2 weeks Ago
Superman was my hero. Many of us spend our lives looking for our version of a superhero. Sometimes they are clergy, teachers, soldiers, and even presidents.
This exercise is a favorite pastime of Americans. Look for someone to idolize, build them up, then find a flaw and drop them. We love that cycle of adoration and rejection.
Something is happening in our political world contrary to that cycle that seems inexplicable. Superman’s motto became my motto. It was truth, justice, and the American way.
Those words could not have been easier to understand. Be honest, follow the rule of law, and be patriotic. That philosophy was the very bedrock of our existence.
Respect one another, our personal beliefs, country, and traditions. But here we are in an election cycle, where up is down and down is sideways. Things we respect and worship have been disparaged, ignored, and scoffed at, and for half the country, that is OK.
Up until now, this would have been inconceivable. Things we have seen with our own eyes are now supposedly lies, while long-standing laws are twisted and revoked. The guardrails that had protected us from negative behavior and distorted speech have vanished.
The wheels appear to have come off America’s bus. Social media and 24-hour cable news are a big part of the challenge. Conglomerates control the airwaves and generate money from ratings that drive advertising dollars.
The best way to do this is by continuously stirring controversy and division. This is all part of a phenomenon a friend of mine termed savage capitalism where we are collateral damage. The billionaires are buying islands and building Armageddon bunkers and spaceships while they sail in their mega-yachts and control pricing, wages, politicians, and us.
A mentor told me about a meeting with a billionaire in 1989. In the middle of their meeting, the phone rang. My friend said he heard the following conversation, “No.
No. No. It cannot happen this week.
You make sure they wait until next week to do that.” When he sat back down, he said, “Those crazy fools wanted to tear down the Berlin Wall this week. I told them they had to wait until next week so we would get better coverage for our party.
” The rest of the story. The Berlin Wall fell the very next week. What was my friend’s conclusion? Billionaires run the world.
Well, not everyone is savage. Some use their wealth to do what is right and good, like Superman’s alter ego, Clark Kent. Michael Bloomberg is funding medical schools.
Warren Buffet and his related foundations are supporting world health. Cuban is helping to lower drug prices. Others are working to cure cancer or to stop hunger.
There is good and bad everywhere. I do not want to scare you. But consider this.
We are all going to die. No one gets out of this life alive. Remember, we are all on the same bus.
We get off at different stops. So, what matters? My brother was a very politically passionate guy, but during his three months of hospitalization before his death from an incurable autoimmune disease, he never mentioned politics once. He talked about people he loved, people who loved him, memories of our good times, and his spirituality.
How do we get back to normal? There is one answer. You. Believe in the good.
Believe in positivity. You can make an enormous positive change in our lives. Stop being nasty, rude, and mad.
Misplaced passion and anger are causing this dysfunction. Support Superman’s motto of “Truth, Justice, and the American Way.” Come on.
We can do this. Nick Jacobs is a Windber resident..
