Monday, January 17, 2011

Join me in becoming less distraught and more empowered

Most of my life, I've been a pretty positive guy.  In fact, in college, friends said I viewed the world through rose-colored glasses.  I have tended to believe that anything is possible.  I tended to get along with everyone, didn't speak badly about other people behind their backs, and saw the good in others.

Recently, however, I feel like I'm stuck in some bad Star Wars remake, being drawn over to the Dark Side.  Now, some of it may just be that I'm a middle-aged guy, with less patience who is more easily frustrated by ignorance, thoughtlessness, and selfishness.  I'm more aware of my own short-comings and feeling more guilty about my lack of involvement in fixing our nation's problems.  Moreover, like many people, I can get caught up in the day-to-day frustrations and disappointments of my life, the petty conflicts, the slights - real and perceived.

And, yet, I am a high school social studies teacher and love my job more than ever.  I am having more fun, find my students more interesting, and enjoy the journey of learning with them more than ever.  That would seem to require plenty of patience and a sense of wonderment.  And, I'd like to think I'm making a difference, at least with some people, some of the time.

While there are, in all likelihood, a multitude of reasons for my darker mood, every day I come back to the same realization:  that a major reason for this shift in attitude is the state of our nation, the direction in which we're headed, and the seemingly intractable problem of having a political system dominated by two political parties addicted to, dependent on, and beholden to big money.  This problem is compounded by the alarmingly rapid growth of inequality in this country, where the top one percent, or less, are amassing wealth at a blistering pace while the middle class shrinks and stagnates.

It is easy to become like Bill Maher, host of HBO's Real Time, whose cynicism often is well-founded and defended.  There are many, many enormous challenges facing our country, and there is plenty of evidence that the political system is broken.  As a teacher, I have felt is was my duty to help my students see the looming threats to their future.  I have felt even more justified, of late, since many of my warnings have become reality in the last few years.

The result, however, has been that all-too-many days my students left class feeling depressed or worried, while I wanted them to feel empowered.  I have become ever more angry and frustrated with our politics and politicians and the lack of real progress in addressing our more urgent problems.  But giving in to the cynicism, frustration, and anger solves nothing.  If there's anything I've learned from my students this semester, and from the discussions since the shooting in Arizona, it's that we need to feel more empowered and less cynical.  We need a positive vision of the future to rally behind, not an endless things to complain about and feel victimized by.

We all can see where things are headed if more and more of us feel like powerless victims.  And there are plenty of people in politics and on radio and TV who stand to make more money and gain more power and influence by leading us down that path.  But that path does not lead us to a future I want for me or my kids.

One of the things that has made America great over the centuries is that, when times got really tough and the challenges seemed enormous and virtually insurmountable, people rallied behind those who sought solutions and had a vision for a better future.  The progressive movement of the late 1800s and early 1900s.  FDR and the New Deal.  Martin Luther King, Jr., and LBJ and the Civil Rights Movement and the Great Society.  They reminded us of our strengths and the many things to feel grateful for while challenging us to become even better and to insure that more Americans had a shot at the American dream.

So my challenge for myself is to look for ways to better appreciate what I have in my life and the many wonderful things our country has achieved while finding ways to become a better citizen in a better country.  To feel less angry and more hopeful.   To find ways to empower myself, my students, and other Americans who want a better future.

That doesn't mean ignoring those who would bring us over to the Dark Side.  Rather, it means holding them accountable for their lies and personal agendas while having real answers to the questions they pretend to answer.  It means insisting on a fact-based, reality-based, forward-looking debate and modeling what that looks like every day.

If we all take on this challenge, if we all do our best every day to forge that positive vision and move us one step along in that direction, we will get there.

For me, the positive vision has to start with a major political reform of some kind to break the stranglehold of big money on our political system.  I'm not sure if that means a third party or a constitutional amendment on campaign financing, but something has to shift.  It also means young Americans - people in their teens and twenties - who have the most to lose if things don't turn around, standing up for their futures and being the agents of change people like them have been in the past (civil rights, Vietnam, the anti-apartheid movement, etc.).

Then, it's about creating the kind of America we will be proud to leave our children and grandchildren.  I've written before in this space about what that vision might look like, and I will doubtlessly write about it more.  And I want to hear from others what they want that vision to look like.  It can't end with a conversation on the internet, but it can start here.

How am I doing so far?  How about you?

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

The problem is that heated rhetoric, from both sides in the media, is rewarded by increased ratings. It can be fact or fiction as long as gives their audience fuel to criticize the other side. No one tunes in to FOX to hear positive news about President Obama or the Democrats. Likewise, don’t expect praise for Sarah Palin from MSNBC. From their point of view, division is necessary for their continued accumulation of wealth. It doesn’t matter to them if it comes at the expense of civility and perpetuates division in the country. As long as we’re divided we’re each just individuals. And as individuals, we can’t compete with Big Corporations for access to government – even though the Supreme Court says we’re equal.

There are many voices like you that represent the views of the majority of individuals. Each one of them has many followers. But not one of them has the singular impact of a Rush Limbaugh or Sarah Palin. On the Left, not even Michael Moore, Keith Olberman or Bill Maher combined can match the influence of Limbaugh alone.

So, here we (the middle) are with numerous bloggers, activists and commentators, each with hundreds or thousands of followers, but no shining star to represent us. It’s as if we’re individual cell phone screens at a concert, trying to compete with the spotlight. Who will focus those lights so that they can come together and outshine the spotlight of Big Money? Where is the leader who will step up and help in “creating the kind of America we will be proud to leave our children and grandchildren”?

@Timeismc2