Published by Harlem World 1/11/21
I've scribbled thoughts and feelings on store receipts, envelopes, napkins. Impulse has pressed into service what's close at hand. There's been so much to say since the Capitol riot but I've shucked off joining the chorus till now. What's out was not wrong though predictable. Accountability, labels, and consequences have been frequent themes. I'd like to hear more of treason charges than impeachment. Policing's disparate treatment of MAGA minions and Black Lives Matter marchers was made crystal clear by barricade removals that gave invaders free reign. Our sound bite culture's push to be first out and loud, to build brands more than bond, compounds our plight. I don't have all the answers. I may have none. But it impressed me that Jumanne Williams, New York City's Public Advocate, cancelled his Wednesday night fundraiser to instead host “a free space open to all where people could commune with one another.” His words were profound in simplicity. The spirit of community broke the Covid-19 isolation that weighs on us all. Some folks sought aid for schools, arts or youth services as at a standard town hall; their hopeful appeals cleansed the fearsome day's stale air. Overriding the “act now” instinct, jotting notes to resist “final form” drafting, or toying with varied lead paragraphs helps pierce one's rhetoric to uncover one's heart. Mine holds painful rage, manifest in pent-up tears and anguished screams. While safe all day in my Brooklyn apartment, I sensed I was mourning the death of the idealism I felt when during my twenties in the mid-Seventies I worked in the Senate for Missouri Democrat Stuart Symington. First elected in the year I was born, he'd served for as long as I'd lived. Senators were, on average, older then, advancing via the seniority system to chair committees that do the body's real work. They were by no means all virtuous men. Mississippi's James Eastland and John Stennis with Georgia's Richard Russell and Herman Talmadge fought civil rights and integration. The latter used a spittoon with an aarrgghh! one heard through hallowed halls, I learned from a friendly receptionist. There were racists and war hawks but I trusted Senators McGovern, Humphrey, Church, and Glenn. Their life experience assured me that things wouldn't get so out of hand as they are. Javits of New York and Scott of Pennsylvania were among reasonable Republicans in a legitimate two-party system. Symington's expertise on foreign affairs and armed services was well known. Playing safe, tweeting and air time seem priorities for today's younger, richer, tech-savvy Senators. Chuck Schumer lives a mile from me in Brooklyn. His gutsy 1998 upset of Republican Al D'Amato gave way to inside baseball, Schumer on the Banking Committee courting Wall Street and on Sundays holding press conferences on consensus local issues for “slow news Monday” morning headlines. Schumer courted conservative fighter pilot Amy McGrath to challenge Mitch McConnell last year in Kentucky, allegedly knowing she'd lose but with her campaign a cash cow for Democrats. The progressive Charles Booker with party support would have gone hard for the Grim Reaper. Which Schumer — complacent or bold — will lead the Democrats' sudden Senate majority? The “party of the working class,” of the New Deal and Great Society, is gone. Vietnam ruptured it. Nixon and Reagan intimidated it. Bill Clinton's “Third Way” approach intentionally appealed to the Gingrich right wing. Corporate donors now fund both parties, forging an establishment center where little changes. Yet the nation cries out for change. With 373,000 Covid dead and 25.7 million Americans lacking adequate food we were in crisis before Wednesday's Trump riot. Can Joe Biden heed FDR's aggressive record in the first hundred days and put a firm hand on the tiller, or will he cautiously seek stability as we continue to go down the drain?
