Ichabod's Kin
A place for politics, pop culture, and social issues

           Ya gotta love the old days. When mapping territory they charted what they knew by name and location. The unexplored, being unknown and troubling, bore the warning: “Here Be Dragons.” 

           That’s America today. We knew it, or thought we did, but it’s time to change the map. Yesterday was one thing, today be dragons. We’re literally in uncharted waters.     

           We said President Nixon was not above the law and pushed him out. Today a president is above both law and prosecution, and now with a vast army of stalwarts and recanters who will rush to do his beck and call. The rest of us are rub-a-dub-dubs in a tub with dragons.

           Ironically,  Jimmy Carter was laid to rest as a world he never dreamed of was coming about. Not a fiery loudmouth, he had been pilloried as weak throughout his presidential tenure and beyond–a pinata for politicians who lacked even a smidgeon of his decency.

           Then the eulogies poured forth and the truth was out—save to those glued to Fox News or Steve Bannon. They like tough guys and bloviators. To them, only might makes right. Reagan was one of those: he avoided combat due to” vision” issues when ordinary little guys with glasses like the bottoms of Coke bottles were shuttled off by the thousands to fight WWII. Ever see Ronnie with specs? He talked tough but that was it. John Wayne thought he was better for our morale by making war movies, as if the enemy runs away at the sight of actors, but not warriors. It worked for The Duke, though he always felt bad about not being in the thick of it: well, gee, thanks a lot. Others like him were called draft dodgers and cowards. Some people thought he had won the war all by himself.

Trump deems himself a negotiator but now he’s in the heavyweight division of world problems and will be like the boxer who thinks he has a good plan till he gets punched in the mouth. Till then he takes credit for the Cease-fire in Gaza. Already a success without being president yet!

           In lesser news, Anita Bryant’s recent passing brought painful memories. I was editor of an Atlanta newspaper when she rose to prominence–before falling from it. Tolerance for gays had begun to sweep the old South, but along came Anita, rousing the ugly underbelly of society—the way some Country singers do with their hymns of hate like, “Don’t Try That In A Small Town,” as if people there don’t behave the same way as their city cousins.

           But the Stonewall Riots preceded her and gays were in no mood for her earth-mother voice reeking with bad religion and super-patriotism. They had more muscle than she thought and her obit included loss of face, career, marriage and money. No better example of karma than that.

           Now we are well into the 21^st century and gun madness reigns. Do people have those things because they feel weak and guns make them feel stronger? Amid the epidemic of violence some of them must feel weak, knowing they should call out their radical gun-toting friends, neighbors and the NRA about reasonable controls. Maybe they don’t because they’re scared of all of them. If so, guns don’t make them stronger, they just make them part of the problem.

           Tragedy gets our attention but seldom teaches a lesson. The great cathedral of Notre Dame is up and running again to the cheers of all. That it burned during a Holy Week should’ve made the pious wonder if something hadn’t ticked off the Almighty; after reconstruction, the Church should beg serious forgiveness for its horrible sins against its own children. Else, every Holy Week thereafter could be a nervous occasion.

           And now that an apocalyptic flooding and conflagration have engulfed both our coasts in recent times, can we admit at last that we know what homelessness is, that it’s not always the fault of the victims—and do something about it?