Before there was George Carlin or Lewis Black, there was Mort Sahl.  In August 1960, Sahl appeared on the cover of Time Magazine and was lauded as the person who could, through social satire, help voters understand the choices in the upcoming presidential election. In what seems unimaginable today, Sahl befriended several presidents despite his sometimes critical commentaries and was often invited to accompany them on Air Force One, which resulted in my all-time favorite Mort Sahl story which, 50 years later, I can only paraphrase.

I was flying back to Washington, DC from California with President Kennedy when the plane hit an air pocket and dropped several hundred feet.  Kennedy comes out of his private office in the back of the plane and walks right up to me.  He says, “Sahl, you realize what might have just happened don’t you?  If we had crashed, your name would have been in small print.” Ironically, the same thing happened again just recently when I was on Air Force One with Nixon.  Nixon walks to the front of the plane and says to all on board, staff and press, “I hope you realize how close the country came to losing its leadership.”That tells you everything you need to know about these two men.

Mort Sahl released 10 comedy albums between 1958 (At Sunset) and 1973 (Sing a Song of Watergate).  Of all these hours of what can only be described as “streams of consciousness,” one bit seems more relevant today than all the rest.  Again, I will paraphrase.

I know they did not mean it this way, but I never understood why the introduction to the television show Superman proclaimed ‘…this strange visitor from another planet…fights a never ending battle for truth, justice and the American way.”  In school, we were told truth and justice WERE the American way.  But when you add the AND, doesn’t that mean, “There is truth and justice AND then there is the American way.”

For the record, the original description of the Man of Steel, when he first appeared in DC Comics in 1941, did not include “and the American way.”  It was added when the television adaptation Adventures of Superman debuted in September 1952.

Sadly, it appears Sahl was on to something.  Consider the following.

• Jeffrey Epstein receives a slap on the wrist for running a prostitution ring with under-aged girls.
• Attorney General William Barr does not believe Congress, much less American voters, have a right to see the complete account of Russian interference in a presidential election.
• The Illinois state attorney drops charges against actor Jussie Smollet, even though evidence suggests he faked a hate crime which cost the Chicago police time and over $125,000 in resources to investigate.
• More is being written about the consequences to the children of the parents indicted for gaming the college admissions system than the impact on qualified applicants deprived of educational opportunities.  And despite the fact many of these students posed for staged photographs or provided writing samples that were used by SAT surrogates, “details in court documents indicate students were unaware of the parents’ actions.”   (Source: USA Today, April 12, 2019)  [NOTE: The USA Today story was accompanied by a slide show about Lori Loughlin’s daughter titled, “Olivia Jade Giannulli: Her Life in Pictures.”  Unfortunately, it did not include a mug shot of her with her parents.]
• And of course, there is Donald Trump who lied, telling anyone who would listen that the Mueller Report had “totally exonerated” him of obstructing justice.  It’s as if the truth is Trump’s Kryptonite.

In July 2015, a CNN/ORC poll showed 95 percent of registered voters claimed honesty and trustworthiness were important characteristics of the next president. Likewise, in theory, most Americans believe in equal justice under the law.  However, as we learned in 2016, theory and behavior are two different things.  The question in 2020 is, “Does behavior change when theory meets reality?’  Consider the new-found support for the Affordable Care Act and it’s impact on the 2018 mid-terms.  In theory, Republicans could attack it.  But once voters realized what was at stake if ACA was repealed, their preferences changed.

So, what could be a winning message for Democrats next year?  Now that you know what it feels like when you have leaders who constantly lie to you, treat differently those who profess loyalty to those who do not and put personal gain above the national interest, remember when America was great.  Not when there was truth, justice AND the American way.  It was when truth and justice WAS the American way.

For what it’s worth.
Dr. ESP

The screen shot, below, from the Associated Press was captured at 7:16 am this morning.

It is the third day in a row the lead has been about a disgruntled actor, who is accused of staging a fake hate crime, to enhance his public persona.  Before January 29, 2019, I would venture an overwhelming majority of Americans did not know who Jussie Smollett was nor did they care.

In the meantime, a 49 year-old Coast Guard officer has been charged with stockpiling weapons for the alleged purpose of killing the Democratic leadership in Congress, several Democratic presidential candidates and journalists critical of Donald Trump.  His hit list consisted of 22 names including:

Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi
Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schmer
Senator Richard Blumenthal (CT)
Senator Kirsten Gillibrand (NY)
Senator Cory Booker (NJ)
Senator Elizabeth Warren (MA)
Senator Kamala Harris (CA)
Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (NY)
MSNBC Host Joe Scarborough
MSNBC Host Chris Hayes
CNN Host Chris Cuomo
CNN Host Van Jones

In the old days of print journalism, the lead story was said to be “above the fold.”  The digital equivalent is a news service’s home page.  Do the digital editors at the Associated Press truly believe Jussie Smollett deserves more attention or represents a greater threat to the country than Lt. Christopher Hanson?  I hope not, but the evidence suggests otherwise.

