By CHARLES ANDREWS
THESE ARE… THE BEST OF TIMES?
Another typo, he meant the beast of times. Or, uh oh, Charles is on drugs again. Hallucinogens, it would seem.
How can I even have that thought, let alone write those words? To tell the truth, I’ve been trying to for quite some time, but just couldn’t climb that mountain. For some reason, today is the day. I think listening to Joni Mitchell’s “Blue” helped.
Even though, just this morning I watched a few minutes of U.S. Attorney General Pam Bondi – now there’s a name and a title that just don’t belong together in a sane universe – “testifying” before Congress. (“I’m not going to play your yes or no game,” she spat out at a Congressman, an elected Congressman, of course not answering a simple yes or no question but rather launching into a long, bitter tirade that the GOP chair had a lot of difficulty in ending.)
We’ve been cursed in our history with a few “lesser” Attorney Generals, but she is a vile, angry, nasty liar – if you didn’t already know that, you only needed a few minutes this morning to be convinced – her every utterance is an attempt to rewrite history. The Justice Department she heads has been responsible for doing everything possible to keep the laughably redacted files from seeing the light of day. And she has led the retribution investigations of Trump’s enemies list. She was Attorney General of Florida from January 2011 through 2019. Let’s just call them The Epstein Years. She did such a stellar job that King Donald rewarded her with one of the most important cabinet positions. And it has paid off royally for him, hasn’t it?
TWO THINGS SEEM CLEAR
That these may in fact be the worst of times for the United States, its people, government, Constitution, rule of law, and our reputation and leadership worldwide. We may never rebuild the trust that our would-be king destroyed with his Greenland “distraction.” More than a million deaths (and so much more damage) from COVID was really bad, and so was the Vietnam War. But by many measures, this is the worst I have seen in my seven decades spinning ‘round the sun, five of those in Santa Monica.
I could make lists, but I’m now done with that. Sure, there is a need to inform people what is going on in the dark, especially here in Santa Monica, but I think we have already reached a tipping point. Enough people know to make a difference, and those not on board never will be. The rest of us have to move forward and appreciate our treasures.
Sure, we have a deceptive School Board and City Council, but we are starting to see individuals step forward who want to lead for the residents, not outside interests or elitist philosophies, and we still have elections. We hope. We see good people starting to organize to clean house of crooked politicians, and that is such an opportunity. I even heard a REPUBLICAN congressman, from TENNESSEE, declare Washington a sewer, not a swamp, that corrupt politicians have been stealing American taxpayers’ money forever to enrich themselves, and it needs to stop. Dang, I’m agreeing with a GOP leader. He’s absolutely right, and the Dems need to understand this. Winning the midterms is vital, but by no means enough. We need to sweep out the Godawful GOP, and locally the SMRR-Forward developer money-backed tools, and replace them with true representatives of the people, not just more of the same, D or R notwithstanding.
THE BEST OF TIMES
It is! It’s all perspective and perception. Glass half full. The veil of literally centuries has been torn off by men with veiled faces. We haven’t been a good country, in too many important ways. We have displaced and treated terribly the native peoples, kidnapped and enslaved millions from Africa, and treated their descendants terribly, treated half our population terribly in this patriarchy, started wars, overthrown governments abroad, turned our government over to an oligarchy, with just a pretense of democracy.
But – the Trump GOP has gone so far that it has become impossible for anyone with a brain, a heart, and a conscience to not see we have to change things radically.
That’s good news! I wish George Carlin was alive to see it! And the really good news is that we are a nation of good people who have done great things. In science, the arts, medicine, technology, the humanities. We come from great ideas. There never was a democracy on earth until our founding fathers said, let’s try it, a great experiment. They were a small nation with no army needing to defeat a king and the most powerful nation on earth. We did it. We know how to beat back kings. We have always been a work in progress, striving to live up to our founding ideals. Inching toward that goal, but based on worthy notions of equality and governance. There will always be those who try to subvert those ideals for their own power and enrichment, but I think we have learned a lot this last decade about recognizing that, fighting it, fixing it. I think we’re ready, it is challenging, but so exciting. We are a generation called to great things.
Best of times? Bad Bunny testifying at the Super Bowl! Restarted space exploration. So many advances in medicine. American Pope Leo! If it don’t kill us all or take all our jobs, the possibilities of AI and robotics to create a better world for all. A truly new era of American democratic leadership. We can feed the world and abolish deadly poverty if we have the political will. Why, I even believe Santa Monica can once again become a great city that everyone admires, not makes fun of. A city of the arts. The Olympics are coming, the World Cup. We have never had such opportunities to change the world and our own lives and our children’s. Get up, stand up, it’s the best of times.
Charles Andrews has lived in Santa Monica for 40 years and wouldn’t live anywhere else in the world. Really. Send love and/or rebuke to him at therealmrmusic@gmail.com
