Tuesday, July 8, 2014
I have been laughing a bit recently as I recall the amount of ink spilled back in 2012 when Mitt Romney referenced the character Big Bird from Sesame Street in one of the 2012 Presidential campaign debates. As I recall there were some hilarious spoofs and replies to Mitt Romney's words. I still recall seeing a picture of the characters of Sesame Street all showing earnest and grim faces when faced with the potential threat of annihilation due to the words of "Mr. Forty Seven Percent".
As often happens neither Republicans nor Democrats were blameless in their behavior 'post-BigBird gate'. If you want to see a nice article from the Washington Post about the Obama campaign's use of Romney's ill chosen venture into the realm of Sesame Street look here.
I bring up this gaffe from 2012 to make the point that our priorities here in this nation remain woefully out of whack. How does one justify cutting children's television programming as a serious means of reducing unnecessary spending without cracking a smile in recognition of the utter shortsightedness of such a suggestion? Some of the policy recommendations made by 'serious' politicians to cut waste in government spending are truly laughable. As I have written previously, both in schoolwork and elsewhere, if you want to learn a lot about a nation's priorities look at its spending emphases. Unfortunately our nation does not emphasize the care of children and their development as well as it ought to. Too many of our nation's political elite are more willing to send adults off to fight useless wars than they are to fund educational programming that could decisively influence their development years earlier when they are still children. I haven't looked at hard numbers for the average ROI (return on investment) for publicly funded educational television programming but I would suspect they are impressive when compared to other investments that have been made in various policy spheres.
I bring up the story of Sesame Street to also make the point that many people in this nation seem content to live in a place about as truly real as Sesame Street. Rather than address difficult issues such people are content to look the other way and hope for the best. It's unfortunate, though, that not addressing your problems is the surest way to...not address your problems. I'm not saying it's always easy to address deep seated issues. Indeed, it can be agonizingly hard (see the last year of my life as a reference). But true maturity means not withering in the face of a challenge. This is what separates adults from children.
I suspect Fantasyland is another term for the realm that people like Wayne LaPierre live in. Anyone who can reduce the complex issue of gun violence in this nation to a matter of equipping 'good guys' with guns to deal with 'bad guys' with guns seems woefully out of touch with reality. Violence, like many difficult social issues, has too many permutations to so easily reduce down that it can be successfully addressed with the metaphor of good guys and bad guys. Are we still living in the Wild West? It seems LaPierre thinks so.
I feel myself to be finally emerging out of my own (partly) self-induced fantasyland. It's painful when you finally conclude that nothing will shake people out of the depth of denial that they live in. Nothing short of catastrophe will wake some people up. In my own personal case I think my paternal family of origin would only seriously address the issues within our family if I had committed suicide. But that would be the ultimate betrayal I could commit against myself. And it would have been the ultimate act of ceding my power to other people. I am done with being a victim. And one day I hope to be done with the hard work of unconsciously living with a victim mentality. It takes time and hard work. I am on my way.
Can you tell me how to get...how to get to Matureadultland?
I have been laughing a bit recently as I recall the amount of ink spilled back in 2012 when Mitt Romney referenced the character Big Bird from Sesame Street in one of the 2012 Presidential campaign debates. As I recall there were some hilarious spoofs and replies to Mitt Romney's words. I still recall seeing a picture of the characters of Sesame Street all showing earnest and grim faces when faced with the potential threat of annihilation due to the words of "Mr. Forty Seven Percent".
As often happens neither Republicans nor Democrats were blameless in their behavior 'post-BigBird gate'. If you want to see a nice article from the Washington Post about the Obama campaign's use of Romney's ill chosen venture into the realm of Sesame Street look here.
I bring up this gaffe from 2012 to make the point that our priorities here in this nation remain woefully out of whack. How does one justify cutting children's television programming as a serious means of reducing unnecessary spending without cracking a smile in recognition of the utter shortsightedness of such a suggestion? Some of the policy recommendations made by 'serious' politicians to cut waste in government spending are truly laughable. As I have written previously, both in schoolwork and elsewhere, if you want to learn a lot about a nation's priorities look at its spending emphases. Unfortunately our nation does not emphasize the care of children and their development as well as it ought to. Too many of our nation's political elite are more willing to send adults off to fight useless wars than they are to fund educational programming that could decisively influence their development years earlier when they are still children. I haven't looked at hard numbers for the average ROI (return on investment) for publicly funded educational television programming but I would suspect they are impressive when compared to other investments that have been made in various policy spheres.
I bring up the story of Sesame Street to also make the point that many people in this nation seem content to live in a place about as truly real as Sesame Street. Rather than address difficult issues such people are content to look the other way and hope for the best. It's unfortunate, though, that not addressing your problems is the surest way to...not address your problems. I'm not saying it's always easy to address deep seated issues. Indeed, it can be agonizingly hard (see the last year of my life as a reference). But true maturity means not withering in the face of a challenge. This is what separates adults from children.
I suspect Fantasyland is another term for the realm that people like Wayne LaPierre live in. Anyone who can reduce the complex issue of gun violence in this nation to a matter of equipping 'good guys' with guns to deal with 'bad guys' with guns seems woefully out of touch with reality. Violence, like many difficult social issues, has too many permutations to so easily reduce down that it can be successfully addressed with the metaphor of good guys and bad guys. Are we still living in the Wild West? It seems LaPierre thinks so.
I feel myself to be finally emerging out of my own (partly) self-induced fantasyland. It's painful when you finally conclude that nothing will shake people out of the depth of denial that they live in. Nothing short of catastrophe will wake some people up. In my own personal case I think my paternal family of origin would only seriously address the issues within our family if I had committed suicide. But that would be the ultimate betrayal I could commit against myself. And it would have been the ultimate act of ceding my power to other people. I am done with being a victim. And one day I hope to be done with the hard work of unconsciously living with a victim mentality. It takes time and hard work. I am on my way.
Can you tell me how to get...how to get to Matureadultland?
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