Ode to Noam Chomsky

On a frigid January evening, a line of maybe a few thousand people stretched around the campus auditorium. Many had never heard of the aging professor who was there to speak, but they knew he was a big deal--the Washington Post headlined him in their "to do" pages as the voice of anti-capitalism, as someone whose ideas had definitely reached their time.

The crowd was diverse: college students who wanted to see what the buzz was about, aging hippies, people who had taken the Metro from the Occupy encampment, professors, suburbanites. More than half the crowd would be turned away, without seats or even standing room.

I like to think that many of them were like me--people who had spent way too many years feeling out of touch with a country they no longer recognized. People who had not only suffered through Bush, but also through Reagan, who had a vague feeling that things would never be right again, that even "hope and change" weren't enough. I like to think that there is a groundswell of people who want what they're not now getting--justice, fairness, sane policies toward our health and earth and each other.

In the end, I wasn't in line soon enough to hear Professor Chomsky's thoughts on "anti-capitalism." I hope I get another chance. What I took away from the hour I spent in line waiting, however, was just as thought provoking. And, maybe, even more hopeful.

Welcome to the United States of Adolescents

My past 20 years as a parent has given me a lot of respect for the process of growing up. Children learn how to put away their toys and do things they don't want to do, or to go to bed for no other reason than it's bedtime. They come to understand that good manners can take them far in the world, and that beating people up (literally or verbally) won't.

Although my children are still not yet in possession of full-frontal lobe development, they are on their way, headed in the right direction.

I wish I could say the same of Congress, or TV program chiefs, or corporate leaders, or the drivers I encounter every day on the Washington Beltway. I wish I had more opportunities to feel that, as a country, we were in a really good place, and headed for maturity. Or at least, that we were more willing to listen to each other, to think before developing opinions, to sacrifice and give each other the benefit of the doubt.

Mature people know that you stop playing video games when the baby's crying, and don't whine about it. Mature people know the difference between entertainment and information, and don't overdo one at the expense of the other. Mature people know they can't have it all; mature people don't even want it all!

If we were a mature nation, I believe, our relationship to each other would be different. Our government would be different. How we educate, entertain, travel, use our spare time, and inform ourselves would be different.

I created this blog because having a conversation about this seems important. We live in a time of miracles and wonder--as well as devastation and horror. We can be better than we are. This is one vehicle I have to learn how to make this happen.