reading material for the week-end

I realize that this site is hardly the right venue for this kind of thing.

Nevertheless hopefully you will want to accept this as a humble offer, not an arrogant imposition.

Should these words facilitate a modicum of introspection or open a dialogue with a person you respect or love, I will have accomplished my goal.

If not I apologize for having wasted your time and this cyber-space.
Peace.


Letter to my Landlady

There are people who believe that those who, like me, live in this great and wonderful project, but were not born in it, should just count their blessings, keep their nose to the grindstone, pay the rent, and shut up.
If this happens to be your conviction, please read no further.

I have truly learned to like, even love, what I have seen of this fifty units co-op complex; and a great many of its inhabitants. More than forty years ago I fell in love almost at first sight with the vast natural beauty, freedoms and bounties of this large community; but my affection for its people has been more of an acquired taste. Yet, with time, I have come to understand that, without its occupants, this would be just another of the many beautiful, yet often inhospitable or sterile parcels of real estate found around our planet.

It is because of its people that the concept of the United States of America came into existence.
It evolved and survives to this day because, and sometime despite, of all of those who live in this land, be they denizens by natural birthright or cultural inheritance, descendants of freemen, first generation lien holders, long-term tenants like myself, or even transients and squatters.

Arguably America is still the best, brightest and most efficient actualization and expression of democracy since the introduction of that experiment to the human race less than three millennia ago in Greece.

Yet some people earnestly fear that Americans, possibly without realizing it, could squander this hard earned, priceless achievement as easily and even more rapidly than they have depleted many of the natural resources bestowed upon them.
I too share this fear.

Particularly in the last few years and (inexplicably to me) at a time when calm, harmony and common sense would have so well served the Country, it has been impossible to ignore the increasing manifestations of domestic polarization, animosity and intolerance.

Lest our then justified individual and collective fears and anxieties be quelled by calls for calm and unity of purpose, they were instead actively fomented, manipulated and exploited by unscrupulous and/or dimwitted leaders, organizations and individuals. At all levels of politics and in most of the media, earnest, thoughtful debate has long since degenerated into a quagmire of shallow ideological cesspools in which mercenary “experts” fight against wannabe “pundits”, over often fabricated non-issues with less elegance and actual topical knowledge than that found among mud wrestling contestants.
Particularly in the case of that most popularly venerated instrument of current knowledge, television, the attention and understanding required of the audience by most reporting, commentaries and info-bytes is far less than that required by the commercials.

Most attempts to criticize, question, offer an alternate perspective or simply understand better an opposing point of view or opinion are likely to be instantly labeled and classified as unpatriotic, treasonous, seditious, reactionary, arrogant, pretentious, elitist, communist or fascist.
More and more frequently we succumb to the natural tendency to perceive things as black or white, right or wrong, friendly or inimical and using outdated, inaccurate, simplistic labels.
In today’s world, mostly because of the advances in technology, education and knowledge, the already many shades of gray are increasing at exponential speed. Paradoxically, the difference between fact and fiction, perception and reality, even good and evil are becoming harder to discern and define as time goes by.
It is as if, unwilling or unable to face and answer the challenges created by our own progress, many of us, perhaps unwittingly at first, revert to tribal behavior and to reactions seemingly driven more by animal instinct than by our supposedly superior intellect.
Is this undesirable behavioral trend neutralized or exacerbated by the surrounding vast desert of indifference, apathy, ignorance and intellectual laziness? Surely this question could be in itself reason for controversy and debate. Possibly the tumbleweeds that always allow themselves to be blown in the direction of the prevailing winds are utterly inconsequential, in the greater scheme of things.

Be as it may, I fear that “We the people” is more than ever in danger of becoming a chaotic, virulent mob of “I” and “Us” versus the often ill defined and always evanescent “Them”.

I know that many of you believe that such a catastrophic eventuality is unthinkable in America.
Probably and hopefully you are right.
Allow me, however, two questions. - How many of you would have believed, only five or ten years ago, that the global financial world would come as close to collapsing as it recently did?
And: - do you think it is possible that, among the many contributing factors, a significant one could be the excessive greed, ambition and dishonesty of a few, compounded with the indifference, apathy, ignorance and intellectual laziness of the many?
We are yet to fully understand to which extent and for how long this “unforeseeable” event will affect all of us. However, there seems to be an almost universal agreement that these events came fearfully close to disproving the theory that supposes a species will never act against its own instinct of self-preservation.

It is because of these serious apprehensions that I respectfully ask, humbly beg, strongly suggest, vehemently exhort or fervently hope (you choose the form that best fits our relation) that we pay much closer attention to the reactions and the emotions following November 4th than we did to those that preceded it. Beginning first and foremost with our own.
If it is true that we cannot be held accountable for all the events in our life, it is equally true that we are responsible for how we react to them.

And so, perhaps we may want to worry less about which candidate will win on November 4th.
Fortunately, and the regardless of the promises, the future of this Country is still not solely in the hands of one man.
Hopefully that is not what some of us secretly yearn for.

To my beloved Landlady, America:

“Beware the Nones of November.” (*)

Peace.

Gianni M.Lovato
Huntington, NY
October 30, 2008


(*) fifth day of November in the Roman calendar. (Plagiarized without W. Shakespeare's permission)