The Elevator of Success

If you have done well, it is your job to send the elevator back down.

                                                                                                -Kevin Spacey

I like this thought-provoking quote from Kevin Spacey! Partly because it brings up other thought-provoking questions. Clearly I’m obsessed at the moment with reflecting on and revealing the moral crisis at the heart of the political crisis, so bear with me. But for those who made it to the top floor, I ask the following:

How did you get on the elevator in the first place? Hard work only or some privilege you inherited but didn’t earn? What about luck? Being in the right place at the right time when the doors just happened to open and the elevator wasn’t full?

Who wasn’t allowed on the elevator? Who tried to get on, but it was always full with the same kind of people? Who took the stairs? Who was even denied access to the stairs?

Who held the doors open for others? Who closed the doors when there was still room?  Who farted in the elevator and pretended it wasn’t him or her? Who pushed all the buttons just because?

Who got out at the top and didn’t press 1? Who put something in the door to stop it from going back down? Who cut the cables? Who locked the doors to the stairway? Why did they do that?

Who never got to the penthouse, but lived a full and rich life on the first floor? Who stayed high in the tower and lost touch with the earth and the people below? What will you do if the elevator gets stuck and you didn’t choose the people on board with you? How will you finally talk to each other and figure out what to do together?

And most important of all. Who knows any good elevator jokes?

PS My most hilarious moment on an elevator was on with an old-fashioned emergency phone that started ringing. Everyone looked away pretending nothing was happening and finally I said, “Is anyone going to answer it?” More staring at the walls so I answered it. “Hello? Who? Well, you called an elevator, but I’ll ask,” then turned to the 10 people and asked, “Is anyone here named Scott? “ Finally, some of the folks began to laugh. “No, try again with the crowd going up. Good luck!” 

Venn Diagram

Remember the Venn Diagram from schooling? It’s a diagram representing mathematical or logical sets pictorially as circle with common elements of the sets being represented by intersections of the circles.

I promised a Venn Diagram connecting the 36 Hostile Takeover Actions of the current Administration (see yesterday’s blog), trying to find the points of connection between the remarkable variety of policies threatening environment, economy, educations, health care, targeted groups of people, free speech and the press and more. What are the connecting points between the all-out assaults?

So at 3 am on a jet-lagged Singapore morning, I set to work with my Venn diagram and then realized, “Hey! I’m doing too much work. This should be the reader’s homework assignment!”

And so I turn it over to you. Find the bullet points from yesterday and group under the following philosophical justifications that the Republicans have either explicitly stated or implicitly endorsed these last few decades and now are blown up to extreme proportions that even some Republicans are starting to question. I’ll get you started with my perception of the thinking behind the permission for such outrageous policies. I’m fully aware some might read them and think, “Yeah, so what’s your point?” These are the folks that I hope will be sent to the future country of United Red States leaving the rest of us free to get on with human evolution. Have fun!

           

THE NEW REGIME MANIFESTO

1. I’m more concerned about my team winning than the welfare of the whole country.

2. I will do anything I can to win regardless of whether it is legal or Constitutional.

3. I will put incompetent people in positions of power as long as they further my agenda.

4. I got mine (whether I earned or deserved it or not) and I don’t care if you get yours. In fact, I will work to make sure you don’t.

5. I will continue to protect the privilege I didn’t earn or deserve and claim my people as the legitimate ones and the rest as expendable, disposable, unworthy of respect and dignity.

6. I feel threatened by any person who chooses to be different from me and will not allow them any of the rights and benefits I enjoy.

7. I care a lot about money as a measure of self-worth and though I have more than enough, will do everything I can to keep making more and keeping it for me and mine, not giving it to the common good.

