Post mortem to election day

 November 6, 2024

The following was written in response to a comment on a New York Times editorial published earlier this morning. Actually, there were two responses, which I have sewn together into one. And given that nobody really knows how long digital files will exist to memorialize this work, I share it here (and stored in hard copy on human compliant paper) for all to see.  The original comment had to do with Kamala Harris not accomplishing a Herculean list of tasks in her short time on the campaign trail.  What follows is my response:

Earlier today, commenter “Axel” posted that, among the things that Kamala Harris should have done was to “have presented her  own bold program for change, including political institutional change and major constitutional reforms,” But let’s be realistic here - you wanted her to do all that in eleven weeks?!? And even if she did, do you think the Times and others would have given it the coverage it deserved? Trump started running again on January 20, 2021 and never stopped. Harris never had a chance.  Make no mistake - the Democratic Party enabled Trump, most notably by not primarying Biden this year. Then by waiting so long to have him step out. And the Obamas and other “rock stars” of the party laid low too long before stepping up. 

Perhaps Ms Harris wasn’t the perfect candidate but the media and the Times held her to an impossibly blue standard of perfection that certainly Mr Trump could never meet. Once again, the “oh that’s Donald being Donald” has played out - and played - the American people. And this time it looks like it’s a majority of them.  

Perhaps it is those of us who identify as Democrats who are wrong. Maybe the country really is as dark as Mr Trump and the GOP paint it. My city is not on fire, I’m not tripping over illegal immigrants on my way to work, I have a job and food on the table. Maybe I’m the one who is wrong here. Maybe the rest of the country is seeing these things. In which case, it’s the Times job as paper of record to report them. If not, it was their job to refute these claims. 

Show me one NY Times article proving beyond a doubt that the claims about the economy were false, or at least somewhat dubious. They’ve done neither.  The guardrail that was supposed to keep democracy strong - the fourth estate represented by the likes of the Times and the Washington Post - failed miserably in this election. 

Had this type of weak journalism or what passes for journalism these days been around when Nixon was president, he would have served his full two terms and who knows how the country would have turned out. But reporters and editors were, perhaps, more high minded back then. Or maybe we as readers were more demanding. We could actually read back then and didn’t get our news in quick 30 second bites.

And so, as stewards of the First amendment they have failed. But so too have we.

The blood of this nation rests on all of our hands.

• Ocean City, NJ

Election Day - 2024

 November 5, 2024

Today is Election Day in the US and a more contentious election I certainly can’t remember.  And today is a good day for me to practice what I have been preaching to my students for quite some time.  But first a bit of background.

I have spent the last year or so trying to better understand the philosophy of Stoicism. I’m not exactly sure what got me into this, but I discovered a guy by the name of Ryan Holliday and found that a lot of what he was saying was making a lot of sense to me. So I started to dig in a bit deeper and, as the year has gone by, I am actually finding that it is making a bit of a difference in my life.

One of the practices that Stoicism has taught me is that there is really nothing I can do about so many things - I can only control that over which I have control. And basically, as I have come to understand, that over which I have control is my own mind, my own emotions, my own body, and my own thoughts. I can’t control the weather, traffic, or other people for that matter. And I have been trying to get some of my students - especially my former students who are now finding life a bit harder as they get older - to understand that, especially when they are having a hard time getting along with others.

Which takes me back to this election.  I vehemently dislike the Republican candidate, mostly because I find him to be a detestable person.  He has so little regard for others - women, immigrants, middle class people, just about anyone not named Donald Trump - that I just can't fathom how we could elect him to the presidency - again!!

But, in the end, all I can do is vote my heart and my conscience. I’m just one vote - but it’s all I can do. I can’t change the outcome of the election. I can’t change the way people vote. All I can do is accept what is, and pray with all my being that the country will hold together regardless of who wins.  And so that is what I will do. I will vote. I will pray. And I will hope.

• Ocean City, NJ

A World without (printed) Newspapers

 I read the other day that the Star Ledger was going to stop publishing its print edition in February of 2025.  Now, I don’t take the Star Ledger and haven’t for quite some time. I don’t even subscribe to the electronic edition although I am a subscriber to two newspapers - both online - as I truly believe that newspapers are essential to fair and free communications in this world.

The reason that the news hit me so hard had more to do with what I had discovered in the top of my closet, ironically just two days prior.  While searching high and low for a missing Halloween shirt (don’t ask), I came across the box of “stuff” that I keep in the top of my closet. Among the miscellaneous stuff that one accumulates, I found several copies of seminal newspapers that marked several important moments in history.

There were two newspapers reporting the news of September 11, 2001 when the country was attacked and the World Trade Center was toppled.  There were newspapers marking the election of Joe Biden as president, replacing the (in my opinion) dangerous Donald Trump.  There were also newspapers marking significant sports events, such as the Mets winning the 2000 National League Championship (sadly, no New York Jets headlines - a topic for another post). 

As I thought back to this pile of yellowing news print, I started to wonder - how will future generations learn about the major events of our time, if there is no written record of it?  How can electronic news be archived so that those that are still to come can look back and see what was being reported about the major events of our time? (And in case you’re wondering, all of these entries are printed and saved for posterity - who knows how anyone would ever read these electronic musings in the future). 

I know that producing a printed product every day is a great expense, and one that is not easy to accommodate for a newspaper company. But with the need to archive major events, is this something a newspaper can afford to not do??  I guess time will tell - and perhaps replica editions can be archived, much like the microfiche of my generation - but with the major events happening just around the corner, is this a good time to stop producing?

In the end, it’s our fault. We are the ones who stopped buying or subscribing to newspapers. We’re the ones that adopted the electronic medium with such gusto that the publishers had no choice.  Can we turn back the clock? No.  But should we??  A question our future generations will have to answer.

• November 4, 2024

• Ocean City, NJ