Slavery. 3/5 of a vote. 40 acres and a mule. Internment camps. Emancipation Proclamation. Jim Crow. Assassinations of Malcolm X, Martin Luther King Junior. Rodney King. Jimmy the Greek. The list goes on.
On the eve of the most important event in many minorities' lives and on Martin Luther King Jr Day, with his Special Comment, does Mr. Olbermann elect to celebrate? Does he choose to frame the historic nature of tomorrow in any manner? Will history look back at his broadcast with acknowledgement of relevant timing and valid purpose? No. It will not - and I am sorely disappointed as a fan of Keith Olbermann. Mr. Olbermann - if sports analogies are more easily analagous to you, you've demanded the soon to be Super Bowl champs score 10 touchdowns on the first 3 regular season games (of the next season) with 3 minutes left in the fourth quarter of the Super Bowl. Talk about pissing in someone's cereal.
Before I delve into a surely flame inducing diary, let me lay down the environment in which this is written. I am a not a "liberal." I believe in doing what's right and most of the time, I feel that the more liberal social, poiltical, and financial policies are what's necessary. While I do admire idealism, I believe that blind idealism (far left and far right thinking) without a healthy dose of pragmatism leads to a stagnant government. As such, most would probably characterize me as a moderate, even though I have loved Daily Kos in the past.
In the past is the key phrase. To my eyes, since November 4th, Daily Kos easily delves into the "Obama isn't doing it this exact way so he is not representative of us Kossacks" complaints followed by a whole bunch of flames thrown towards the more moderate group of Kossacks. And the guy isn't even President yet. When my friends read DailyKos (all of them left leaning), they're horrified at their virgin experience. One even went so far as to say that it would seem that the Republican being assailed by the Kossacks is President elect Obama. You can yell at me for that - but that is how they reacted. The far left and Daily Kos (and I didn't use to see Kos as far left or whatever , I used to see it as a place where people wanted to do the right thing congregated) have lost touch with most of society already - which is a recipe for losing in 2012.
Which brings me to Mr. Olbermann's special comment. I used to be a staunch supporter of his show. As a surgeon, I don't have the time to watch TV, but I still set my DVR to record Mr. Olbermann every day. Its the only thing I watch. When he went after the ridiculousness of the Bush administration, when he exposed the poor management and lies of the Clinton campaign, I felt as though I had a voice through him. For a time, it was good. But it seems like recently, Mr. Olbermann has treated Obama with a lens that has focuses solely on the possible missteps and not the great hope one would expect a liberal leaning show to promote. If I wanted a show that forgets the main point of the Obama presidency and focuses on what he's doing wrong - I'd watch Fox.
I forgave him for everything, still. Until tonight.
You see, I grew up an Asian in Minnesota and, for a small time, Texas. I got beat up for being Asian in grade school. I was told by one date that her parents didn't approve of "gooks." One neighbor told me to get off his sidewalk, or he'd "kill you like all of those gooks in Nam!" That was the obvious stuff. To make it through, I focused my energy on the history of minorities in this country - the obvious being the plight of African-Americans. I studied and admired Frederick Douglass, Malcolm X, MLK Jr, Langston Hughes, Duke Ellington, etc. The story of Black America has entangled itself and guided the history of our nation. No one can deny that. For me, and for many more who have experienced worse, the inauguration of Barack Obama is the defining moment of race relations in our lifetime. This is not simply a new chapter, this is a new volume of American History and it should be treated as such.
As a training surgeon, I worked at an urban county hospital where the despair of the economy and the often hidden and forgotten inner city minorities were dying physically and emotionally. The number of times I've had to pronounce death for a young teenage minority boy after being caught in the crossfire is too numerous to count. There was no hope for them, even if they survived their injuries. Every time it was tragic, and every time I wondered if someone cared. But something changed as the election neared. Where despair lived, the mantra of Hope evicted it and replaced it with comments like, "I need to be better, I can be somebody - look at Obama." I had never heard that before.
So what does Mr. Olbermann do? Does he touch on this? Does he save his passion to go back and look at where we've come from as a nation in race relations? Does he reflect on how, in the long run, this will change how all minorities look at themselves? No. He does not.
Instead, we hear about how torture is the vital ill that will bring the future of our country down. While I agree that it needs to be investigated to its fullest. Shouldn't this happen some other time? It would not be out of place a week from now. But why now? Anyone can say, "well, if you feel strongly about it, you should say it." But why is that right? You should say it, but you should say it at the right time. And that is the key mistake that was made by Mr. Olbermann. Special comments are great. But put it at the wrong time, and it has the opposite effect, it actually polarizes people like me away from it.
Finally, should torture be the main issue for the Obama administration? If you watch Mr. Olbermann enough, it is. Or if you read Daily Kos, sometimes it is. But let me pull the often hated lens of reality into this picture. People are losing jobs, they are losing health care, the war continues to kill our soldiers and everyone else's citizens. Inner city violence is taking more teenage lives than anyone cares to hear. And it will get worse with the collapsing economy. Should not these issues be more urgent than something that happened in the past?
I know that I'll be flamed up the wazoo for this post. But I can't help it. It is a matter of timing. Like other Kossacks, I care too much about this country to turn a blind eye from the wrongs of our society. But for this week, I have to. I have to believe that what will happen tomorrow is a sign that we are still the best country on this Earth. I have to feel that tomorrow is vindication for all those times I endured subtle or overt racism. I have to believe that the inauguration of President Obama is the hope that can blunt the pain of race relations in this country.
The last thing I need, Mr. Olbermann, is for someone to take that away from me.