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| Rosenborg Castle, Copenhagen |
Because the two qualities seem to belong to different realms, race and self-esteem, without much intersection. My race is a condition of birth. I didn't have to work hard for it. I almost said it's like being left-handed, but I am rather proud of being left-handed, as it sets me apart and imposed a series of minor lifelong challenges that I overcame.
That's what leads to pride: facing difficulties, accomplishing something hard, something that not everybody can do. Using right-handed scissors requires effort and a bit of dexterity, for a left-hander, but I am not especially proud of that because most people manage it.
The things I am proud of tend to be endeavors that not only take effort but effort over time and produce a valuable result. They're also something that others fail at. I'm proud of making a living as a writer for the past 44 years, thinking of the lines of the Robert Browning poem, “Andrea del Sarto”:
I do what many dream of, all their lives,
—Dream? strive to do, and agonize to do,
And fail in doing.
Include in there being married for 35 years, producing two fine boys — I won't bother ticking off all the ways they're superior to their dad — who launched well and easily transitioned into careers and families of their own. Plus 20 years sober, speaking of things that people try to do and fail, spectacularly.
None of that fell into my lap. I had to work for it. Hence a certain pride. Not unseemly pride, I hope. I try to view my achievements with a humble practicality. My writing kept me alive but did not set the world aflame. No best-sellers, no Pulitzer. I'm not even the most successful writer in Northbrook — that's Bob Kurson.
Yes, other groups have pride — Black Pride, Gay Pride — but that is interwoven with overcoming difficulties.
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Those Nationalist groups are frightening.
ReplyDeleteI agree with everything you said in today's piece. At the same time I feel something important was left out.
ReplyDeleteThe government should not be in the leveling the playing field business.
Life is not fair and just as you imagine that something about your life is difficult because you proclaim jewishness. Everyone can say I don't get a fair shake because of XY or Z about me and people like me.
Life is very much a competition and the losers need to up their game not run to the government to make things easier for them. .
I'm white, male, het and ethnically Christian. So it's easy for me to feel this way and people resent me for saying it.
I didn't automatically rise to the top because of my advantages. I never made it to the top. Not everyone gets to the top . And it's not the governments job to help them get there over others
Tom
It seems you're making an argument against curb cuts — those ramps that let people in wheelchairs use sidewalks. Life is unfair, and government creates and magnifies that unfairness. It bans immigration from countries Donald Trump doesn't like. And when the "losers" are big corporations, the government offers a helping hand. Why, when the problem is a flood, you expect disaster relief, but if the problem is, oh, lousy schools in poor areas and great schools in rich ones, it's supposed to look the other way?
DeleteThe American with disabilities act is a fine example of what I'm talking about.
DeleteThere's a legal concept referred to as right to travel.
Of course there should be curb cuts just as there are bridges that go over rivers the government builds the roads.
There are numerous examples many many examples of people claiming a disability freckles two different color eyes red hair
When it's the government we're talking about it can make its own choices about the playing field it's in the private sector where entities are forced to comply where I take exception.
I don't make the rules I like you are just commenting on them.
I don't see everything as an argument sometimes you just entering into a discussion.
It's interesting that you mentioned schools considering where you live did you somehow hope the government was going to come and take some of your tax money and send it to Englewood?
Just stopped in to note that the "(L)ife is not fair..." cliche is generally used in the service of those who would perpetuate and expand that unfairness.
DeleteAnd it must be nice to be able to believe that a better chance for someone else, somewhere else, somehow adversely affects our chronically anonymous commenter.
Doesn't seem to get the notion that it qualifies as an investment in the future of society at large.
Pity, that.
@Annonymous, which I assume is 'Tom" (or Bill, Phil, or one of your previous nom de plumes)
Delete"...it's in the private sector where entities are forced to comply where I take exception"
If it wasn't for the goverment and it's intervention within the private sector, there wouldn't be child labor laws preventing the exploitation of children as laborers and the workplace would be far less safer without OSHA standards. We'd also be breathing in foul, disgusting air polluted from coal-burning power plants and blowing coal ash if not for EPA standards; the quality of the food, water, and pharmaceuticals we rely upon would be questionable at best if not for Federal guidlines; and, many groups - non-Caucasian, elderly, LGBTQIA+ to name a few - would suffer high-rates of unemployement if not for Federal anti-discriminatory laws. Seriously, do you truly believe that bias - race, ethnicity, gender, sexual orientation, and age, again to name a few - doesn't exist currently although in hushed tones within the private sector and wouldn't be heightened or rampant without Federal intervention?
Although capitalism is a key underlying support for our Republic, laws were created to allow for equal opportunity in the public and private sector, as it became apparent that unfettered capitalism couldn't be trusted to monitor itself and act as good, conscientious corporate citizens.
In light of the recent holiday, you might want to re-read the the Declaration of Independence, specifically the following:
"We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.--That to secure these rights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed"
I might add that this also applies to taxing districts, in that the Government seeks to attempt to create a fair, playing field for all by redistributing the wealth via subsidies for impoverished areas and discriminated populations so as to create a level playing field.
