Superman is not coming; to save us.
I borrow that title from the book written by Erin Brokovich of the same name, yes that Erin Brokovich of Hollywood movie and more importantly of the lawsuit against PG&E for water pollution which harmed thousands.
Now I could easily use this as a springboard to talk about water, water pollution, water issues, and corporate theft and destruction of water…..I won’t, not yet anyway.
No, I am instead referring to our human propensity to wish for and then surrender to someone, anyone, who appears as a Superman to save us, to lead us, to solve all our problems. The last pResident used this fact cynically to scam millions of our fellow citizens into supporting him in his ego driven quest for power, wealth, and “love”.
We saw where that has led to, were the great “Leader” syndrome led us, and to the deep rifts left in our souls.
President Biden I believe can be a great leader, a wise counselor, and a caring human being who can help us as we help him, to recognize and respond to our very real world problems.
I have worked as a “Engineer”during my life solving problems from Semiconductor manufacture to Aviation Glass Cockpit Quality Control with some moderate success.
I did not do it alone, ever.
There were other smarter, wiser, and often more thoughtful minds around me helping to identify, propose, solve, and implement solutions to each days problems. I did not do this alone, I often led others and always tried to credit them with their contributions (not always successfully, ego is a terrible beast to control).
President Joe Biden is not Superman, we cannot ever wishfully think he will solve all our problems, repair all the damage and decay done by others, and heal our broken hearts and families.
He can lead, we can listen and help as we can.
He can guide and we can step up to work on issues, as JFK said , “Ask not what our country can do for us, ask what you can do for our country”.
Our job is to participate, we can meet our neighbors and converse with them, speaking with instead of at.
We can do the simple thing of picking up trash as we walk through life and disposing of it properly; I mean this both physically and literally and also mentally and metaphorically.
We can be truthful and trustworthy; we can be loyal to our fellowman in hard times; we can be kind in the harshest of days; we can be friendly with all around us even as they show hate; we can be courteous even as we critique and disagree with others; we can be obedient to the rules we claim; we can, even in the face of adversity, be cheerful; we can be careful and thrifty with our money, our time, our natural resources around us; we can be brave even as we fear; we can keep ourselves fit in body and mind cleaning out the detritus left by the slings and arrows of life’s misfortunes; and we can revere the ideas, ideals, mores, and ethics we follow and accept that not all will revere them also.
Superman is not coming, we will need to step up and with the help of many others solve our own problems.
After all one of our guiding documents starts with,
We the People