PICAYUNE —
The past year, 2012, had a lot of “big ticket” events. Several were scheduled beforehand: the election, in which more than $2 billion dollars were spent in the presidential race alone, the Olympics, a leap year, and a few others that will make their way into the inevitable year-end reviews. There were also, unfortunately, several unscheduled events that grabbed all the headlines: the massacres in Aurora and Newtown, and the destructive hurricanes Sandy and Isaac.
2013 is one of those odd years, as a colleague said — no pun intended — when there are no major, defining events scheduled. So maybe we should focus on some of the major issues facing us — or at least start discussing them before a major distraction intrudes. And it will. Via man or nature, something will happen that demands immediate attention and diverts us from fundamental issues. At least for a while.
First, as I see it, we need to keep in perspective what matters in life. Man or Nature: Hurricane Sandy or Sandy Hook Elementary. There’s more than irony in the coincidence of names. “Sandy” is short for Alexander, and means “defender of man.” In times of crisis, whether caused by man or nature, we come together to defend each other. Why must we wait? If we come together and defend, support and encourage each other, perhaps we can avoid or avert a crisis or two.
Speaking of Alexander reminds me of the story of the Gordian Knot. It could not be unraveled, so Alexander sliced it in half with his sword. We may need such an approach to slice through the partisan gridlock in Congress, which has increased geometrically, perhaps exponentially, since 1994.
How we talk to each other matters, and we have to pay attention to the words we use. We have to reclaim rhetorical civility. “Please” and “thank you” belong at the dinner table, in the hardware store and in the halls of Congress. The language of Washington may not be more “over the top” than ever before — look up what the followers of Jefferson and Adams called each candidate — but it has become more fine-tuned. Politicians have always chosen words that would ignite the people, stir their hearts and goad their actions. “Friends, Romans, Countrymen, lend me your ears,” is one famous example.
But since the 2004 presidential campaign, partisan political strategists have employed behavioral science and a structured understanding of rhetoric and language to shape strategy and speech. The language of deceit, against which George Orwell warned, has become standard practice for politicians, who have learned to sound moderate while shoving unpopular policies through Congress. Not only the Democratic and Republican parties, but also powerful private lobbies such as the National Rifle Association maintain huge databanks of information about voters. They can number-crunch seemingly obscure items — which type of hammer we buy, for example — to discern personal habits and religious preferences. From this, they manipulate the messages we receive.
The poet Alexander Pope wrote, “The sound must seem an echo to the sense,” but emotional words slide past our critical reasoning and slither into the seat of our feelings. Elected officials and their handlers know this, and know which loaded words will elicit a particular response. Code words, triggers and dog whistles substitute for dialogue, debate and community.
But we remain “We the People.” We can reclaim the conversation. We can still talk to each other. We can do more than that. We can listen to each other.
The lesson from the two Sandy’s is the same: We must build community, neighbor helping neighbor, respecting one another, working together for the common good. We can only do that if we change our tone — or rather, demand our would-be leaders change their tone. We need to insist they behave themselves rhetorically.
We need to tell the politicians and pundits: Don’t twist words and don’t hide behind provocative phrases. Find ways to say “yes,” instead of another way to say “no.” Stick to the simple words, not jabberwocky.
And don’t point fingers. Look in the mirror. We demand accountability. Find a solution that’s in the best interest of “We the People” — provide for the general welfare. Don’t tell us what the other person is doing wrong; show us what you’re doing right. Or next election, we’ll find someone else who can.
Doing right by the American people means no more fiscal cliffs, not holding our nation’s good credit hostage, a budget that reduces our debt, taxes fairly, and doesn’t hurt the poor, the elderly, disabled, veterans or the children. It means focusing on economic growth, new roads and infrastructure projects, on a new approach to immigration, on laws that make massacres harder to pull off. And the list goes on.
The new year gives us a blank slate. What we write upon it depends on how we talk to each other. And how we listen.
(Donna Brazile is a senior Democratic strategist, a political commentator and contributor to CNN and ABC News, and a contributing columnist to Ms. Magazine and O, the Oprah Magazine.)