I"d respectfully suggest you're a bit unclear on the concept "that government of the people, by the people, for the people, shall not perish from the earth" (Gettysburg Address, which you also might want to review).
Firstly I sign my posts Tom
DeleteSecondly I support assistance to the truly needy handicapped people children .
I give to charity and volunteer
Thought when everybody sees themselves as the disadvantaged and I mean everybody it's too much of something that shouldn't be any of the government's business
Jim like many of the folks that comment here it would be nice to meet you. In the past I've suggested a picnic or some such thing . People seem good with the boundaries and anomnimity.
DeleteAll of what you say is true. But still we live in a country with many many problems. Some exacerbated by the policies you listed.
Do you think things would be worse if not for the governments interventions? Hard to say.
Our government has and continues to screw black , red and brown people en masse.
As well as others all around the world. We the people brought you global warming and atomic warfare.
That bit about deriving their power by the consent of the governed got us trump , twice.
Like I say I agree with much of what you said but it seems impossible for you to agree with anything I say. That's the State of affairs in this country even people who agree with each other can't keep from fighting and should get us another good dose of Republicans this midterm
I'm sure we'll all enjoy it
I think it's really funny that were reduced to riding the subway with all of the great unwashed people they hate to get to their march of hate.
ReplyDeleteFor whatever reasons, maybe the DC government had a ban on private vehicles in the area or funnier, nowhere for them to park their monster trucks & they'd get expensive tickets for "rolling coal" with them?
Proves how truly pathetic they really are!
Driving in DC is nearly impossible for an out-of-towner, and the Metro is very clean and safe. I wasn't surprised to see pictures of the goons on public transportation.
DeleteThank you for this coverage of the modern day KKK. They are whining dorks.
ReplyDeleteThese guys have empty lives and see themselves as victims.. Most of them can't get a date so they have plenty of time for a "hobby" like this. The rest of us are hanging out with friends and families on the 4th - they are with other lonely men, blaming everyone but themselves for their sad, angry, pitiful lives. Emotionally healthy people don't need to march in masks to declare their superiority.
ReplyDeleteMy mom used to blast people she disapproved of with a sarcastic, "Bless their pointed little heads." I never asked, but I assumed she was referencing the Klan. I wonder how she would refer to these masked morons.
ReplyDeleteThe phrase “bless their pointed little heads” (or “bless your pointy little head”) is an idiomatic expression used to patronize someone, often in a condescending way, implying they are foolish, not very bright, or unaware of their own mistakes.
DeleteIt can sound friendly, but it's what I call snarcastic...both snarky and sarcastic. .Carries a tone of mild mockery or exasperation. Its origins are vague and unknown. Could not find any reference or connection to the Klan. Their pointy little heads are apparently just a co-inky-dink. The expression is used in both the U.K. and the U.S.
Maybe it's a dunce-cap reference. That makes sense.
DeleteGeorge Wallace repeatedly ranted about "pointy-headed intellectuals" during his '68 presidential run. He meant liberals, academics, and what were later called "the elites." Never understood where he got that from. But he said it over and over.
DeleteThe human race is all biologically one species.
ReplyDeleteI was out to dinner with some friends from Milan. I mentioned my lineage as Sicilian. An older uncle refered to me as a well nigger.
Of course we all know about the Moors invasion
But WTF
They all have matching outfits. How cute. Do they all shop at the same NAZI store? Do they coordinate before setting out from their parents' basements to ride public trans? Have they ever kissed anyone, boy or girl?
ReplyDeleteThat's what I've always wondered about...are they all just warped, frustrated, angry young men who are percolating in their own juices? Are they really all "incels" (involuntary celibates)? Or is that just a myth? Is there a ladies' auxiliary? Where is Ilsa, She-Wolf of the SS?
DeleteDo they blame other races and ethnicities for "stealing" their women as well as their lucrative jobs? The women they both hate and lust after were never theirs to lose in the first place. What attractive, intelligent, educated, successful young woman wants to sleep with an overweight, out-of-shape, ranting Nazi?
It's the old chicken and egg story. Are they rabid Christian Fascists because they can't get laid? Or are they not getting laid because they're Christian Fascists? Gotta wonder how many Nasty Boys quit Fight Club after someone starts to kiss them back and they get their chains yanked regularly.
Every so often I will archive the email linking a particular story. It is my way of saving an exceptional one so I may easily find it and reread the story. Today was one of those days.
ReplyDeleteThe sole thing they have ever kissed are their guns, which they weren't allowed to bring there to DC as that's illegal there!
DeleteYou live in an almost completely white community. One of the whitest. Inclusive you say? Cmon man
ReplyDeleteAt the risk of intruding upon your fantasy with facts, Northbrook is 26 percent people of color, including at least four families on my block. Twenty percent are foreign-born. C'mon yourself.
DeleteThe 2020 census says 87.77% white
ReplyDeleteSix years out of date.
DeletePlus, it doesn't matter where I live. I also like fish, yet do not live in the sea. Haters just like to find a way to pretend everyone is as hypocritical as they are.
DeleteI applaud your ability to see the silver lining, Neil.
ReplyDeleteLife ain't fair. Why make it harder? To win the "competition"?
ReplyDelete