He worked in a factory most of his adult life and retired in 1992 at age 59 due to failing health. His short retirement lasted almost exactly a year to the day. He died of a massive stroke in June of '93. Looking back on it I think he knew he was dying and tried to prepare me for it as best he could. I just did not have the emotional maturity to see what was happening at the time. Follow me below the fold to pay some small tribute to a working man, a thinker, and a New Deal Democrat.
I was able to spend much more time with him in that last year. We talked of politics in much greater detail than ever before and though it took me almost a decade to fully understand his message he put me on the right path. Often we talked about "New Deal" policies. Those conversations were inspired by a small collection of presidential bust that he had put together of which his favorite was FDR. He was trying to tell me something.
In those 12 short months of retirement he filled his days spending as much time as possible with those he loved and cared about. But he lived alone and that left time to fill. Never a T.V. watcher (save Buckeye games) he bought a new t.v. and ordered cable to see what all the fuss was about.
I quickly noticed a change in my father once he started watching cable. He was very troubled by what he was seeing. The 24 hour news cycle and CNN was new to him and he watched in horror the hubris of American foreign policy and intervention. He was stunned at how the punditry was so one sided. He was disturbed at the violence and starvation he saw. Shocked that it was so often covered dispassionately. He saw that I wasn't even aware that anything was wrong. That troubled him most, I suspect.
He became depressed and cancelled the cable and gave away his new t.v. spending the last 4 months of his life without. In just a few short months he went from the great hope and optimism of Clinton's election, which had encouraged him greatly, to the sobering realization that the 12 years of downward spiral brought on by Reagan/Bush were not yet over. He had hoped 1993 would mean a return to Democratic values, to better times for labor, education and opportunity for the less fortunate among us. He wanted so much for me to understand the crises he saw but like many I was fooled by the Republican noise machine not knowing I was being propagandized by "corporate media".
It's been 14 years now but the memory of our conversations about the U.S. intervention in Mogadishu provide a prime example of our conversations that year and what he was trying so hard to tell me. I believed the talking heads and thought sure it was our rightful place to "police the world". My father just shook his head and struggled to impress upon me the folly of empire.
Another time he noticed me carrying the U.S.A. Today newspaper and warned me of the dangers that lie in media consolidation. He was frightened of the day when the whole country would be reading the same newspaper. Though that day is not yet here I wonder if perhaps power of the 5 media conglomerates who so completely control the message have exceeded the level of what even he had imagined and feared.
I spent a lot of years in fog, fooled by mainstream media misinformation. I thought I could trust CNN and so many of the other sources that I was turning to. I never considered that they were shilling for war, empire, and neoliberal economic policies by obfuscating the truth and often just plain lying to me. Though my roots and beliefs have always been liberal and are mostly inspired by RFK whom I consider to be my "ideological guide post" I began to fall prey to the multinational corporations world view.
My father would be so happy to see that I am now "awake" and out of that fog. Alternative sources for news and information like Daily Kos and Democracynow.org have given all of us truth seekers a chance to fight back against the republican noise machine as we try to wake up the rest of the nation.
My heart is heavy today remembering the fog of misinformation I was in and the sadness and frustration that must have brought my father. I remember so well the troubled look on his face as he saw how fooled I was.
I hope that in 2009 we get the kind of president and congress he thought we were getting in 1993. I can't speak for my father, his political hero FDR, or mine RFK, but informed by their wisdom I dream that perhaps we can once again be a country with leaders and representatives who:
Seek secure and defend peace.
Will fight for the causes of labor and the poor.
Rebuild a strong vibrant middle class.
Return the country to sane progressive tax policies that more fairly distribute wealth and opportunity.
Strive for safe, sane, sustainable food supplies, economic viability for family farmers, and localized economies.
Implement a foreign policy that represents the will of the American people instead of the military industrial complex and multinational corporations.
Pursue the values of common cause, common wealth, and the concept of "the commons" like clean water, clean air,
and clean elections.
Rediscover the importance of tariffs and reconsider failed institutions such as the WTO, NAFTA, World Bank.
Talk of the Death penalty for corporations but not for people! Reign in the power of corporations by rolling back the the insanity of "corporate person hood". Insisting they serve the public good or be dissolved.
Pursue anti-trust measures to break up monopolies, duopolies, oligopolies, and cartels.
Proclaim health care as a right of every citizen.
Reinvigorate Public education providing it to all citizens to the highest level of their ability.
Insist on publicly financed campaigns and put power in the hands of citizens taking it away from monied interest freeing the American public from the folly of campaign advertising.
Work toward restoration of the "4th Estate" creating a level playing field that will bring back independent media and news. Reclaiming a portion of the public airwaves (radio, tv, and cable) for non commercial civic programing including independent news and coverage of candidates speeches and debates.