8. The world is there for my plunder and I don’t care about the future of my grandchildren or sustaining our resources.

9. America first—MY America—and screw the rest of the world.

10. All of the above.

Hostile Takeover

If you take a moment to look at what’s happened in the past five weeks, I believe you would have to agree that a hostile takeover of America from an unfriendly foreign power —minus the tanks and storm-troopers on the street—would have looked exactly like today’s news. The tanks are not (yet) necessary because we apparently voted for the dismantling of the democracy we built brick by brick these past 200 years plus. An imperfect democracy, to be sure, with yawning gaps where people fell in and were hurt or killed. But decade by decade, with some one step forward and two steps backwards moments, we began to close them. And then there’s now, the cornerstones being yanked out and the whole edifice on the verge of toppling. Like I said, as bad as an invasion from an unfriendly foreign power, but it came from within our own country. The range of it, the enormity of it, the quickly-executed-without-discussion-slash-and-burn quality of it. It boggles the mind.

There are still many suggesting we should give the bastards a chance. Before you agree with them or object to my strong words or think I’m joining the "liberal media conspiracy" to put a bad spin on good-hearted intentions, read this extraordinary summary brought to my attention by my friend Kevin Gersevitz. Every fact stated is undeniable, no nuance or spin possible. Look them in the face and see how ugly we’re becoming. (Apologies that Kevin didn’t know the source and I don’t either, but either he or I or millions more could have written it). As follows:

“This is where I stand. To me, FB is a useful vehicle for my passion and activism. Our 45th President, his power hungry cronies taking positions of authority in his Cabinet and administration, and the majority of Republicans in Congress are a real and active threat to me, my way of life, and all the people I love. Some people are saying that we should give Trump a chance, that we should "work together" with him because he won the election and he is "everyone's president." This is my response:

• I will not forget how badly he and so many others treated former President Barack Obama for 8 years...

• I will not "work together" to privatize Medicare, cut Social Security and Medicaid.

• I will not "work together" to build a wall.

• I will not "work together" to persecute Muslims.

• I will not "work together" to shut out refugees from other countries.

• I will not "work together" to lower taxes on the 1% and increase taxes on the middle class and poor.

• I will not "work together" to help Trump use the Presidency to line his pockets and those of his family and cronies.

• I will not "work together" to weaken and demolish environmental protection.

• I will not "work together" to sell American lands, especially National Parks, to companies which then despoil those lands.

• I will not "work together" to enable the killing of whole species of animals just because they are predators, or inconvenient for a few, or because some people want to get their thrills killing them.

• I will not "work together" to remove civil rights from anyone.

• I will not "work together" to alienate countries that have been our allies for as long as I have been alive.

• I will not "work together" to slash funding for education.

• I will not "work together" to take basic assistance from people who are at the bottom of the socioeconomic ladder.

• I will not "work together" to get rid of common sense regulations on guns.

• I will not "work together" to eliminate the minimum wage.

• I will not "work together" to support so-called "Right To Work" laws, or undermine, weaken or destroy Unions in any way.

• I will not "work together" to suppress scientific research, be it on climate change, fracking, or any other issue where a majority of scientists agree that Trump and his supporters are wrong on the facts.

• I will not "work together" to criminalize abortion or restrict health care for women.

• I will not "work together" to increase the number of nations that have nuclear weapons.

• I will not "work together" to put even more "big money" into politics.

• I will not "work together" to violate the Geneva Convention.

• I will not "work together" to give the Ku Klux Klan, the Nazi Party and white supremacists a seat at the table, or to normalize their hatred.

• I will not "work together" to deny health care to people who need it.

• I will not "work together" to deny medical coverage to people on the basis of a "pre-existing condition."

• I will not "work together" to increase voter suppression.

• I will not "work together" to normalize tyranny.

• I will not “work together” to eliminate or reduce ethical oversite at any level of government.

• I will not "work together" with anyone who is, or admires, tyrants and dictators.

• I will not "work together" with those who wish to blur the lines between church and state as they attempt to insert prayer and creationism into school curricula.

• I will not "work together" with those who will try to use "religious rights" to discriminate against LGBTQ and/or anyone else that they may find "different."

