I was watching the movie Good Night and Good Luck last night. And I couldn’t help but see how little things have changed over the years.
If you don’t know the story, it was about the good old days of television when the medium was used to inform as well as entertain. Edward R. Murrow, arguably one of the greatest journalists in history, took on then Senator Joseph McCarthy, a junior Senator from Wisconsin on his program, See It Now.
Anyway, this was back in the days of the “Everyone’s a Communist” scare. The senate was on a witch hunt, accusing average Americans of being Commies. If you watch the movie – and I highly recommend you do as it’s an amazing history lesson that is also entertaining – these hearings never allowed the witness’ counsel have a say, the accusations were made without supporting proof (only incriminating sealed manila envelopes were waved about) and people’s lives were being ruined, all in the name of keeping our country safe from enemy infiltration.
As I watched this, I couldn’t help but think of the recent hearings on Muslims in Congress or the fingers being pointed at anyone who even vaguely looked like they could be a terrorist. We’re also doing this to the immigrants right now (not the illegal ones, but the legal ones who are assumed to be illegal because they look “kind of Spanish”) and the Right and the Left are each trying to do a hatchet job on one another.
We are living in the same stupid world we lived back then. Fingers are being pointed. Reputations are being destroyed. We are constantly looking over our shoulder. Total B.S. is being sold to us as fact. And we are slowly being convinced that we should live a life in fear of everyone who isn’t exactly like us.
Unfortunately, we don’t have an Edward R. Murrow around any longer who has the guts to take this on. We only have the loud voices of insanity out there – the Glen Becks of the world – but no one is brave enough to tell any of these guys that they aren’t advancing our democracy, but destroying it one pillar at a time with one sinister accusation after another.
Now, I know there are plenty of well founded accusations out there. But most of our government officials shouldn’t be pointing fingers at us, but at each other. For they are certainly just as guilty as we are that we’re in the mess we’re in today.
Let’s take a trip down memory lane for a moment and see what old Joe was up to in his witch hunt. These are his haunting words exactly:
“The issue between the Republicans and Democrats is clearly drawn. It has been deliberately drawn by those who have been in charge of twenty years of treason. Not the hard fact is…the hard fact is that those who wear the label…those who wear the label “Democrat” wear it with the stain of a historic betrayal.”
He sought with all his power to demonize those who disagreed with him, much like the pundits and politicians are doing today. He was a cunning separatist who waved the flag and hid his true motives behind “the truth”.
Mr. Murrow successfully took him to task, eventually causing a Senate hearing on Joe McCarthy and his tactics. He was finally censured, but never removed from office.
I will let Mr. Murrow explain how things like this erode our freedoms and threaten our democracy. And how we are also to blame for the current state of politics in our country. I think it is as true today as it was back in 1957:
“No one familiar with the history of this country can deny that congressional committees are useful. It is necessary to investigate before legislating, but the line between investigating and persecuting is a very fine one and the junior Senator from Wisconsin has stepped over it repeatedly. His primary achievement has been in confusing the public mind, as between the internal and the external threats of Communism. We must not confuse dissent with disloyalty. We must remember always that accusation is not proof and that conviction depends upon evidence and due process of law. We will not walk in fear, one of another. We will not be driven by fear into an age of unreason, if we dig deep in our history and our doctrine, and remember that we are not descended from fearful men — not from men who feared to write, to speak, to associate and to defend causes that were, for the moment, unpopular.”
I think those are amazing words, and ones that need to be shared today. The vocal minority is stealing the country – all because we are too busy to raise our collective voices and question what is being done by those who seek to destroy our way of life through fearmongering. They are not doing the people’s bidding. They are doing their own.
As Mr. Murrow put it that night:
“This is no time for men who oppose Senator McCarthy’s methods to keep silent, or for those who approve. We can deny our heritage and our history, but we cannot escape responsibility for the result. There is no way for a citizen of a republic to abdicate his responsibilities. As a nation we have come into our full inheritance at a tender age. We proclaim ourselves, as indeed we are, the defenders of freedom, wherever it continues to exist in the world, but we cannot defend freedom abroad by deserting it at home.
“The actions of the junior Senator from Wisconsin have caused alarm and dismay amongst our allies abroad, and given considerable comfort to our enemies. And whose fault is that? Not really his. He didn’t create this situation of fear; he merely exploited it — and rather successfully. Cassius was right. “The fault, dear Brutus, is not in our stars, but in ourselves.”
Pulling out soapbox and standing on it:
I for one hope that we never give into fear. We must not blindly accept the agendas of others who only wish to gain power, gain fame or gain wealth at our expense. The government is “of the people and for the people,” not the elite and those who have an unquenchable thirst for power. Each of us has a responsibility to stop things we think are wrong in our country. Otherwise the McCarthys, Limbaughs, Boehners and Pelosi’s of the world will create a country that is in their image, not ours. And we will only have ourselves to blame if they do.
Make your voices loud. Make your vote count. It is our right and our responsibility.
(stepping off soapbox…)
Out on the Treasure Coast, enjoying the freedoms my forefathers afforded me, including the right to free speech,
– Robb