It's Sunday and that means it's time for the mail bag here at Blogistan Polytechnic Institute. Usually we reserve the day for humor and light-hearted criticism. This isn't one of those days. Too many public servants died needlessly this week. We apologize, but sometimes the mail bag isn't funny.
More below the fold....
The staff didn't feel like playing poker this week. The Chef offered to make a nice breakfast, but neither the Janitor nor your mail room clerk were especially hungry. The cards remained unshuffled and the clicking of clay poker chips being riffled was replaced with quiet conversation broken by long pauses of silence. Almost as if she were on automatic pilot, the Chef finally made a few slices of toast au gratin, and we read the mail together. The questions aren't easy and the answers aren't pithy.
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Dear Ms. Crissie,
My dad was a police officer. He died this week. The city funeral will be very big and people are already saying he was a hero. Maybe he was, but I didn't want a hero. I wanted a dad. Why did he have to die?
Missing Dad in Oakland and Pittsburgh
Dear Missing,
There is nothing we can say that will ease your pain. There are no good reasons your father had to die, except the reasons he chose to be a police officer. He wanted other people to be a little safer, so he took a very dangerous job to try to help them. We are forever in his debt, and now in yours. Whatever we lost this week, you lost more than most of us can ever imagine. It is a debt we can never repay, and we mourn for your loss, and for our helplessness to ease your burden.
We are sorry for your loss, and for the role our failure as citizens played in that loss. We helped sow seeds of hate and rage, and sadly your father died in their harvest. His blood is on all our hands, and while we will try to learn that lesson, it will never be enough to ease your sorrow or fill the hole now left in your life.
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Dear Ms. Crissie,
It sounds like you're saying it was our fault for criticizing our society and our government. I understand the grief, but these police officers were killed by individuals, not by an entire society, and not by those of us who try to make society better - as each of us sees it - by voicing our concerns. You're a former attorney and a former journalist. Surely you value the First Amendment as much as I do, even if we disagree on almost every other political issue. In closing, I too am sorry for the loss of these officers.
Glenn in CT
Dear Glenn,
We agree that the First Amendment establishes a free press and free speech as fundamental values of any free society. And we agree that these police officers were killed by individuals. But individuals act for reasons, and to some extent those reasons are shaped by society and the cultural climate we in the media create and maintain. Your radio and television shows indicate that you would like to make society better, as you see that, so you are aware and indeed hope that your words have impact.
So we ask you to consider the impact of promoting a "Fear Zone," or of trying to maintain the state of shock, outrage, and paranoia many felt on September 12, 2001. We cannot answer those questions for you, nor would we ask government to answer those questions for you; that would violate the First Amendment. But we can ask you to consider the questions, and to be wary of the common human temptation to absolve ourselves when the impact of our actions goes beyond our intent.
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Dear Ms. Crissie,
Like Glenn, I'm concerned about the First Amendment. When I said I wanted our citizens "armed and dangerous," I was speaking in metaphor. Certainly I don't want citizens killing police officers or each other, and it's insulting to suggest that any of us would.
Michelle in MN
Dear Michelle,
We are not suggesting that you want citizens to kill police officers or each other. We ask you to consider whether it would be wise to choose better metaphors. If your sincere wish is that citizens be vigilant and responsible in scrutinizing our government - at all times and under all leaders - we agree that is an essential duty of citizenship. We should never take good government for granted, nor assume that our leaders will have the public's best interests in mind, nor that their solutions will best serve the public's interest, even when they do have those interests in mind. None of those is ever a "given," under any leadership, and as citizens we have a constant and eternal duty to oversee our government.
But we must also be careful not to let vigilance turn into vigilantism, and because that fine line is so difficult to tread, we must be wary of language that crosses it, even in metaphor. In a time of two intractable wars and an economy that has put many in desperate peril, we suggest it is worthwhile to question whether and how our words ramp up or tone down the anxieties of an already-anxious nation. Again, we do not propose the answer to that question, and we certainly do not propose that government answer that question. We simply suggest that we should each consider the question in our own hearts ... deeply, sincerely, and with our minds open to the possibility that we may be wrong.
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Dear Ms. Crissie,
I'm offended by your premise. I was a reserve police officer for many years while working on my television show, and I have worked with real police officers. I would never want to put police officers' lives in jeopardy. I may be an action hero, but they are real heroes. So please don't blame people like me, who say our nation is in crisis and needs a "voter revolution" to restore our basic civic values, for the actions of people who kill police officers.
Chuck in TX
Dear Chuck,
We acknowledge that our premise offends you, but we do not apologize. To call for a "voter revolution" two months before a national election is entirely reasonable. But two months after the inauguration of the president chosen in that election, you suggested something more may be needed "if the state of the union continues to turn into the enemy of the state," and conclude by invoking Sam Houston's words: "We view ourselves on the eve of battle. We are nerved for the contest, and must conquer or perish."
We may lack a black belt in karate, but we do understand language and you call for a peaceful "voter revolution" if the majority of voters agree with you, and an armed rebellion if they do not. Simply, your political agenda must be realized, regardless of elections, or America is "moving further and further from its founders' vision and government." Yet the founders' vision was set forth in a Constitution, and that document says we resolve our political disputes with dialogues and ballots, not with demagogues and bullets.
Either you respect constitutional institutions and elections, or you do not. If you do not, we suggest you be honest and declare that the will of the voters only matters if the voters agree with you, and if they don't then your agenda must be written in the blood of any who stand in the way.
Including police officers.
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Dear Ms. Crissie,
Not that I'm hungry, but what is toast au gratin?
Saddened in Blogistan
Dear Saddened,
This is among our favorite breakfast recipes, and we wish we had been able to enjoy Chef's creation. It is simply sliced bread, fried in olive oil or butter as is your preference. After you turn the bread, sprinkle grated or shredded cheese on the already-toasted side and let it melt as the other side toasts. Perhaps try it another morning.
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We wish all a happy and blessed Palm Sunday, and our hearts go out to the families of the slain police officers in Oakland and Pittsburg.