• I will not "work together" with those who will refuse to even grant a hearing for a potential justice for the SCOTUS put forth by a sitting president so that they may take advantage of their incessant obstructionism and make that selection themselves.

• I will not support anyone that thinks its OK to put a pipeline to transport oil on Sacred Ground for Native Americans. And, it would run under the Missouri River, which provides drinking water for millions of people. An accident waiting to happen.

This is my line, and I am drawing it.

• I will stand for honesty, love, dignity, respect for all living beings, and for the beating heart that is the center of Life itself.

• I will use my voice and my hands, to reach out to the uninformed, and to anyone who will LISTEN: That "winning", "being great again", "rich" or even "beautiful" is nothing... When others are sacrificed to glorify its existence.”

Are you still standing? I’ll follow soon with my Venn Diagram trying to look at what’s behind it all. I don’t mean who’s behind it or how much money or why, I mean looking at what philosophy and moral (or immoral) values are guiding each of these decisions. Where do they overlap and how much do we really want this kind of thinking to frame our national discourse?

Stay tuned.

The Mathematics of Exhaustion

• San Francisco to Singapore departure time: Friday, 1:30 pm

• Make that 2:00 pm

• Oops! Plane broken. Off the plane and next one at 5:00 pm

• Make that 7:00 pm

• Fly 13 hours.

• Arrive 1:00 am Hong Kong. Miss connection.

• Free hotel. Sleep 4 hours before boarding next plane.

• Arrive noon Singapore on Sunday

• Teach all day at a school and give an evening talk to parents. 9:00 am to 8:00 pm

• 1:30 + 2 + 5+ 7 + 13 + 1 + 4 + 12 +9 + 8 = Tired.

But happy.

Free Speech

My first trip out of the country under the new Regime, going to Singapore with a mix of shame in who we have become and pride in all the people opting for something better.  Also the first time using my new Passport. Wish the first stamp was Ghana or Finland or New Zealand or any of the countries that lean more to expression than repression. Singapore still has the death penalty for possession of marijuana and is big on caning. But unlike the bleak repressive regimes of Stalin or Hitler with grey government buildings, the outer surface of Singapore is Disneyland meets Pleasantville. Clean, neat, efficient, beautiful parks and botanical gardens. 

Was thinking about wearing a T-shirt “Proud Member of the American Resistance” and then thought about that level of free speech. I don’t think the French Resistance wore those kinds of T-shirts! While it’s easy to equate Trumpism with Fascism, the fact of a couple of centuries of free speech in our government makes such parallels—for the moment, at least—far-fetched. So I appreciate the opportunity to speak out freely while it lasts and through this blog and Facebook, am using it to the max.

But speaking of Facebook, I went to post the following mostly benign status and it wouldn’t post it. In that maddeningly electronic way, I’m hitting that POST button harder and harder and nothing’s happening and I feel helpless. Not yet so paranoid that I think someone is purposefully blocking me, but helps me appreciate that level of satisfaction of engaging in difficult and controversial discourse freely. Of course, most of my Facebook friends are already on the same side of the cultural and political fence, so there’s a lot of preaching to the choir. But hey, it feels good to talk with the fellow choir members and even better to sing!

So I was ready to do the usual pre-trip post and then look at the likes and feel assured that I’m lovable and part of a community, but now, gasp! Imagine! I’m going to Singapore and the Facebook world doesn’t know it!! Egads!!

Well, at least I can say something here. So here it is:

Spending "ski week" at my school in sunny summery Singapore teaching at another school. My usual self-appointed work as an ambassador of good will through music and dance feeling a bit more urgent. Great send-off with musicians from the Nile Project jamming with my 8th graders on Herbie Hancock's Chameleon that included scat-singing Burundi-style. No matter what the news reports, nothing will touch the power of Soul-force through song and the borderless imagination. On we go.

Aren’t you glad you got to read that?! J