Editorial
I write this column with a heavy heart.
Two fields of endeavor that I care deeply about are disintegrating before my eyes.
In politics, the two candidates for president are deeply flawed and profoundly unpopular.
In journalism, once-evenhanded media institutions and individual reporters have lost their way and become propagandists.
Sadly, I fear that after the election, things will become worse and the warring political camps will start posturing for the next election.
The public has been badly served by all this and now holds both politicians and journalists in disrepute with little possibility of regaining the public trust. The chances of either of them changing their ways and beginning to serve the public without fear or favor -- once the hallmark of a good politician and a good journalist -- are slim.
How did we get to this sad state of affairs?
On the Republican side, Donald Trump, a venom-spewing bully used his superior knowledge of manipulating the media to intimidate his primary opponents and swat them down like flies.
I write this column with a heavy heart.
Two fields of endeavor that I care deeply about are disintegrating before my eyes.
In politics, the two candidates for president are deeply flawed and profoundly unpopular.
In journalism, once-evenhanded media institutions and individual reporters have lost their way and become propagandists.
Sadly, I fear that after the election, things will become worse and the warring political camps will start posturing for the next election.
The public has been badly served by all this and now holds both politicians and journalists in disrepute with little possibility of regaining the public trust. The chances of either of them changing their ways and beginning to serve the public without fear or favor -- once the hallmark of a good politician and a good journalist -- are slim.
How did we get to this sad state of affairs?
On the Republican side, Donald Trump, a venom-spewing bully used his superior knowledge of manipulating the media to intimidate his primary opponents and swat them down like flies.
A common reason given by progressives for continuing to support the Democrats is party loyalty. “They gave us the New Deal,” they say, “they always save the economy.” Those who use those talking points are absolutely correct. The Democratic Party has done a lot of good for this country; most social and environmental programs were enacted by Democrats. They are also correct when they discuss how Republicans want a Christian theocracy and always ruin the economy.
However, those individuals are deliberately forgetting huge pieces of history. The Republicans ended slavery, started the Environmental Protection Agency, and built the Interstate Highway System. The Democrats dropped the atomic bomb on Japan, resegregated the federal government, and gave us the Defense of Marriage Act. No individual or political party is perfect but everyone must acknowledge their shortcomings in addition to their strengths. Blind, unwavering loyalty guarantees someone support solely because of the (D) next to their name, not because of their policy positions or track record.
Not to big myself up too much, but my strongest columns are usually ones I'd rather not be writing. I was all set to take a break from election commentary to write about the Dakota Access Pipeline protests and visions of a unified Turtle Island, but then Columbus had to go and live up to its namesake. Which is to say I'm not surprised. The Indie Art Capital of the World was more than due. In fact this wasn't even the first, lest we forget Henry Green. Columbus Police have already killed 5 people this year, a rate that would draw props from any half-decent serial killer. Though this is the first child. And they can't even pull the shit they did with Tamir Rice talmbout “he was so big, how were we supposed to know he was only 12?” Tyre King was five feet even and less than 100 pounds, and they shot him as he was running away. I really should just end the column right there.
This past September many America citizens were hit back-to-back with the realization that Black boys and men are “moving targets” for some police officers in America. In Columbus a thirteen-year old was shot and killed. Why? According to the Columbus Police Department (CPD) he pulled a gun on them during a chase. The “gun” turned out to be a toy gun. King is the third young Black man killed by the CPD this past year in Columbus. The police-officer appears to have fallen under the misbelief that the teenage boy, who happens to be Black, wanted to harm him, and thus his lawyers defense that the white man who is a trained police officer was “in fear for his life.” And now Tyre King’s mother buries her son and cries “no peace until justice.”
The "D" inThe Columbus Dispatch does not stand for Diversity unless you define Diversity as "middle-aged white males."
Diversity is defined by Merriam-Webster as "the condition of having or being composed of differing elements (especially through) the inclusion of different types of people (as people of different races or cultures) in a group or organization."
This inclusion appears to be not taking place at the Dispatch. A look at the pictures of the individuals listed below indicates a sameness in gender and race:
The CEO of New Media Investments, the owner of the Dispatch, is Kirk Davis, a middle-aged white male.
The president and publisher of the paper is Bradley Harmon, a middle-aged white male.
Malcolm X said “of all of our studies, history is best qualified to reward all research.” George Santayana said “Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it.” History is knowledge acquired by investigation. It is the study of the past, particularly how it relates to humans. History relates to past events as well as the memory, discovery, collection, presentation and interpretation of information about these events.
The Columbus Civilian Community Board understands the importance of history and as a result brought historian Dr. David Imhotep, the author of the “The First Americans Were Africans” to Columbus, Ohio this past August. The two-day event began on Friday, August 26th with a book signing by Dr. Imhotep at Zawadi Books. Saturday, August 27th was the lecture held at the Columbus Metropolitan Main Library in the auditorium. People had to be turned away at the door as the room filled quickly and became standing room only.
If your name is Donald Trump, or Dick Cheney, or George W Bush, then don’t bother reading this. This article is to help the rest of us to better understand how Donald Trump et al think. The psychiatric literature has long known that people with narcissistic personality disorder, also called the narcissistic sociopath, are far more common at the upper end of politics and business in the United States. About 1% of people in general show the criteria of the condition, yet 20% of CEOs in “Fortune 500” companies and many politicians in this country have these characteristics.
So it pays to know how these people think since it allows us to accurately predict their behavior. The cause of narcissistic personality condition can be summarized in three words: low self-esteem. The person’s thinking process is overwhelmed with the need to show them as powerful and important. It is much more common in men than women, and, thus, testosterone, one of the key driving forces of emotional behavior, powers this condition.
Ain't No Love In The Heart is back for some election commentary, because you can take the boy out of the swing state... This piece was written before the DNC. We'll get to Hil-dawg next month.