SO, WHAT’S UP, FELLOW PEOPLES!

By Edwin Cooney

Customarily, the President of the United States addresses you and me  at the outset of any speech as "my fellow citizens.”  As we approach the 2024 presidential and congressional elections, I'm convinced that most voters would agree that we are a very divided people. Nevertheless we still identify ourselves as “The United States of America.” Whether or not we're as divided in 2023-24 as we were from 1861 through 1865 may be only a matter of political semantics. (We must never forget that the goal of the Civil War for the South was the creation of a separate nation.) Even more significant, insofar as I'm concerned, is that beginning in 2025, some would-be presidents may appeal to our resentments and to our fears more than they do to the traditional sentiments that unite you and me. Back in 2,000, presidential candidate George W. Bush asserted that he was a "uniter and not a divider." Some of us, me included, didn't take Mr. Bush seriously. Still, I'm sorry to observe that such an appeal would be unwelcome in today's Republican Party. Even sadder is the realization that President Abraham Lincoln's appeal to "the better angels of our nature" seems alien to who we are today.!  

Early in my political experience as a “Goldwater Republican,” I believed (as many political extremists do) that if you don't stand for something, you will fall for anything. That hypothesis sounds good, but it asserts that there is only one way and every other way is illegitimate. 

As I see it, therein lies the seed of our division in 2023-24. Of course, we're all "fellow people," but our ultimate significance and power comes from a united and well-meaning citizenry.

You and I will live and perhaps even thrive whether or not Donald Trump goes to jail. Should he be re-elected, that outcome could be another matter.

Everyone's natural and personal legitimacy matters. That natural legitimacy is the basis of citizenship. Checks and balances within government have mattered since the days of Madison, Jefferson, and Washington. However we may feel about each other’s lifestyles, the assumption of everyone's liberty is vitally critical to our nation’s future. If political leaders can advocate for a person’s downfall or the denial of anyone's existence and even advocate for their isolation (for example, LGBTQ people) than we're in denial of our own legitimacy.

My call for unity may lack fire and fury and as such may even be downright boring! However, continuous or institutional resentment and anger constitute the sheer path to future nationwide autocracy or anarchy!

RESPECTFULLY SUBMITTED,

EDWIN COONEY

WHAT'S IT LIKE FOR OTHERS TO EXPERIENCE YOU OR ME?

By Edwin Cooney

Nine days ago, my wife and I visited our local Apple store which is located in a rather complex nearby mall. As we were leaving, I became upset with the public's inquiry of me as to where I wanted to go. When I responded that I wanted to go to the front door of the mall, they asked me "which front door?" Since there are north, south, east and west "front doors,” I couldn't easily respond to the inquiry and thereby showed impatience with the question. My wife insisted that I was both mean and rude to those trying to help me and I wasn't in the least sympathetic to her observation. However, I've often felt compelled to wonder what it's like to both experience and know me! Hence, I hope you'll feel empowered as you consider what it's like for others to know and experience you.

All of us have social and spiritual, professional and attitudinal assets and liabilities. The golden question, however, is how effective or damaging to our relationships with others are the more prominent aspects of our personality?

From the very beginning, I've offered three major goals of these weekly columns. I've asserted that they should inform, stimulate thought, and, as much as possible, entertain the reader. I'm guessing that, for the most part, I've succeeded in meeting at least one of these goals in each column. Naturally, some weeks are better than others!

My individual interactions with family, everyday acquaintances, and, especially, intimate friends are largely dependent on mood and circumstance. I've learned (very often the hard way) that the tone of my voice, even when I don't intend it, may intimidate others. I too often come across to others as arrogant. Painful as it is, this is vital information for me to consider. I must struggle to modify this most unfortunate aspect of my personality.

I'm convinced that if we were more aware (than we obviously are) of the importance of how others interpret our individual hopes and fears, we would be a happier and more productive people in 21st Century America.

From a personal standpoint, I didn't realize while growing up how my inability to read body language affected my relationships with others. Hence, I acknowledge to a degree greater than ever before how essential it is to be able and willing to read the reactions of others to what I say or write about their concerns.

As for the incident nine days ago, I'm not particularly sorry for my frustration, but Marsha was certainly right in her characterization of my reaction to the incident.

Our incapacity for perfection is both realistic and understandable, but to the extent that we fail to strive for perfection, we are all losers!

All imperfections are legitimate subjects for redress.

Here's a bright idea! You go first and I'll do what I can to improve my personal imperfections!

Oh! One more thing. The "front door" I was looking for in order to catch the Uber which we needed to get home was the west door of the mall.

Still, one more inquiry! How many front doors do you have where you live?  

RESPECTFULLY SUBMITTED,

EDWIN COONEY

FIRST THERE WAS THEN, HERE’S NOW

By Edwin Cooney

Seventy-eight years ago today, the Empire of Japan surrendered to America and its allies thus ending World War II. Several of the world's leading nations socially and economically including Germany, Italy, Japan, and Soviet Russia were led by ambitious, cruel, and self-centered egotists. Most of the industrial world was just recovering from the Great Depression which began in October of 1929. Even worse, a cold war between capitalists and communists was in the process of being born. Backing these contrary systems of government and society were the forces of both personal and racial prejudice, generosity and expectation. On top of all that, we, the freest and most enlightened people on earth, had just created the atomic bomb which had the potential to destroy all human life! A new president named Harry Truman had just succeeded America's greatest modern president and lots of people were prepared to neither like or respect him. Although Adolf Hitler was dead by his own hand, Joseph Stalin was very much alive and determined to advance a “godless" system that threatened and frightened a lot of people like you and me! Yes, indeed, the world of 78 years ago was both chaotic and contradictory.

