The creative tension between what is and what could and should be

It is difficult to know where to turn in these times of media gaslighting and authoritarian propaganda. Hope can be difficult to find. But as Parker J. Palmer notes,

“Hope is holding a creative tension between what is and what could and should be, each day doing something to narrow the distance between the two.“

My father was a voracious and hopeful reader who maintained a wide circle of friends. On what would have been his 99th birthday, I’m reminded—in this time of concern and chaos—to “stop, pause and be intentional about how we frame our thoughts, opinions and actions, and to select carefully the media we read or consume.”

Here’s where I currently reside

I begin each morning with a meditation from the Center for Action and Contemplation, the July 4th edition being a good example. These are reminders that interior grounding is important as a prelude to external action.

With Candice’s encouragement, I have begun to follow Krista Tippett again at On Being. Just absorbing To Be a Healer with the Surgeon General of the United States, Dr. Vivek Murthy, reminds me of the importance of her voice in our conversations today.

I read songwriter, poet, and singer Carrie Newcomer’s A Gathering of Spirits for the blend of prose, poetry, and music she brings together. Justice Is What Love Looks Like in Public was her post from last week. Of course, Mary Oliver is another poet whose work I also savor these days.

To stay up with legal issues, I follow Joyce Vance through Civil Discourse. When I get discouraged, I think of all she does as a progressive voice in Alabama. Plus, I like the pictures of her chickens. I also read Teri Kanefield for her sometimes contrarian views and her constant reminders not to listen too much to the television legal pundits.

Because we seem to be in a rather tragic era, I’m delighted to receive new posts from my friend, the writer Elizabeth Bobrick, whose newsletter is This Won’t End Well: On Loving Greek Tragedy. I know absolutely nothing about this subject, so that makes it especially interesting.

Finally, I always read Heather Cox Richardson’s Letters from an American. Her writing is so clear; her choices of topics so thoughtful; her historian’s perspective so vital for our times. The June 27th post about the debate was more even handed than much of what the mainstream media has offered. Her essay for July 3rd was a powerful reminder that democracy demands work.

“[J]ust as in the 1850s, we are now, once again, facing a rebellion against our founding principle, as a few people seek to reshape America into a nation in which certain people are better than others.

The men who signed the Declaration of Independence on July 4, 1776, pledged their “Lives, [their] Fortunes and [their] sacred Honor” to defend the idea of human equality. Ever since then, Americans have sacrificed their own fortunes, honor, and even their lives, for that principle. Lincoln reminded Civil War Americans of those sacrifices when he urged the people of his era to “take increased devotion to that cause for which they gave the last full measure of devotion—that we here highly resolve that these dead shall not have died in vain—that this nation, under God, shall have a new birth of freedom—and that government of the people, by the people, for the people, shall not perish from the earth.”

Words to live by in 2024.”

What’s on the nightstand

In July, I have decided to focus on five books pertinent to issues facing us today. These writers explore previous points in our history—especially the months and years just before the American Revolution and the Civil War—that will help me place today’s events in context. Two others address the murderous heart of Putin’s regime and an attempted insurrection in our country by one of Putin’s admirers. Finally, I’m returning to a book on lessons we can learn from the twentieth century about the fight against tyranny.

Red Notice by Bill Browder
Revolutionary Summer by Joseph J. Ellis
The Demon of Unrest by Erik Larson
Unthinkable by Jamie Raskin
On Tyranny by Timothy Snyder

What I have given up

As for what I’ve set aside for the time being, I begin with The New York Times and the Washington Post.

The Times is saying that their perspective is more important than the millions of Americans who—like me—have already voted in our primaries to support Joe Biden’s reelection. The gaslighting from the nation’s “paper of record” is breathtaking in its audacity and yet sadly typical of the brokenness of our political journalism.

A lifelong public servant who has proven that he has what it takes to govern—stretching over four years of an astoundingly successful and consequential record of presidential achievement—is being battered by headlines about a “debate debacle.” On the other hand, an equally elderly career conman and convicted criminal with 34 felonies who has a four-year record of proving he cannot govern his emotions, libido, or mouth—much less the nation—gets a free pass. The Times runs full-page editorials calling for Joe Biden to step down. They have yet to run a single editorial calling for his opponent to exit the race. That alone is telling. It is a shameful record that needs to be in every response to the newspaper’s now four-year attempt to denigrate the accomplishments of this administration.

The Post, on the other hand, has both a publisher problem and an owner problem.

I will continue my policy of abstinence until they each take a strong stand against a return of a Trump presidency and for serious reforms for the Supreme Court. I’m not holding my breath.

I never watch much television news, but I’ve discontinued viewing what little MSNBC I used to consume. It is just too depressingly repetitive.