Oi.
More oipinions.
Whew.
People in the street. People on TV. People on Radio. People in my living room.
Is it me or do more people than usual think they have the “right” strategy for Afghanistan, Iraq, health care, the economy, global warming along with Sunday’s line on the NFL and what the Red Sox should do over the winter season?
Are their brains expanding and mine shrinking?
The globe’s and the nation’s problems appear so complex to me that my brain sags from their density. I’d no more want to make a summary statement on Afghanistan, as President Obama did last night (never mind make decisions) than I’d want to scrub my hands, get into surgical garb and perform brain surgery.
My obligations as a citizen can’t force me into the ability to be able to synthesize or conjugate these large problems. I have tried. I’ve read. I’ve listened. I’ve thought. I sag.
My conclusion is I have to trust someone whose brain appears in tippy-top condition to process as many of the dimensions of this complex world as possible and make recommendations on what to do.
He may have big ears, but President Obama does not suffer from brain sag.
Whether he is making the right decision, I don’t know. But, I think he’s taken the time to think deeply, ask questions that should be asked in as many different ways as possible from as many informed people as possible–plus he gets a daily national security briefing that all the yappers do not get, and most importantly, instead of spleen spewing anger, he appears to carry our messy suitcase of problems, alongside the black bag with the nuclear code buttons, with a somber logic that balances his gait.
I ask you– what does your average talking head carry lurching into their LIVE opinion yap fest besides a breath mint that melts on the roof of their mouth?
©Pat Coakley 2009
PHOTOGRAPHS CANNOT BE USED WITHOUT WRITTEN PERMISSION
Ever shorter attention spans, news as entertainment, and impatience with anything other than black/white thinking has brought us to this point. Never mind complexity — even shades of grey are out the window. And pundits often pontificate in sound-bites designed to further a political agenda that may have nothing at all to do with the war or whatever other subject is at hand. It is sad and frightening at the same time.
My bias is always against violence and war, but the complexities of the world don’t always favor that simple answer, so I unhappily will reserve judgment.
Now about your picture… I hope the bottles on your kitchen floor (seen in The Bad Chef) haven’t multiplied into this!
what do they carry? a huge paycheck for one thing. special interests for another. wait! did i say that? what connection could there possibly be between the major news centers and the gov’t regulatory systems such as the ‘department of public policy’? tsk tsk separation of tv and state, uh church and state, uh whatever it was…..
poor president obama
i love the photo. it reminds me of ‘endlessly repeating 20th century modernism’ for the regular folk
Don and Tipota, I am laughing thinking of all these bottles in my kitchen…if I could fit them, they’d probably be there…who am I kidding? Anyway, this photograph and some I’ll be using in the near future, are from an exhibit by an installation artist called Song Dong. The exhibit was called “Waste Not” and on view at the MOMA last August. His mother agreed to allow him to set up the entire contents of her house in China, ((fifty years of “Stuff”) and recreate the house itself in the middle of all the “stuff”. Saving things was not hording, it was survival. So, so interesting here’s the link:
http://www.moma.org/visit/calendar/exhibitions/961
I bet all the people who say Obama has got it all wrong are the same ones that said Bush was on the right track. It’s a real pity that the public has such short attention spans and it’s a an even bigger shame that the people in the mass media know this and manipulate it.
Razz. the best invention for my survival is the “mute” button. But, I’m not kidding, I am amazed people think they are well informed enough to have their righteous opinion.
Mr. Obama carries trust … which the former 8 years lacked. That’s all I ask as a citizen of the world. …………….. that someone carries trust.
wow, ross…I love this comment..”Mr. Obama carries trust and that’s all I ask as a citizen of the world….that someone carry trust.” I’m not kidding…The only way I could love this comment more is if I had written it myself! Thanks for peeking out from your wordplay to pen this.
Pat….I just wrote to a group of friends about you…..Here’s what I said….
“There is one blog that I visit regularly…
http://singleforareason.wordpress.com/
If you go look at the current entry you’ll see why I totally love this blog!
Look at the photo…then read the essay…they go together like salt and pepper! It’s amazing to me how this woman comes up with the absolutely perfect photo to express an abstract idea! She’s a freakin’ genius!!!”
I don’t actually remember if I’ve ever commented here before. But I am re-amazed by you…regularly! LOL
Just had to tell you so today.
After reading your comment (which by the way I needed to read today…oh, yeah, I really really did), I just want to do one thing: some might simply say, “thank-you” for your generous comments, but not me…oh, not me…I’d simply like to hug your knees while saying thank-you as my grand niece sometimes does when we’ve had a particularly fun day of playing and pretending she is a vampire.
And, no, I don’t believe you have commented before but believe me, I’ll remember you!