The middle years between 1945 and 1969 constituted a continuation of mid twentieth century enlightened liberalism as Eisenhower, Kennedy, and Johnson built a highway system for our convenience and national defense, conquered space, established a Peace Corps, and launched the civil rights movement. Congress was focused on compromise, collegiality and jobs for working men and women. Republican and Democratic presidents and congressional leaders shared drinks at the White House with one another several times a week after working hours.  Colleges and universities were designed to fill careers in the social services for a sense of national well-being.

Beginning in 1969, the painful adjustments brought on by the civil rights struggle and the legitimacy of Vietnam became politicized via division. Conservatives and traditionalists began weaponizing the Christian religion and politics became a contest of morality versus secular humanism. This struggle was intensified by the Roe v. Wade Supreme Court decision in 1973. Then a presidential scandal arrived as a new political weapon. (Note: there had been scandals within presidential administrations, but no president until Richard Nixon, not even Warren G. Harding and Ulysses S. Grant, was considered a crook!)

Today, political cordiality has been replaced by angry partisanship. Today, it is almost immoral for political leaders to be accommodating — forget about being friendly or even polite to one another!

The year that Japan surrendered to the allies, science developed the atomic bomb, and the U.S. and Russia instituted the Cold War, there was still clearly a future to educate for and to build on.

As we approach 2024, the big question seems to be: who is mostly to blame for our national sins? It appears that Jimmy Carter's era of “malaise” (a word President Carter never uttered) is truly upon us. But wait a minute, as the late great Yogi Berra often insisted: it ain't over till it's over!

After all, there remains political and social justice to be done. There's environmental healing to be accomplished. There's the elderly to be assisted and the young to be nurtured. There are medical cures to be researched and applied.

Finally, there are wonders to be realized. After all, even those of us who are about to be age 78 and even older won't really and truly be “old” until we assert that the future doesn't matter!

Surely, we're too smart to be that old, aren’t we!

RESPECTFULLY SUBMITTED,

EDWIN COONEY   

MOVING, IT'S YOUR CHALLENGE UNTIL IT'S OTHER PEOPLE'S BUSINESS

By Edwin Cooney

In retrospect, moving day is rather anticlimactic! The decision is already made and friends and movers are kinetic rather than potential helping hands. Thus, happy anticipation and ongoing gratitude to helping friends prevails in the hearts of the moving. Ah, but world history offers a multiplicity of moving adventures and reactions.

The Bible tells about the Israelites crossing of the Red Sea with Pharaoh’s nasty and wicked army not far behind.

Next, early medieval history tells about the Romans venturing as far west as Britain and Spain thus advancing their power and influence throughout much of Europe. Then there is the story of the Pilgrims aboard the Mayflower originally headed for the Virginia colony who were blown by less than gentle Atlantic winds northward to Massachusetts where they established the Mayflower Compact as a code of colonial living and thriving on the North American continent.

Over the next approximately 290 years, colonists and citizens alike moved African slaves to Virginia and the newly established Louisiana territory. Then we moved the peaceful Cherokee Indians not so peaceably via two wars across the Mississippi into less than easily inhabited Oklahoma. This was all part of the new American moving code which John Sullivan famously called “Manifest Destiny.”

Near the close of our war with Mexico, much of which was about perpetuating chattel slavery, big money or, if you prefer, God-granted gold which was discovered in Sutter's Creek, California.

Finally, during the administration of President Benjamin Harrison, the American frontier was closed. For decades thereafter, American lore asserted that the American frontiersman was someone who supposedly worked hard and asked Almighty God for nothing except the chance to work. The high price of the frontier men didn't come until the 1930s when dust storms blew away the topsoil exposed by the destruction of God's mighty trees by pioneer axes. (Apparently, God insisted on payment due!)

To most people, moving is generally about economic and socio/professional change for the better. Often the results of moving look different down the road than they appear immediately after the move.

The story of our current immigration crisis, in the minds of some, is about the legitimacy of the law. Traditionally however, immigration has been about the legitimacy of the Catholic and Jewish faiths. Today, our fear of Islam and the predominance of good old American nativism in the wake of 9/11 sadly prevails.

With the world becoming increasingly internationally-oriented, doesn't once “Fortress America” have some obligation to a family of 4, 6, or a dozen to assist rather than discourage their efforts to flee gangsterism in their native lands? I think we do, especially as authors and advocates for the advancement of human rights as drawn up by Eleanor Roosevelt's Universal Declaration of Human Rights back in 1948.

No, moving really is more than just your business, it's ultimately humanity's business and has been since the beginning of humankind. Wars have been declared and peace established in movers’ wakes! (See the modern history of the Middle East!)

Back in the late 1960s, there was a little old lady named Anna in our family who'd been reasonably content in a local nursing home for a number of years. She had made friends with patients around her and visitors were pleased with her contentment. One day, however, the staff was forced to move Anna and her friends to different wings of the facility. The move was too much for Anna and she was gone within the week. As minor and seemingly anecdotal as this story may be, to me it adequately speaks to the reality that:

Every mover's business is ultimately both personal and public.

RESPECTFULLY SUBMITTED,

EDWIN COONEY