities for his failed performances.  Trump’s delusional bombasts on January 6th presented a clear and present danger to our democracy by undermining our electoral process.  Until he is willing to denounce his unfounded claims of massive voter fraud, the ban should remain in place.

The virtuous idiom - “see no evil, hear no evil, speak no evil”  - is familiar to us all yet not one that social media platforms are apparently guided by to offset many posts on their platforms.  Posts, that if not evil in and of themselves, are at least horrendously ugly in ways that threatens personal security and the socio-political fabric of our country.

The notion expressed by Trump cult adherents that freedom of speech is at issue here is a straw man argument.  Consider their own efforts to silence Liz Cheney, Mitt Romney along with a few other Republicans wanting only to speak truth about the former President’s role that incited the January 6th insurrection on the nation’s Capitol.

Free speech concerns shouldn’t prevent social media platforms from banning those who deliberately spread malicious rumors and outright lies.  It’s a standard practice for most blog sites or social media pages who reserve that right when people sign up for them.  For those who avidly crave Trump’s every mutterings, there are ample media sources like FOX, Newsmax and the more current right-wing conspiratorial OAN, who are more than willing to feed their need.

We can’t always control seeing and hearing evil.  But speaking it arises from one’s own volition to do so.  The least that responsible adults can do is to inhibit those who would use public platforms to broadcast it.

The greater threat comes not from a few obscure voices in the blogosphere but from someone who convinced 74 million voters that his loss last November was a conspiracy that involved multiple GOP election personnel, courts and judges across the country.  A notion that defies all sense of reality and sanity.

Totalitarian regimes, once they get a foothold into government, become insidious.  They mask their violent and discriminatory natures through populace rhetoric that claims some nebulous patriotic ethos to the fatherland that actually narrows rather than broadens legitimate political participation.

Our current, divided political state is ripe for some authoritarian to project themselves as  one who’ll restore a bygone era that many feel has been lost as a result of our expanding, diverse culture.  It is this not-so-subtle intent that plays “us” against “them” that mandates a continuing ban from social media sources by those who attract the darkest elements within our society, preventing an honest reconciling of what divides us.

A Tribute to Our Daughter Eileen

 

 

 

This Wednesday, February 24th, would have been our daughter’s 39 birthday.  That proverbial age memorialized by the "ageless" comedian Jack Benny.   For Eileen however, she will be 38 forevermore.

Eileen would've been a fan of Jack Benny because she loved all the old sitcoms and comics of that past era that her Mom and I grew up with during the 1950’s and early 60’s, especially the hilarious skits of the I Love Lucy and The Honeymooners series.  

And there was no end to her admiration for the ill-fated Marilyn Monroe.  Her apartment walls had more than one photo of the glamorous Hollywood star, like this one.

She kept uplifting quotes for herself, especially those of social psychologist Dr. Bo Bennett.  For example:  “For every good reason there is to lie, there is a better reason to tell the truth.”  She was also apparently aware of how people stereo-type others, negatively impacting one’s self-esteem.  Several quotes from her papers show this:

“The  more you know who you are and what you want, the less you let things upset you”

and

“If people talk about you behind your back, it’s because you’re ahead of them”

She had a fondness for writing poetry and from some of hers that she left, not realizing that her Mom and I would read these after her short life ended, we found this one, dated January 17th, 1998, rather prescient and reflective of who she really was inside.

Before It’s Too Late by Eileen Beck    

I’d like to say all that needs to be said, before it’s too late;
Tell you everything I’ve always wanted to say.
Realism doesn’t click in until something real happens,
but why did you have to prove it to him?

Before it’s too late I just want you to know just how much I care,
because this has made me realize we won’t always be here

Before it’s too late put my hand in yours
Assure me that you’ll hold me dear until we live no more
Because nothings worse than knowing that you ran out of time

This is but a small sample of who Eileen was   I could fill a volume of these memories.  She was brave on so many fronts but being human she also had her fears and worries.  There were those times when she would want to be around her family lovingly and at other times wanted more keeping to herself.

Those who knew her well I’m sure will recognize this glimpse of Eileen and who perhaps have even deeper, ebullient remembrances of her.  Her mom, brother and I would love to have you share them with us.

I feel certain that Eileen would want you all to love and hold those close to you everyday so you won’t have to regret that you waited too late.  Extend acts of kindness to strangers.  I’m sure she would feel that in doing so you would lift those up who perhaps never heard or felt the love and concern from those they wanted to receive it from the most.

We love you Scooter