I am having one of those moments in which I feel like I am on another planet. Yesterday, I realized what it was: a lot of people have forgotten the Eighties and I haven't.
There's stuff we should cringe about: neon, tapered jeans, mousse and shoulder pads are not cultural high points. Neither was being in love with Reagan. But since many of those things have come back- kids, you now call them "skinny jeans" and "jeggings", but Gen X knows what they really are- let's bring back some of the moments that had merit.
There was some idiot talk about "Red Spread", but even a sixteen-year-old in 1989 knew that was bs. For the most part, we looked at 1950s McCarthyism and shuddered. There were things we really didn't like, but what made "us" better than "them" was the fact that we had certain freedoms. You could talk about Communism, Socialism, animal rights, feminism and a host of other unpopular topics and it was okay. People might judge you and even discriminate against you for it, and of course that's never okay, but we didn't suffer LEGAL consequences. What made "us" better was that we could exercise our First Amendment Rights and, as long as we didn't yell "Fire!" or threaten an elected official, we weren't supposed to get into any trouble.
In truth, as vile as the McCarthy persecutions were, the same thing was basically true there. Don't get me wrong- there was a lot of slander and libel flying around in the Fifties, and reputations and careers were ruined for years if not lifetimes. That is shameful. But as awful as that period was, the real abuses weren't in courts of law but hearings in Congress. People were executed for being spies, they weren't tried for writing pamphlets. "Comfort and aid" was held to a higher standard.
I think about this for two reasons.
A man named Tarek Mehanna has been tried in my state, Massachusetts, for conspiracy to provide material support to Al Qaeda and to help them kill in a foreign country. Frankly, I can't believe this case ever made it to the courts. Apparently he went to Yemen to look for an Al Qaeda training camp and didn't find one. He returned home and then began to write in support of Al Qaeda, even going so far as to distribute pamphlets. To my ears, this guy sounds like a loser and someone I'd want to avoid, but not someone I'd want to put behind bars. For the same reason I don't want to put idiot Neo-Nazi kids or Communists behind bars. If it's just words and we're not talking about a school yard, there's no harm. I will go further: we're better off in a civilization where there can be a free flow of ideas, even if I find some of them stupid.
I hope that Mehanna is found not guilty. The consequences of a guilty verdict will be devastating to the American way of life. I don't cling to cultural traditions, but I do cling to laws.
My other trigger? God, I am so sick of hearing other Democrats act like they are Cassandras as they warn people not to complain about Obama. At least when the Bush supporters did it, they accused people like me of being straight up treasonous for daring to criticize The President, time of war or not. But if you criticize Obama for not being as progressive/left/protective of the Constitution, you are making it possible for the extreme Right Wing of the Republican party to regain control of the country. (Here is just one example of such brilliance- I can't bear to post more.)
That totally makes sense, right? Because Romney is the front-runner and has been since this thing got started. (Newt Gingrich is imploding as I write, and while I am pretty sure that we will see a Santorum surge before the nomination is locked up- we have to- I promise you, Romney will be the nominee.) Remember the former governor of Massachusetts? Is there anyone anywhere who is genuinely concerned that he is going to be anywhere near the right-wing of anything? I'm not going to write anything in support of him- I haven't forgiven him for the bs he pulled with the public defenders in Massachusetts in 2003- but he wasn't monstrous. I've heard Democrats in my state take more conservative positions on abortion and immigration than he has.
In other words, give me a break that my complaints or condemnations of Obama are going to turn is into some kind of totalitarian nightmare. If support for Obama is so thin that it can't withstand complaints from his own party, we have a much bigger problem.
As I was thinking about these issues, I was heartbroken to hear that Vaclav Havel died this weekend. I read an interview with him in Michael Till's book, Conversations with Power, last year. He did an excellent job of articulating the stifling intellectual and mental climate Soviet totalitarianism bred. For some of the regimes behind the Iron Curtain, it was not enough that people should act in compliance with the laws. They had to think as they were told. It is difficult to condemn a nation of people for organizing their thoughts as they were told to when the Soviet Army was always thisclose to them. That Havel insisted on thinking for himself in spite of the threats to his safety is extraordinary.
Extraordinary, because he was a young man in Cold War Czechoslovakia. But thinking and speaking for ourselves in the United States should be an ordinary, every day occurrence.
You may criticize Obama, Clinton, Kennedy, Warren, Patrick, Menino, Yoon, The Patriot Act, The National Defense Authorization Act, Roe v. Wade, my favorite historical figure, the actions of the American government or anything else that irks you. Not because I give you permission, but because this does. Don't let anyone take that away from you.
Deb in the City
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