News Headlines and T-shirts

Nuclear war, sexual predators, drugs, racism, police brutality,sex abuse and incest, political scandal, gun violence, ethnic cleansing, organized crime, international money laundering, economic balkanization and inequality—all have been headlines in the past. We’ve had presidential scandals and inept politicians before, but during those crises we also had leaders, statesmen, and rational thinkers! We had the political will to call our better natures to task. We believed in critical thinking, in negotiation, in compromise, and in hope.
Not today. Now there is a constant tsunami of horrifying and troubling headlines, drowning us at a pace that we cannot wrap our minds around. News comes in the form of a relentless outpouring of 140-character bits of insults, irrationality, lies, and hyperbole. The Republicans have built an unholy alliance, fueled by fear and ignorance, between the white religious poor and the white rich autocracy by which the worst aspects of capitalism can greedily devour the country. The Democrats have no coherent message and no aspirational leaders. Claiming identity politics but shrinking from actually listening to diverse voices, they offer a rhetoric of compassion and a record of apathy.
Okay, here comes the shift to shameless promotion . . . but many of these terrors that haunt our dreams are addressed in my new memoir, The Fourth Moment, presented in a series of short story bites about a life lived over three-quarters of a century. I already have the t-shirts; I don’t want any more.