ANGER & FRUSTRATION TO "GREAT ELECTION & STAYING POSITIVE" EXPRESSED & EXPLAINED

ANGER & FRUSTRATION TO “GREAT ELECTION & STAYING POSITIVE” EXPRESSED & EXPLAINED

James R. Fisher, Jr., Ph.D.
© November 8, 2008

“Anger begins in folly and ends in repentance.”

Pythagoras (582 – 500 B.C.E.), Greek philosopher and named for the “Pythagorean Theorem” in Geometry

I share this with you only because it illustrates the fever in this quadrennial madness, which always occurs every four years but it seems even more intense this year (see below under: PLEASE NOTE).

Dr. Donald Farr is one of the good guys, one of the selfless people who has taken on the load of creating a memory list of some 400 e-mailers of mainly former classmates and fellow town's people who grew up with him some fifty or so years ago in a place called Clinton, Iowa.

These people are scattered about the nation, if not the globe, and many have done well, but it would appear many have never loosen the hold of the place of their birth on their minds, beliefs or values. Some might think this is good; others might wonder why; and still others couldn't care less one way or the other.

Don has distinguished himself as a NASA scientist first studying science and engineering and then going on to take a doctorate in psychology. His work at NASA was primarily in ergonomics. He is now an international coach, counselor and advisor to individuals and corporations alike hardly slowing down at all.

We have never met but grew up in the same town at opposite ends of the community and went to different high schools, at the same time, he at Lyons High in the North end, and me at Clinton High in the South end. We both came from working class families as well.

One thing Clinton prided itself in those mid-twentieth century days was the quality of its schools.

I don't know if this was true of Don, but I sense that it was, as I took four years of English, two years of Latin, four years of science (including a year each of biology, physics, and chemistry), four years of math (including solid geometry, college algebra and introduction to calculus), and four years of history and social science. It was called "college preparatory," but even in my much larger school there were only a little over a dozen classmates in most of my classes.

I don't believe Don was an athlete but I believe he was active in band and orchestra and other extra curricular activities such as student government. I played four years of football, basketball, track and baseball during my high school years and was also active in student government and sports reporter for the school newspaper.

I tell you this for reason. In all that time, I never had a single student of color in any of my classes and I doubt if Don did as well. In athletics, I only had the opportunity to play one season in all those sports with an African American, and that was in my junior year in football.

Growing up in northeastern Iowa in a town of some 33,000 with less than 300 African Americans in the community, I never saw any blacks in department stores, at the movies, at the municipal pool, or in the factory l worked in during my summer vacations while in college. Looking back now, I realize I lived in the far north but in an essentially segregated town.

My family was poor, my da a brakeman on the railroad, very Catholic and very Irish. You would have thought we lived in Ireland. My da would put down anyone that said anything against Catholics, especially Irish Catholics, but he never went to church. My mother was devout, and remained so until her dying day.

My parents were staunch Democrats with pictures on the wall of president Franklin Delano Roosevelt and Pope Pius XII. They could never understand how I drifted away towards conservatism and the Republican Party, which I did once I was in college, and continued so much of my working life until I worked abroad.

In a strange way, working around the world, retiring young, then going back to school to continue my education, then working abroad again, returning to teach and consult some, write and read tons, I came to look at the world differently.

I looked at it less through the lens of ideology, nationalism and religion and more through the lens of me, a single soul, in a vast sea of humanity in which I lived a privileged existence while most of the world didn't.

I encountered suffering, deprivation, humiliation, exclusion and yes, exploitation at every turn in the name of capitalism and progress, idealism and Catholicism, Americanism and greed.

A friend some fifty years ago said I was an angry young man, a psychiatrist more recently told me that my prime motivation was anger. They have been right when they said it but I think they are both wrong now. I think my lens has widened beyond my naked self. I find myself bleeding real tears when I see what is going on in the Democratic Republic of Congo and Darfur, feeling helpless, ashamed and self-conscious.

If anyone were to look at the body of my writing, it is to widen the lens of ordinary souls such as myself and, yes, to energize those that read me to feel the same unnerving sense of guilt and waste and preoccupation.

It is my sense that we are in as unchartered territory today as was the case when George Washington assumed the presidency.

