Optimistic Notes

The arrival of spring here in Dayton, with sunshine and new grass and the return of birds, is having a happy emotional effect upon me and people around me that is surprising. We are so much more than we are aware!

There are two areas of optimism that come immediately to mind this lovely spring morning. One is that the despair we have felt during the long years since the ascendancy of Reagan and selfishness was not necessary. The “greed masters” themselves feel they have lost the battle of the last forty years.

The other optimistic note I feel this morning is that I have recently met several people who very clearly see through the riches and respectability thing. I don't want to delude myself into thinking that this is more widespread than it actually is, but I do notice it. It could be just a sampling error. But hard times such as many of us have had over the past few years can bring out something good in us – a sense of what is worthwhile and what is really not worthwhile.

The reaction to the Romney 47% speech and the realization that the banking/financial “winners” are criminals are real despite not being well announced.

I had the privilege recently of visiting a family who had CNN running constantly, day and night, while the family was awake. It seemed to me that one story was repeated for at least half that time, a story about a court official in Texas having been murdered. It was every bit as mindless and out of touch as if the CNN people were taking psychoactive drugs or certifiably insane or in the same “world” as Fox News or Rush Limbaugh or the Washington Post. It was easy for me to see the insanity of it because I live pretty much outside TV and the bubble, and when I get into that “world” it's very striking to me how manufactured and crazed it is. It's like being suddenly placed into a National Rifle Association meeting or a rich people's party – the contrast is startling and clear. My thought was: If this is so striking and obvious to someone as slow as me, everybody knows. I am never taken in by the assertion that USA people, or any other people, are stupid. People don't miss a thing. They know. They are far, far sharper than they are given credit.

Perhaps this is in my mind this morning because I re-read Jimmy Carter's 2009 article on women before going to bed last night. Everybody knows.