2022 March Blog
By Chuck Peek
One of my friends from the world of Willa Cather, Jeanne Collins, sent me a list of quips recently. One of them referred to regulations regarding protecting each other from Covid…the quip is:
They say we can have gatherings with up to eight people without
issues. I don’t even know eight people without issues.
And then there are these thoughts collected from Anu Garg’s word-a-day postings:
It does not do to leave a live dragon out of your calculations, if you live near him. (J.R.R. Tolkien)
And
What is laid down, ordered, factual is never enough to embrace the whole truth: life always spills over the rim of every cup. (Boris Pasternak)
**
In different conversations just the last couple of days with two very good friends—Steve Schneider, my oldest friend from McCook High School years, and Jerry Parsons, a dear friend from graduate school days in Lincoln—we found ourselves talking about our own foibles. Yes, sure, from when we were younger, but also later in our lives.
I don’t think Steve and Jerry ever met, but the three of us would have at least one thing in common—by some unseen grace we’ve somehow managed to see some good come out of even our foibles, mistakes, goof ups, and sins.
And we all have duly congratulated ourselves that, at least as of now, none of us has marched across a stage and slapped anyone. (Check out Kareem’s comments on the scene alluded to for a pretty cogent assessment of a scene that defied cogency…as I quoted, any cup eventually spills over.)
Well, the people who put on the Oscars wanted an “edgy” evening and they got it. Be careful what you wish for. Edgy can by funny, but it is not inherently so. Smith, Rock, QED! And now those people responsible for the Oscars can do what we often seem to do best—feign outrage over what we ourselves invited into the room!
I loved the Facebook post indicating that, in the face of the Will Smith/Chris Rock controversy, the writer felt that Russia should pull out of Ukraine. Let’s have a sense of proportion here!
Although, once again, even the Ukrainian situation is not as simple as people want to make it.
For one thing, it is a mistake to think personal/domestic issues are divorced from international/geo-political issues. Faulkner’s “human heart in conflict with itself” applies equally to big and little scenes, and at some point aggression, provoked or not, is still aggression. What is on the stage at the Oscars is what we take into the White House or the Kremlin.
As to the Ukraine dispute there is no real excuse for bombarding hospitals, endangering nuclear sites, and making millions of children refugees. I admire the love of freedom and the willingness to fight for it exemplified by the Ukrainians. I believe every reasonable means of avoiding conflict should be exhausted before resorting to violence, but I’m not a pacifist. Or rather, even the pacifism I admire is another cup that spills over into life.
But, while there is no excuse, there are reasons. The USA promised that NATO wouldn’t expand to the Russian border…then broke that promise. I don’t buy the line that poor Putin is just trying to defend his nation’s sovereignty, but at the very least going back on our word gave him the excuse he needed…pretty much the same excuse we used for repeatedly invading the Middle East. The latest issue of Nebraskan’s for Peace’s publication has interesting takes on the whole situation.
But, of course, Putin’s behavior will simply encourage the Ukraine to take a hostile stance toward Russia. As Tolkein wrote, it will not pay them to ignore the dragon next door. And in any event, quite possibly the real heroes are the Russian citizens who have risked all to oppose the war…their effort ironically strengthened by the ineptitude of the Russian war machine.
Still, although the Ukraine is right now far more important than Nebraska politics, I’m finding myself more focused on the way key Republicans keep calling on the President to do, well, what he’s already been doing or announced plans to do. Our Ben Sasse keeps telling Biden he should do more. What? Well Ben has ideas. But apparently he doesn’t read the newspapers enough to know his list is already in the works. Ben loves to appear to be on one side and then vote the other way.
In an earlier blog I chronicled, mostly for you who don’t get Nebraska TV stations, the circus that is the Republican primary in Nebraska. Frankly, the Democrats are partly to blame. For years the Democratic National Committee refused to put money into sure Republican races in Red States…why back a loser? They failed to see the importance of votes cast in a congressional district that may be lost but would affect the statewide races. So, having abandoned our Red third district, surprise, it got redder.
But, as I indicated before, two can play at the I can be redder than you game (odd how Red State spans the world spectrum!), so our two front-running candidates have had no trouble lying about each other. Both their backers, Ricketts and Trump, have pretty deep pockets, and are no strangers to “fake truth,” which translated means lies become constantly running political ads, with a revenue the media would rather not do without!
Not much changes when we look at other important races, such as for Congress.
Jeff Fortenberry had lined up some Heinemann/Ricketts support against his opponent “squishy” Mike Flood. And then, a minor miracle, a federal court found Jeff guilty on all five counts of a federal indictment and today is poor Jeff’s last day in Congress, and one reason I’ve waited until today to celebrate by posting this blog today. (Although, to be fair, I could have posted it tomorrow and called it April Fools!)
Before Jeff had time to empty his desk drawer into a cardboard box and send a little note to the people who provided the illegal campaign contributions he accepted, the Ricketts/Heinemann crowd have discovered that Mike Flood isn’t squishy anymore…he’s as solid as they come.
On the new commercial, Flood says he can’t believe he is approving that ad. Sadly, Mike, we can all believe it. This has been a time for selling your soul to win a seat, and Mike is by no means the only one in a seller’s market.
Similarly, the fairly decent young man running against the front runners for Governor began by promising new leadership and quickly descended to the same old style of leadership as his opponents. No wonder he’s gaining on them.
Lindstrom says he knows that COVID has been a killer but…so what? He still thinks freedom means each of us can decide whether to be free of masks and vaccines or contribute to killing off our neighbors. Originalist? Do we really believe Washington or Jefferson, Madison or Adams meant by freedom merely license to do as I please?
There’s the hoot: all these folks describe themselves as constitutionalists, originalists, real Americans, as opposed to anyone else who might actually know what the Constitution says or especially those who, under their leadership, would most need its protections.
All this, without even touching on the Supreme Court nominee’s chances or the deplorable conflicts of interest where Justice Thomas is concerned. Which wouldn’t be our state’s business except all the Republicans are running against Biden/Washington and seldom address any issues really in germane to our needs.
Ketanji Brown Jackson’s best rejoinder (amid hours of very patient response to idiocy) was to tell our Ben Sasse, when he asked her who she would model herself on if she became a judge, Senator, I am already a judge! (Yes, dear, but don’t you see: Ben is already a Senator and still doesn’t know how to be one! He is only there in the hopes it will launch him to the White House. Well, blame Obama and Biden for that for sure.)
This is all great theater, so much so that one of the frontrunners won’t show up for debates because they are, in his words, just theater. He is one-upping Ben who showed up at his debates but wouldn’t answer any of the questions. Better just not show up and not have any questions to duck.
I’d call it all a Comedy of Errors, but comedies end up happily in the restoration of decency and order. On our stage, one of these wing nuts is quite likely to get elected and further erode the true conservative principles that were once the hallmark of Nebraska.
The next blogs will be an annual reflection on Eastertide and an “installment” in my now 4 times a year commentary on friends and public figures who have died since the last installment.
capeek 