I watched a video last night of Piers Morgan interviewing Ann Coulter regarding her use of the "R" word. Piers had two points: The word "retard" is offensive to mentally disabled people - in fact, it is the veritable "N" word to them. Also, calling the president of the United States a retard is quite offensive and inappropriate.
Of course, as you surely guessed, Ms Coulter never wavered. She just got louder - and louder, using the opportunity to call the president of the United States several other names, repeatedly: Loser, idiot.... ah... some I do not recall, thank goodness.
Piers Morgan handled himself well, I thought, considering who he was dealing with, allotting an extra segment to the interview and continually beseeching Ann to "fess up" - to acknowledge the man with Downs Syndrome who wrote a heartfelt letter asking her to stop using that word in that way. Not only did Ms Coulter refuse to acknowledge the gist of the letter, she went on to bash mentally disabled people saying something to the effect of "pshhhh.. Like - I am so sure THOSE people are gonna be following my twitter feed". (I really wanted Piers to pick up on that statement and ask the Queen of Mean just what she meant by it)
Ann and Piers exchanged some friendly-seeming threats - she made several claims that she would not be appearing on his show for varying lengths of time. Finally, he pronounced that she would be banned for 13 months. We shall see how it all plays out.
After that fun-filled glimpse of just how deeply into denial a hateful person can wrap herself to hold a ridiculous position, Ann left and I decided to "channel surf". Fortunately, I remained tuned in long enough to discover that Morgan's next guests included John Franklin Stephens, the man with Downs Syndrome who had penned the beautiful letter to Ann.
John spoke from the heart and never wavered in his attitude of kind dignity. His final remark was to thank Ann for helping him make over three million new friends.
Wow.
I have been writing about intelligence and politics. American Democrats like to cite studies that show that generally, people who relate to the Democratic platform tend to have a higher IQ than those who gravitate toward the Republican platform. I have looked at some of that data and it certainly seems to be true. Obviously, Republicans take offense at that claim - and in fact, some very intelligent people are Republicans. I do think that the more intelligent "conservatives" are usually wealthy and that "conserving" their wealth is their main reason for their leanings.
Ok, now I have wandered knee deep into a quagmire of discord. Let's see if I can navigate to my landing.
Here is the thing. I am pretty darn intelligent, measured (at one time, anyway) by some standards (even tho I am not sure if "democrat" and "republican"are supposed to be capitalized) and I tend to deliberately downplay that when I talk to people. I think this may be why: When I go to visit Texas, where I lived for several years of my childhood, I pick up a bit of a Texas accent. There is a video of President Obama addressing a group of Black Americans and he is speaking a little differently than say, when he gives a State of the Union address. (The right sure likes to make a big deal of this - hey, it's not like he changes his skin color.... ah, but I digress) I think it is human nature to adapt to our surroundings. I notice that when I speak to technical support I really dumb down. I think it is a form of surrender - of stipulating that I know nothing so they will not speak to me in techie talk which mainly goes over my head.
Sometimes, I have talked over peoples heads myself. I had no idea I was doing that. People get really offended by the implication that they are less intelligent. And yet, here is the thing: Plenty of people are smarter and more educated than I am. Also, check out this list: I tend to be a "rage-aholic" and as such, I was not nearly the loving, compassionate mother at every crucial moment that, upon reflection, I sure wish I could have been. When I first met Ram Dass, not knowing who he was, I tried to give him the brush-off. I do have a powerful sense of intuition (altho determining which is esp and which is paranoia can be a challenge). I also have these challenges: poor vision, obesity, depression, various physical injuries... I am rather overly compassionate - hauling slugs and snails off to be re-located, catching spiders in my house and putting them outside. When I want a bug to die, I bring in my husband who is actually a much kinder person than myself, but who has the sense to know that some things have to be dealt with this way and the guts to carry it out. Being rather short (or for a woman, "average") I also call him in to fetch jars off the top shelf in the kitchen.
Ok, so what does all this stuff have in common? They are ways that some people measure up differently than other people.
To me, this seems clear: Whilst intelligence is very important, all these other things are equally important: being stable, being kind hearted, having common sense, being intuitive, being strong, being able coordinate people, being able to speak clearly.....
Everyone has something to bring to the table. The divisiveness of American politics causes (is it the cause? or am I putting the cart before the horse here?) to single ourselves out and to exclude others. And it causes people to become proud of things they perhaps should be working to overcome.
But even as a body needs a brain to function, surely, it needs lungs, a heart, hands, legs..... and that is just what our American politics need - everyone. Every skill, every attribute. To really be a functional system, we need to all work together.
Perhaps there is something to the argument that we need a third political party, because as it stands, the two main parties we have are polarized and each one is able to cancel out the other. Three parties might bring us a sort of balance. I do think that getting there from here seems almost impossible. Who is going to "move over" and give way?
I sometimes refer to the Swiss government - not because I know anything about how their government actually operates - but because my daughter's boyfriend is Swiss and she goes to school in Switzerland and so the little glimpse I get of how that country functions: They have several political parties (they do have political dissension). They have a superior education system which is readily available to all citizens. They have an enviable health care system. They have a great sanitation system. Their streets are clean. This is what I see. I also see a functional mass transit system and very little reliance on individual cars (admittedly, their geography makes this much more feasible than does ours). It would behoove America to look at the other countries in the world and to some extent, emulate the things they do that work so well.
The divisiveness of our system -particularly in regard to intelligence - seems to have a backlash. It seems that in America, it is now hip to be ignorant. And to confuse patriotism with stubbornness. By God, it would be un-American to admit that everything about our system is not perfect just the way it is - or at least if something is wrong, surely it is the other political party's fault (you know I feel this way a lot cause I say so).
I think we all need to embrace all of our qualities, in ourselves and in each other. In this way, America can be smart enough, strong enough, brave enough, compassionate enough, wise enough to thrive.
John Franklin Stephens may not measure up on an intelligence test. Or, perhaps he would. I know very little about how this is all calculated. But I do know the man is a moving speaker and has a heart of gold. I would welcome him gladly into my political party, into any discussion of the steps this country needs to take, into my friendship circle, and certainly, he is more than welcome to read my blog, or for that matter, my twitter feed. It is an honor to be one of his three million plus new friends.
