"Each Man's Death Diminishes Me"

Charlie Warzel of the New York Times called for Americans to disengage from ideological pissing contests. (My words, not his.) His challenge makes sense. It's difficult heeding his advice.

Shortly after Donald assumed office, I wondered why the Times and others gave credence to the man’s tweets. They reflected ignorance. They propagated lies. He’s the president, though. I have never thought much of that. His position, an unfortunate Constitutional accident, hasn’t righted the man. He remains inept and manipulative. He's a bleach loving ignoramus.

Like the Times, we too are diverted by the specious, inept, and manipulative. In doing so, we give voice to individuals, like Donald, who are intellectually terrified by ideas they don't like to consider, such as human equity, or by ideas from people with advanced degrees, such as renowned epidemiologists.

In their fight to prove the inane right, they take illogical and possible illegal positions. For example, the nation's high jester insisted Portland needed federal agents patrolling its streets. He sent them, and he quivered with pleasure. He was the strong man, the don, the American Putin. “His” agents gassed protesters and broke bones. They attacked mothers and veterans. They incited more people to protest in the streets of Portland and other cities. As local officials around the country warned, the unwanted and ill-advised move provoked unrest.  Donny and friends haven't seen so. They, like Hitler, Mussolini, Stalin, point to the streets: “There’s anarchy. We need law and order.”

The sophist and his supporters heard the bell of victory. Their hearing is off. Theirs is a toll of a coronach.

They don’t remember, never read, or never understood John Donne’s five-century old warning: “No man is an island,/ Entire of itself./ Each is a piece of the continent,/ A part of the main./ If a clod be washed away by the sea,/ Europe is the less./ As well as if a promontory were./ As well as if a manor of thine own/ Or of thine friend's were./ Each man's death diminishes me,/ For I am involved in mankind./ Therefore, send not to know/ For whom the bell tolls,/ It tolls for thee.”

They don’t understand how each person’s death—whether by the hand of inhumane police work or the incompetent management of a government’s response to a pandemic—diminishes them, makes them less, makes families less, makes the country less because they are not "involved in mankind." Rather they believe they ride above it. With each illegal use of police force and each mask not worn, their strength is renewed. They tweet, instagram, and facebook post more, creating a cacophony of stupidity.

They achieve another goal. Their babbles frighten some and depresses others. Their dissonance distances us from each other.

Their rhetoric creates the illusion America has lost something valuable. Think of it as a reverse mirage. He and his kind cannot erase, hid, or disguise the truth, goodness, and righteousness of the promised America. It's there, and Warzel's proposal is the solution. We must stop engaging with Donny, his followers, and Republicans who bow to the jester, for they negotiate in the interest of only the wealthy and their re-election--not for the nation or its people.

We must assert justice and equity for all, and stop engaging with the selfish and foolish who worship of the feet of an orange demagogue.