Governance

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To the Editor:
Since Ronald Reagan was President, Republicans have been running successfully on his platform of “government is the problem” and that deregulated markets can solve the problems of the nation.  They have been aided in this by wealthy donors who saw (and see) clearly, “there is money to be made here”.  This has resulted in a slew of office holders not only indebted to their donors but also largely devoid of the ability to govern, which, in a democracy, requires having a perspective that extends beyond narrow self interest.  The impending perils of global climate change are quite frightening enough without the sense that those in office are utterly inept in the skills of governance.

Robert Porath

Mt. Evans

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To the Editor;

As to honoring past icons, Colorado’s 2nd Territorial Governor John Evans, as one of the founding fathers of Denver and Colorado’s economic development, deservedly has his name attached to several small railroad towns, a major street, and even a Professorship and chapel at DU. He is similarly honored in Illinois, however, from his failure as Superintendent of Indian Affairs and involvement in instigating the Sand Creek Massacre in which a peace-seeking village of Cheyenne and Arapaho was brutally attacked, it seems incongruous is that one of our magnificent “14ers” also bears his nome.  The uprooting of the Native Peoples of America amounts to a genocide equalling that of the Holocaust.  That John Evans’ name is on a piece of the natural beauty of Colorado is a travesty that should be removed.

Robert Porath

White Privilege

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To the Editor:

On the one hand there is the boorish, self-aggrandizing pathological liar that is Donald Trump and on the other the millions of people who have no problem with the President of the United States being this deranged.  The driving force behind this phenomenon, most simply put, is race.  A large percentage of white America will never accept racial equality in any form.  That Barack Obama could hold office with intelligence, dignity, and grace for 8 years was too much to bear.  Immigration, voting rights, and affirmative action in hiring and education are seen as threats to white privilege, wealth, and power.  Slavery may have been abolished but white supremacy is very much alive today.

Robert Porath

Fake, fake, fake!

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Donald Trump made the first splash in his campaign for President with a “fake news” story that Obama was not born in America. Now he and his supporters cry, “Fake News!” at any reporting not favorable to him or his message, particularly in regard to the Russian involvement in his campaign. Looking past the tacit racism underlying the questioning of Obama’s “Americaness”, the claim of fake news has become a political tool to confound and confuse public perception of what may or may not be factual. A truthful evaluation of the Republican effort to Repeal and Replace Obama’s Affordable Care Act would term it the Fake Health Care Act in its denial of quality health care for those less fortunate, which also exposes the Fake Christianity of Republican politicians who choose to ignore the teachings of the Beatitudes. Through it all, it reveals that Donald Trump is a truly Fake Savior of America’s Greatness.

Robert Porath

A Guiding Thread

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To the Editor:
If there is a guiding thread through the maze of incoherence and distraction created by the ascendency of Donald Trump to the Presidency, it points to a plan that America be governed not on democratic principles but as an autocratic fascist oligarchy.  With a Cabinet filled with retired generals, CEOs, and billionaires, it is no wonder the President so admires Vladimir Putin and the Russian oligarchs.  Further, the Supreme Court decision on Citizens United cleared the way for the unlimited power of wealth to influence American politics, which sits well with the Libertarian/Republican desire for a limited, deregulated “small government”.  This is a government not of the People but one by and for a wealthy elite.
Robert Porath

The Dung Beetle Congress

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To the Editor:
The Republican Party’s Repeal and Replace Obamacare efforts are rooted firmly in Social Darwinism, aka, the survival of only the fittest, as well as the Calvinist belief that being wealthy implied being in God’s favor, and the economic elitism of Ayn Rand. If you are poor, disabled, or otherwise unfortunate in life, your medical care is of no concern to the powers that be. Watching the slow determined slog of their attempts to push a bill to fruition through the halls of Congress brings to mind the image of a dung beetle resolutely rolling a ball of dung to its nesting place. One has to admire the dedicated and seemingly cheerful labor it applies to its task. That its prized possession has value to no one but itself is clearly not the beetle’s concern.
Robert Porath