If you read history, you know he wasn't too bright, very well educated, and was known something of a boob.

Thomas Jefferson, Alexander Hamilton, John Adams, James Monroe and James Madison were far more gifted in matters of mind. But this is where he exceeded them: he had the wisdom to choose them for his cabinet, and he was a great delegator, never a micromanager.

What he had superior to all of them was a healthy ego and fine sensitivity, and we as a nation have profited since in LEADERSHIP written large.

He knew what he was and what he wasn't.

He knew he was the embodiment of the American Revolution although certainly not its greatest general.

He knew he had presence in being tall, stately and magnificent in a uniform. In fact, he was the Kevin Cline of his day being a great designer of clothes, especially uniforms.

He knew that what he did or didn't do was precedent setting.

He was the first to say, "So help me God" when he took the oath of office in front of the Federal Building in New York City on April 30, 1789. Forty-two presidents since have said the same words.

He knew he was athletic -- Jefferson called him the greatest horseman of his age -- handsome and a cutting figure in uniform. Consequently, he never allowed any of his staff or the public to see him less attired.

He had his quirks. For example, he never shook anyone's hand because he thought that below the dignity of the office. Yet, he didn't want to be called "your majesty," but preferred simply, "Mr. President."

He could have been president for life, but left office after his second four-year term. In both elections, he won 100 percent of the electoral votes, which has never been repeated.

We put so much stock in intelligence in leadership meaning, of course, cognitive intelligence, but Washington had emotional intelligence, a sense of time, place and space, along with absolute dignity, integrity and sincerity. He never dropped his mask.

Never in his life did he slip from that mantle or from the total awareness of his symbolic role in the survival of this young Republic.

Now, why have I wondered from president-elect Barak Obama to George Washington?

It is because I think where he is and what he is in this time, place and space is equally as treacherous as it was when Washington assumed the presidency.

Washington confessed when he assumed office in 1789 that he felt as if he were going to his executioner because there was no way he could possibly meet or live up to the expectations of the people. I sense that president-elect Obama has a similar trepidation.

Be always well,

Jim

_________________________

PLEASE NOTE:

This is why I asked to have my name removed from the Don Farr "memories list."

Sorry Paul, I did wish to let everyone know how some feel. Received MANY like yours and I am finished with anything POLITICAL...
I promise!
=;-Don

Paul wrote:
Please, Don, I don't like to use this kind of language, but if this is the kind of bullshit you intend to spread around using Memories Net, please remove my name from your list. I do not want to get my delete key dirty using it on stuff like this.

I'm serious. Either this crap gets stopped or take my name off your list.

PCR-LHS'51

Don,

Please remove me from the Memories List. I know you try to have balance but, hey, life is life and people are people. I am not an ideologue as you know, and obviously have little in common with the majority if not all on your list. I wish you well, and I think you do get work for people of a certain persuasion. I will still send stuff to you for your own curiosity if you like, but I'll remove your name as well if you like.
Always be well,

Jim
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Subj: Re: Fwd: [The Peripatetic Philosopher] GREAT ELECTION -- STAYING POSITIVE -- AN E...
Date: 11/7/2008 6:37:02 PM Eastern Standard Time
From: dfarr@earthlink.net
Received from Internet: click here for more information


Sorry Paul, I did wish to let everyone know how some feel. Received MANY like yours and I am finished with anything POLITICAL...
I promise!
=;-Don

Paul Redin wrote:
Please, Don, I don't like to use this kind of language, but if this is the kind of bullshit you intend to spread around using Memories Net, please remove my name from your list. I do not want to get my delete key dirty using it on stuff like this.

I'm serious. Either this crap gets stopped or take my name off your list.

PCR-LHS'51

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Previous Reference: “GREAT ELECTION -- STAYING POSITIVE -- AN EXCHANGE

James R. Fisher, Jr., Ph.D.
© November 7, 2008

”Positive views of truth and duty are those that impress the mind and lead to action; negation dwells mostly in cavil and denial.”

Richard Whately (1787 -- 1863), Archbishop of Dublin

A WRITER WRITES:

Thanks, Jim, for sharing your thoughts and those of your friends regarding this election, etc.