March 4, 2019: What We've Lost, Once Had Leadership, Compare and Contrast

“And you read your Emily Dickenson

And I, my Robert Frost

And we note our place

with book markers

that measure what we've lost”

                ----Paul Simon “The Dangling Conversation”

We live in a world fragmented; each in his own fun house; each compartmentalized; each consulting his own talisman. We each have our own news sources, each genuflect before our own gods; each marching to our own drum. Society has become individualized, atomized, fragmented; in a word, anti-social.

Once, a half-century ago, we had leadership. We had men that would consult our better angels; men with vision; men who offered hope and optimism; men who brought us together. In the height of the Cold War, for instance, we had a President of the United States who would remind the nation that not only must the country think of the common interests we share as Americans, but what we have in common with all of humanity as well. In a speech given a few months before his death, President Kennedy reminded us and the world that the interests that must bring us together are far more compelling than those that drive us apart.

“For, in the final analysis, our most basic common link is that we all inhabit this small planet. We all breathe the same air. We all cherish our children's future. And we are all mortal.”

    ----President John F. Kennedy in a speech at American University, June 10, 1963.

These are words that are as relevant today as they were on that bright sunny day when he delivered them. Perhaps, as we approach ecological catastrophe, they are more relevant now than they were then.

What is striking is that words spoken more than half-century ago still inspire. The songwriter Gordon Sumner, known to the world as Sting, recorded a song two decades after Kennedy delivered his speech commenting on the cold war with the old Soviet Union, in which he sang:

“There is no monopoly of common sense

on either side of the political fence.

We share the same biology, regardless of ideology

Believe me when I say to you

I hope the Russians love their children too”

         ----Sting “Russians”

We once had political leaders who were not only inspired by poets; but leaders who inspired poets in turn.

In the aftermath of last weekend's rambling two-hour speech at the annual conservative circus known as the CPAC conference, a speech filled with self-pity, dystopia and fear, ask yourself wherein lies the inspiration? Compare and contrast, if you will; take measure, if you dare, of what we've lost.

“An Br'er Putin, he jus' laugh and laugh”

Impeach and Imprison.

____________________

Notes: For the full speech at American University see: http://www.humanity.org/voices/commencements/john.f.kennedy-american-university-speech-1963

The lyrics for the song “Russians” can be found at: http://www.azlyrics.com/lyrics/sting/russians.html.

The lyrics for the song “Dangling Conversation can be found at: http://www.azlyrics.com/lyrics/simongarfunkel/danglingconversation.html.