Education

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To the Editor:
    Up until Ronald Reagan was elected Governor, public education through college was free for any citizen of California.  One could call it socialist education, an entitlement program that benefited anyone wishing to become better educated.  As the “Question Authority” and Free Speech movements and the anti-Viet Nam war protests grew on college campuses, the Conservative sentiment became “education is not for the masses” and must be relegated to a select few, easily manageable and fully buying into the status quo and America’s self-image, and the push has been to render higher education increasingly more expensive and privatized.  What better way to ensure compliant behavior is there than to have everyone indebted to the financial industries?  There is a lot of braggadocio about the “freedoms” inherent in capitalism, but being constantly indentured, be it to a bank or, for that matter, to “must-have” telecommunication services, does not seem much like true freedom. The great irony is that the emphasis on the monetary value of education, in reality, only cheapens its true value, both to an individual and to society at large.  Call it socialism, if you must, but like healthcare and retirement planning, education should not be placed so heavily under the thumb of for-profit institutions.
– RP

Elderly Care in America

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Dustin Hoffman’s film Quartet besides being a gentle gem of acting and film-making, should also be seen in contrast to the state and status of the elderly in America. A Home for Retired Musicians is, of course, a completely unique institution and who wouldn’t like to live out their last days on a bucolic country estate in England, surrounded by people of like interests still engaged in and sharing of their passions, but we must not ignore the grim reality of old age institutions here which, for the most part, resemble dormitories for minimum security prison hospitals . Eldercare in America is in a great conundrum: the Senate is the most elderly branch of government, but with its members having generous retirement plans and substantial accumulated wealth, it tends not to be a personally high-priority issue; and the younger House of Representatives generally thinks only one term to the next, and both political parties seem content to ascribe the misnomer “entitlement” to any federally administered, non-profit insurance program for retired people. So where are we aging boomers to turn?

In the film, the Home for Retired Musicians appears to be maintained by a combination of charitable giving and government subsidy (Maggie Smith’s character, despite having been an operatic diva, is there essentially “on the dole”), but it also operates somewhat like a working, almost “tribal”, commune with classes, lessons, and concerts to supplement its survival. However, while marijuana use seems on the comeback trail (drug use as the curer of all ails never left), one thing we boomers learned in in our hippie days is that communal living and finding tribal compatibility are next to impossible, some might even call it “downright unAmerican”. Classical musicians are unique in that, despite rivalries and jealousies, they embrace both the value of collaborative work and a strong sense of self. For the rest of us, the future is more a toss-up. Perhaps in time, all the new communication technology will change how the next generation relates to one another, but today a distinct worry is that our tendency to individualism, independence, and newness will leave us ultimately isolated, alone,and forgotten.

The Super Bowl? More like Commercial Bowl.

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To the Editor:
    I think it important to note that the word “football” does not appear in the title “The Super Bowl” and, judging from the amount of post-game commentary over “winners and losers”, this media extravaganza could more realistically be called the Commercial Bowl.  Further, with either CBS advertising itself or the NFL targetting parents and young athletes to counter recent negative revelations of brain injury from the sport, the official 60 minutes of playing time actually amounts to less than 40 that are commercial-free, and real-time action, from the snap of the ball to the end of the play, is less than 20.  I timed the 2nd half at 9 minutes and I suspect that the Go Daddy commercial prompted as much visceral and glandular response as Jacoby Jones’ kickoff return (and lasted longer).  So is it really “football” that we are watching?
– RP

On Reading

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To the Editor –

I always celebrate the confluences and serendipity of books and life.  I’ve been reading Anthony Burgess’ fictional biography of Christopher Marlowe, A Dead Man in Deptford, not an easy read as, ever the linguist, he writes in, I presume, a passable Elizabethan English.  He also does not sugarcoat what life was like then nor gloss over the intrigues of the Court (what we would call “politics” today) and the dangerous ground theater trod in its earliest days.

And so today we have a volatile mixture of politics and religion, the general populace walking around armed (with guns, not daggers and swords) for protection, and the recovery of the body of Richard II, written into history (by the victors, Shakespeare’s patrons) as villianous.  Isn’t it all somewhat wondrous.

– RP