We Aren't, But We Can Be

I just watched perhaps the best 2 minutes in television I've seen in at least 10 years, more like 20.  I watched the opening of HBO's new series "Newsroom."

When I write, I struggle (often) to convey what I'm thinking as clearly as I'm thinking it.  I'm guessing I'm not alone.  When I am successful, I very nearly always am channeling Dennis Leary - going off on some free-thinking, free ranging tirade during which at some point, what I'm trying to say bleeds it's way through.  Leary is a genius at this, I'm an amateur on my best day.

I just watched Jeff Daniels, the star of the show, go off on a Dennis Leary like tirade, answering the question, "What makes America the best country in the world."

His answer was simply this.. "It isn't...

It isn't because we're 47th in life expectancy, 138th in infant mortality, 7th in math scores, 4th in exports, 3rd in median income, and so on (I don't remember the rest).  We're first in three categories; incarcerated people per capita, percentage of people who believe in angels, and military spending, where we spend more than the next 26 countries, 25 of which are our allies.

But, we used to be (said Daniel's character), we use to dream big, make war for ethical reasons, stood up for ethical things, we reached for the stars,  we made war on poverty not on the poor (and so on)...and we weren't so easily afraid."

This show had the guts to say what has crossed my mind, but I declined to say.  More importantly, it spoke truth to power, it challenged the propaganda we hear every day.  It took guts to do it.

It said, in short, those things which made us great were our beliefs in doing the right thing, for the common good.  We, those of us who grew up prior to 1992, we remember the principles we had, the belief that intelligence was a virtue, that facts were how we armed ourselves to make the right decisions, we didn't believe we made our own reality.  We stood up for making the world a better place, we fought for really sound things, like stopping oppression.  We had great thoughts, greater principles, all while having highly educated children and the greatest economy (as Daniels' noted).

We are not the only place with liberty, but we have among the lowest level of economic liberty in the world - the liberty which the right so often beats their chest about - namely the "liberty" for the rich to pursue wealth by stuffing the airwaves with nonsense and suppressing the pay (and pensions) of the middle class, isn't the reason we are a great nation.  If that were it, Switzerland and/or Dubai should be acclaimed the greatest places ever.

No, we were once the greatest place for the same reason we can be again, we believed in doing what was best for all of us without trampling on the liberties of any of us.  We seem to have forgotten what standing up for what was right meant, it meant when the ACLU defended the KKK, we applauded, we felt that imprisoning people without charge was totally unacceptable, and defrauding the US populace of their right to freely vote was an offense to our democracy.  Once our people knew these things, or at least most of them did, and the kinds of things which happen today WOULD NOT have been tolerated by the US people of 1970 or 1947.  THEY fought too hard to protect those rights, and importantly, those who could not defend or protect themselves.

We once were the greatest nation on earth, we could be again, but first we must learn to respect the truth, teach our kids to think and question, and most of all, to stand up for that which helps us all, all around the world, again.

The show was non-partisan, it insulted liberals and conservatives, and it spoke to the need to simply do the right thing, to seek the truth and let the chips fall where they may.  The show has a promising start, perhaps it will even help.  It is more articulate then I'll ever be and I encourage all of you to give it a try.