Columns
A blank slate and a new beginning
- Columns
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- Vocability Words can be both familiar and extremely confusing when taken from their usual context. Ask any wine enthusiast about legs, fat or bricks and they may assume you are speaking “Vinonese.” Ok — I made that word up; but the language of wine does indeed include legs, fat and brix which have entirely different meanings from what you might assume. Working with definitions from http://www.wineschool.com/vocabulary.html, try your basic knowledge of “Vinonese.”
- Vocability Words can set a tone for a situation, alter someone’s perception of an individual or group — in short, there is power in them. The Bible cautions, “Death and life are in the power of the tongue...” — Proverbs in 18:21, ASB. With that in mind, I will be focusing on words, some recently used and some obscure, to test the readers and build on what you already know. There will be theme weeks, for instance next week will focus on words involving wine — for no particular reason! So try your vocabulary skills with the following and see how you score. I’m always open to suggestions for material.
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A hard rain is gonna fall...
By Kathryn Jean Lopez/Syndicated columnist
After disappearing during his term in office and bringing scandal to his family and state, former South Carolina governor Mark Sanford is going to Washington, having won election to Congress. And that’s far from the worst story reflecting the current character of our nation.
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Not your mother’s Ladies’ Home Journal
By Rheta Grimsely Johnson/Syndicated columnist
I haven’t seen the Ladies’ Home Journal in about a million years, except maybe in the dentist’s office when I was trying to avoid a television permanently set on Fox News.
Somebody’s grandchild was selling magazines for a school project, and Ladies’ Home Journal was the only one on the list I recognized. Now it comes to the house.
Let’s just say: It’s not my mother’s Ladies’ Home Journal. This month, right behind a feature called “A Country of People Who Never Stop Eating” is one called “Nice Girls Do Get Tattoos.” -
Health care market needs oversight
By Gene Lyons/Syndicated columnist
Sometimes the best journalism explains what’s right under our noses. In Steven Brill’s exhaustive Time magazine cover article, “Bitter Pill: Why Medical Bills Are Killing Us,” it’s the staggeringly expensive, grotesquely inefficient and inhumane way Americans pay for medical care.
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VA’s appalling failures not recent
By Sid Salter/Syndicated columnist
While recent national press attention to ongoing problems at Mississippi’s G.V. (Sonny) Montgomery Veterans Administration Medical Center in Jackson is welcome and needed, the failures of the overall VA service apparatus in Mississippi are not recent problems.
In short, former U.S. Rep. Sonny Montgomery — Mississippi’s “Mr. Veteran” and author of the modern G.I. Bill that bears his name — must be spinning in his grave. There have been significant failures and poor service to veterans documented by state and local media since 2008. -
Dolley Madison politically savvy
By Cokie and Steven V. Roberts/Syndicated columnists
When Dolley Payne Madison became first lady in 1809, she instituted Wednesday evening gatherings at the White House where political rivals could meet and talk. They were called “squeezes” because so many people showed up and crowded the room. As Cokie wrote in her book “Ladies of Liberty": “All were welcome as long as they were appropriately dressed. And all went — skipping a Wednesday night might mean missing a vital piece of political information or being left out of a crucial deal.”
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Mississippi isn’t immune from national college tuition trends
By Sid Salter/Syndicated columnist
Higher education in Mississippi has not been immune from national trends cited in a recent Center on Budget and Policy Priorities report which concludes that over the last five years, the global economic downturn and a “no new taxes” political climate have increasingly shifted the burden of higher education finance to students and parents at a time when enrollment is increasing and the percentage of state support is decreasing. -
Right to vote not ‘racial entitlement
By Donna Brazile/Syndicated columnist
The Supreme Court heard oral arguments in the case of Shelby County v. Holder — a challenge to the Voting Rights Act of 1965, specifically Section 5, which requires states and localities with a history of voting discrimination against racial and language minorities to get “pre-approved” by the federal government before changing how elections are conducted or voters are registered. -
1st day of spring brings memories
By Wyatt Emmerich/Southside Sun
The first day of spring! My favorite month, April, is just around the corner. Now we just need one big gullywasher to get rid of the pine pollen.
Normally, spring gives me a strong sense of rebirth and renewal, but this spring I seem surrounded by moments crystallizing the passage of time.
It was a year ago, I walked up the porch to my mother’s home to box up her possessions following her funeral. - More Columns Headlines
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