Senior Momentum by Zoe Tummillo - September 2019
Is there a better way to insult tragedy than by offering rote recitations of empty sympathy?
In my (not-so-humble) opinion, a second wave of pain cruelly strikes the victims of our gun violence incidents when false words of empathy and sympathy are stumblingly recited from a prompter, by a tainted leader — and broadcast like so much dust into the wind, followed by precisely nothing.
Why are we not moved enough by the writing on the wall? It’s surely clear enough, bloody enough, repeated enough and costs enough! Words matter. We all know that. Words can comfort and words can incite. And, they have. A wise Washington big shot cautioned early on that, hammered at the populace long enough, a twisted leader’s mantra would eventually just become de rigueur.
And so it seems... There is a pathetic U. S. Senate character, with too much perceived power, sitting on countless Measures, Resolutions and Bills, passed by our House of Representatives. He – alone – audaciously looks shattered families and maimed victims in the face and pouts: No. What’s going on? I am old enough to remember (but not the name —) a majority leader who was unseated by his party for inaction. Well?
That’s not the only jinx in our Congress, and fixing him would not fix everything. When are we going to demand that all of the “enoughs” are enough? When to act to hold back what is slipping away?
I have never been a political alarmist; I’m just too practical. I have always had confidence that our system will right itself when it slips up. (After all, we have “checks and balances,” Right? Right... ) But I am starting to get really nervous – not for the clarity – for the complacence.
I think about cheese. It ages when left alone, wrapped by those who know and stored at the right temperature. The good molds develop and we love its combination of good, fresh dairy and smart palatable molds. Like us, well balanced, when we age gracefully! (I hope, I hope, I hope....) But, once bought, if left at the back of the fridge too long alone, unsupervised, unchecked, un-tempered, the good mold corrupts, hardens, and can turn really ugly – failing both the taste and risk tests.
There is a corollary in there somewhere; I know it! The analogy keeps bringing to mind isolationists and nationalists and how they seem to love their own essences more than the duty they were charged with, pledged to and blatantly shirk... Like old cheese filled with itself; its beauty hardened, smelling sour, no longer desired – even by its former connoisseurs.
One recent morning, coffee in hand, I muttered to myself as I tuned in the news channel: I wonder who killed who last night while I was sleeping...? I heard my own voice, noticed my cynicism and it turned into a pervasive sadness. In part, it is a projected grief in knowing the solutions and remedies are for other generations to master; I’m too old, too tired, too angry. Yet, to start a day with such negativity just isn’t me, I told myself! Snap out of it! (As Mary Englebright’s girl says so forcefully on that coffee mug!) Snap Out Of It!
Can we? Will we? Our September Gazette theme says: Ready for Change! It couldn’t be more poignant, more relevant or more important. There’s the Big Picture, and there are all the other pictures — from our very personal and necessary transitions, all the way through everything we hold dear — to the very soul of our Democratic Republic.
Change can come hard; the price is often quite high. For my beloved country the time is now and the price must be irrelevant.
