Monday, March 26, 2018

The other video that made me cry this weekend

Emma Gonzalez' evocation of her fallen friends was not the only message that had me in tears this weekend. This, from basketball team owner Vivek Ranadive speaking after protests against the police shooting of Stephon Clark had delayed a scheduled game for 19 minutes, also reduced me to tears.
Those old Greek philosophers, Plato and Aristotle, held that a good polity was only possible when citizens practiced "civic virtue." In this country, the founders thought that such good character -- balancing individual freedom with responsibility to community -- would be the foundation for their novel republic without a king. Under late capitalism, it is vanishingly rare to see a rich businessman display civic virtue, but Mr. Ranadive has it down here.

The team members are impressive too.
When civic virtue at the top is so obviously lacking as in the current White House and Republican Congress, citizens must look to other role models. Fortunately, these arise again and again from the people of this vast, complicated country.
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1 comment:

  1. Rain TrueaxMonday, March 26, 2018 8:28:00 AM

    We have been heading toward a breaking point as a culture. Each side sees the other side as the villain an on we go while we can't find ways to deal with real villains. It seems there are so many things that get piled on that people find themselves unable to think through to solutions. So this week-end we had the marches across the country and then a big interview with the porn queen. Both at the same time virtually for news and i guess the porn queen got the biggest ratings for 60 minutes in 10 years. What does that say about us as a people that so many would want to watch something like that? And they are running a movie on Chappaquiddick, with another upsetting story unrelated to today other than the tragedy and how some get away with manslaughter while others spend a lifetime in prison just for firing a gun. I wish I had answers but as a culture that is constantly bombarded, I'd say one answer is turn it all off and go for a walk-- without an audio device. Lots of deep breaths are good too. I refused to listen or read anything about the porn queen, but had a headline get through anyway that she said she never liked him but wanted to get on his show-- so she admitted she was a whore. The saddest part is she probably doesn't even know what she said. :(

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