Please!! He, along with Howard Dean, speaks for me!
I came to believe that objective journalism means describing the object being reported on, including the little fibs and fantasies as well as the Big Lie of the people in power. In no way does this permit journalists to make accusations and allegations. It means, instead, making sure that your reporting and your conclusions can be nailed to the post with confirming evidence.
This is always hard to do, but it has never been harder than today. Without a trace of irony, the powers-that-be have appropriated the newspeak vernacular of George Orwell’s 1984. They give us a program vowing “No Child Left Behind” while cutting funds for educating disadvantaged kids. They give us legislation cheerily calling for “Clear Skies” and “Healthy Forests” that give us neither. And that’s just for starters.
A bit more:
An unconscious people, an indoctrinated people, a people fed only on partisan information and opinion that confirm their own bias, a people made morbidly obese in mind and spirit by the junk food of propaganda, is less inclined to put up a fight, to ask questions and be skeptical.
That kind of orthodoxy can kill a democracy — or worse.
I miss my old America.
I miss the July 4th celebrations as a kid in Concord Heights, NH, when we decorated our bikes and wagons, marched in the local parade and spent the whole day at a community park playing games, swimming, getting prizes for the best decorated bikes, costumes, floats and then watching fireworks.
I cannot even celebrate the 4th today. No way, no how.
Orwell was right, we just missed it when Reagan got in, and it slipped through the cracks, and had a break with Clinton anministration, now their in full force.
The America we grew up in. Somewhere in a small town the parades and picnics are happening to create that illusion for the little ones. But come nightfall the bigger ones are having to report in to Mom and Dad on the cell phone. Some of them will have to pee in a cup when they get home. There will be some who take the idea of freedom too seriously, some will do it recklessly, and spend the night in jail.
Our beloved country has become the jailer of the world. We have outpaced every other nation for the number of our citizens imprisoned. I don’t have the numbers at hand, just wanted to cry about it. The word ‘freedom’ has become another flag we like to wave, not a way of life.
Today I bless my family and the whole village that raised me up to be free.
Excellent !!
when America stood for democracy, everyone knew their neighbors, liked them, played with them…now I don’t even want to know who my neighbors are, partly out of fear and disgust. AND most of all I need the privacy and freedom that seems to only exist in my little space in America and on the planet..
My day will consist of kayaking on a small pond that very few people have ever taken the time or effort to discover…YEAHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!
Sometimes I am glad that I cling to individuality and don’t have to join mainstream dumbed down Americans speeding on the highways to go to over-crowded tourist traps and wait in long lines at McD’s and amusement parks thinking they are living the good life while they listen to their overpaid popstars or root for their overpaid sport heroes or watch the same ole moviestars in an air-conditioned movie theatre with other stepford people. Sorry if I offend, but I will NOT walk in step just to feel a false sense of patriotism today.
is what you march to, and more people really need to be listening to the band, not just hearing it ; )
Kudos.
“back then…when America stood for democracy…”
hmm…would that be in 1954, when the U.S. government overthrew the elected government of Guatemala…or maybe 1973, when we did the same to Chile…or the late 1960s, when US specialists taught torture tactics to Latin American militaries…?
There was no golden age of American democracy. The important thing is the valient history of social struggle to make the country better, and that spirit is very much alive today.
I was two in ’54 so don’t know about all that.
I am glad that you feel hopeful. I use to until I became aware that it is ALL about money. Corporations and about 2% of the population owns all of us in too many ways to count. Politics are becoming moot.I am getting tired of rich polititions. They do not represent me, my family or most of the people and concerns and needs that we have. They do not promote freedom only more and more control.