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“A child’s mind is not a container to be filled but rather a fire to be kindled.” ~ Dorothea Brande
At this time in my life one of my very favorite things is to have my grandson on my lap watching him watch Minecraft episodes.
I love the connection with all my grandkids.
But I worry about them.
The world to which they’re being introduced is a dark and cynical place.
- what they see
- what they hear
- what they are told
It’s often a grand distortion meant only to further the selfish aims of selfish individuals.
Talk of the common good is often replaced by only of what’s best for me.
Lying has been made acceptable if, of course, it’s in service one’s own personal agenda.
Recently, I inadvertently exposed my grandson to the greatest liar of our time.
I’d been watching a recording of a Trump rally when I got up to get a glass of water. When I returned my grandson, Sam, was glued to the screen.
My first thought was to snatch the iPad from him.
But then I heard a faint whisper in my ear saying, “DON’T — Let it be.”
It was voices of my parents saying, “Pat, this is a moment to kindle a fire in young Sam.”
So together Sam and I watched this sick little man rant on with his many lies.
Afterward, I shared with Sam, in no uncertain terms, how I felt about what we’d just watched and how wrong it is to lie and disrespect other people.
I wanted to light a fire in the little guy’s conscience.
I had own moment 70 years earlier — when the United States was under the spell another selfish demagogue.
Senator Joseph McCarthy was, at the time, waging an ugly conspiracy campaign against people he designated as communists.
Sadly, he held large segments of the population in the palm of his hand.
He was a master of the new medium — television.
In one speech televised across the nation he said,
“Today we are engaged in a final, all-out battle between communistic atheism and Christianity. The modern champions of communism have selected this as the time. And, ladies and gentlemen, the chips are down—they are truly down.”
It’s hard to overstate the hysteria generated by his accusations.
Tragically,
- careers were lost,
- reputations were destroyed,
- the country was thrown into a partisan frenzy.
All to advance the career of this dishonest propagandist.
But then came the moment my fire was lit.
In 1954 the TV networks decided to provide gavel-to-gavel coverage of the Senate hearings aimed at examining the supposed infiltration of communists into the government, military, and entertainment industry.
The “McCarthy hearings” were a disgraceful affair..
But in them McCarthy was shown to be who he was — a bully and a liar.
His career was destroyed.
Mom and Dad chose not to “protect” us from this evil man but encouraged us to watch the hearings along with them.
I saw their abject disgust and took this to mean that how McCarthy was acting was wrong.
Life was never quite the same after that. A standard had been set. From then on the news of the day was fully and freely discussed around the dinner table. Each day was a new civics lesson.
These conversations formed how I viewed the world.
There was a dramatic peak to this coming of age moment.
In April my parents gathered us around the TV to hear Edward R. Murrow speak on the subject of McCarthy on his program, “See it Now.”
It was the seminal moment when the McCarthy fever finally broke.
My prayer is that my grandchildren will soon experience the moment when the fever of Trumpism breaks.
Just a thought…
Pat
TO ENJOY THE MUSIC IN TODAY’S POST, PLEASE CLICK THE LINK ABOVE IN YOUR EMAIL, OR click here
Another selection for our Voyager flight into eternity, remembering another time when the fires of a generation of children were kindled.
It is the 1985 classic, USA For Africa – We Are The World, composed by Lionel Ritchie and Michael Jackson, and produced by Quincy Jones and Michael Omartian. Launched to combat famine in Ethiopia, the effort raised more than $80 million in humanitarian aid for Africa and the U.S.
To date, the video has been downloaded 162 million times.