Trumpism does not exist without its twin Kardashianism with its focus on celebrity where fame, not character or accomplishment, is the measure of success. Kudos to the FBI and the Coast Guard for averting this potential disaster.  My fear is Lt. Hanson is not alone.  How many more Lt. Hansons are stockpiling weapons and creating hit lists?  Instead of sending reporters to the Midwest to continue interviewing Obama voters who like Donald Trump, maybe those resources would be better devoted to understanding why individuals who claim they support the “law and order” guy have so little respect for what the term actually means.

For what it’s worth.
Dr. ESP

In September, 1897, an eight year-old girl named Virginia O’Hanlon, at her father’s urging, wrote a letter to the editor of the New York Sun asking whether Santa Claus was real.  In what became the most reprinted editorial of all time, Francis Pharcellus Church, a member of the Sun’s editorial staff,  penned the response.  Without giving a definitive answer, Church addressed the philosophical underpinnings behind the Kris Kringle legend and why the spirit of St. Nick was important.

As I have mentioned before, I am a native born Virginian, and the events of the past week have been a time to reflect on what life in Richmond was like in the 1950s and 1960s, and how the remnants of that era continue to emerge from time to time in modern day society.  I beg your indulgence as I share a few childhood memories.

• I attended segregated schools until 1966 when a handful of black students were admitted to Thomas Jefferson High School.
• There were restricted housing developments in Richmond in which Jews were unwelcomed, much less African-Americans.
• Restaurants and movie theaters were also segregated.  From 1933 until the late 1960s, the only places African-Americans could see movies or live performances were the Booker-T and Hippodrome theaters located in the predominantly minority areas.
• At the University of Virginia, I worked in the Office of University Relations under the work study program.  One of my tasks was compiling the minority enrollment report for the then Department of Health, Education and Welfare (HEW).  In 1970, there were less than 100 black students in a total student body of more than 7,500.
• Three hundred and fifty years after the founding of Jamestown, the first permanent English settlement in the new world, the ruling class in the state–senators, congressmen, governors and state legislators–still consisted largely of members of the First Families of Virginia Society, Caucasians with European roots.

So, as I watch the news about Governor Ed Northam and Attorney General Mark Herring, I wonder where is the modern day Francis Church who, if asked whether either or both should resign from office, will take the same approach as Church did with young Miss O’Hanlon?  The value of the question is not a yes or no answer.  The question is an opportunity to re-examine and reflect on the circumstances and awakened curiosity which made us inquire in the first place.

Instead of a battle over who will sit in the governor’s chair for the next two and a half years, this is a much bigger and more important conflict.  What is it about race in America that would make two intelligent white men think it is okay to dress up as black men?  What is it about any institution–educational, professional or commercial–which would not call out someone associated with it for thinking it was okay to post a picture like the one in the Eastern Virginia Medical Center yearbook?  And finally, as a nation, will we ever be able to address the root causes that permit such behavior?

POSTCRIPT

Which brings me to the other issue in this three act drama, the sexual assault charges brought against Lt. Governor Justin Fairfax.  As has been the case since the beginning of the #metoo era, the tragedy is not that a number of powerful men in politics, entertainment and business have had to answer for their behavior.  The real tragedy is, more than a year later, we have not come up with a more reasonable way to pursue the truth in what is often he said/she said situations.  Or not to apply a “one size fits all” approach to every case.

Without making any judgment about the charges against Fairfax, the comparison to Christine Blasey Ford baffles me.  In Ford’s case, if her account is true, she did not follow either of her alleged attackers into a bedroom.  She was on her way to the upstairs bathroom when she said she was forced into a bedroom and assaulted by one boy while the other watched.  If we give Fairfax’s accuser the same benefit of the doubt, she admits she willingly went to his hotel room and kissed him.  She still has the right to say, “That’s enough.”  I know, I will never be able to understand what it is like to be women in this situation.  But this was 2004, and there had been several high-profile cases in which other women had similar experiences.  One would hope members of both sexes would learn from these experiences.

There is another feature of this case which deserves attention.  It was not a power situation.  Neither party worked for the other.  Therefore, neither was required to have any contact with the other if the alleged victim had felt violated.  Neither feared losing their job.  And that may be the key to getting to the truth.  As has been mentioned by several reporters and pundits, one thing you might look for is contemporaneous documentation, e.g. talking to a friend about the experience.  But I can understand a woman, concerned about the potential shame associated with the incident, might keep it to herself.  But there is one more data point.  Did Fairfax and his accuser have any subsequent contact, even something as insignificant as a text or email?  Until we have more information, the media and politicians on both sides of the aisle would be wise to defer to due process.

For what it’s worth.
Dr. ESP