At this time of my life, I don’t hope for an antidote to the corruption and horror of the public world, but just for some understanding of what I read and see. Merely scanning The Times the last few days I read about a group of California Latino politicians — the LA Council president, two Council members, and a powerful labor leader’s insults being captured on tape expressing racist remarks about other politicians and groups whom they see as competitors and feel contempt for. Clearly, no group is immune from being racist and homophobic, or from playing political power games. So these Latino politicians—especially Nury Martinez, the Council President who resigned—are clearly no better than the white hacks who preceded them. In fact, Martinez even rails against brown, indigenous Mexicans—demonstrating the way racism and caste operates within the Latino world as well.
One always hopes that group identity politics, whose historical and political reasons for being are obvious, are not the final goal of a minority group, but part of the process of ultimately committing to a politics that has a larger and more inclusive agenda. A vision of a public world that protests oppression without demeaning and submerging other minority groups along the way would be ideal—also, one that realizes that identity isn’t totally defined by race, ethnicity or gender, but is more complex and contradictory in its essence. However, this may probably be the wrong historical moment for that notion to gain acceptance, but it doesn’t mean that it isn’t possible and necessary.
One more piece of horrific news that appears daily is the war coverage from the Ukraine. Yes, wars often include the bombing of residences and the massacre of civilians—Dresden was bombed during WWII, and, of course we bombed Hiroshima and Nagasaki to end the war with Japan. I know there is no such a thing as a clean war. But Putin the invader, in his imperial fantasies and his lack of moral qualms, arouses only my revulsion. And since I’m alive in the here and now, when journalists cover wars from all angles and in every murderous detail — through words and pictures — so little remains hidden from our consciousness. Consequently, we absorb all its heinousness daily.
I have just skimmed the surface of the daily horrors; there are protests in Iran against the theocracy, Republican candidates — Trump Mini-Me’s — who have only disdain for democracy, and autocracies are repressively ruling countries ranging from Turkey and Belarus to many African countries. The best I can do is read and write with some insight about what’s out there.
