quiet griot: mumbled musing
I listen to a lot of excellent podcasts and stay semi-tuned in to news in America. I’m continually saddened and frustrated by the way in which the debates about extremely important issues are framed in a way that prevents any truly useful discussion from taking place. Just listened to a On Point podcast on the travel embargo that prevents Americans from traveling from Cuba. This is on NPR and is what I suppose a lot of people would think of as a left-leaning show. During the 45 minutes they discussed the embargo, Cuba’s human rights abuses were mentioned well over a dozen times (though not explained in much detail) and used, in different ways by the different speakers, to justify their varying views on the ban. Callers, a United States Senator, a former Havana bureau chief and a guy from Human Rights Watch all mentioned these abuses. Not once were America’s human rights abuses mentioned. We talk loud about how health care needs to be budget neutral but America’s mainstream-ish media ain’t sayin nothing when it comes to questioning the financial benefit, or lack thereof, of our wars in Iraq in Afghanistan, neither which look like they’re ending anytime soon.
In no way am I advocating endless self-flagellating. I don’t hate America and I don’t think China is better — a stance I’m sometimes accused of holding. I’m not talking about war, peace, communism, socialism, capitalism or any kind of characteristics. I merely see no benefit in premising discussions that impact the quality of life and death for millions of people on dangerously shaky foundations. I’d like more people to know the stats on health care I’ve mentioned on here before. I’d like to know more about why France’s health care system, a public-private hybrid, ranks above all the single payer systems. Basically, I’d would prefer that living and dying weren’t affected by a bunch of ignorant, purposefully or not, discussions and policymakers.
A few days ago I looked at a list of top 100 speeches of the decade. MLK Jr.’s “I Have a Dream” was number one but “Why I Am Opposed to the War in Vietnam” was nowhere to be found. It’s sad how little we — people of all countries and all political systems — seem able to learn from our recent pasts.
“Come down and see, Oh Miguel / that we are young and dwell/ in gardens with too many contestants / we are unfinished and live in rooms without enough instructors, Miguel / we are aging and chosen and poorly trained for mass redemption”// Carl Hancock Rux
I’m going to stop weeping self-indulgently into my whole wheat noodles and go listen again to what I consider the most inspiring song I’ve ever heard. I don’t know how to link to it but it’s Curtis Mayfield’s “I Plan to Stay a Believer” (the live version) and it sounds like a plan to me.
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December 18th, 2009 at 7:42 am
I have never heard of “Why I Am Opposed to the War in Vietnam” until today.
December 20th, 2009 at 11:01 pm
Thanks for reading! It gets very little attention but I think it’s an amazing speech. I downloaded a bunch of MLK and Malcolm X speeches a few years back and was struck then by what an amazing piece of work it is. What’s also interesting to me about it is that King was absolutely reviled for it — the New York Times panned it and criticized him pretty harshly and he kind of fell out of favor with a lot of the political connections he’d made. Exactly (give or take, I think, one day) one year later he was dead and we stayed in Vietnam for a whole bunch more years.