We've been doing this since the founding of the Republic. Often our work is controversial; being criticized (or worse) by politicians and other people in power is a familiar state for us. Every year around the world journalists are jailed, injured and killed, mainly in places controlled by authoritarian figures.
So when that starts happening here in this country, it is extremely disturbing, because this is supposed to be a democracy.
Over just the past two weeks or so. the US Press Freedom Tracker, administered by the Freedom of the Press Foundation, has recorded over 380 incidents including at least 56 arrests, 78 physical attacks, 49 instances of tear gassing and 89 journalists wounded by rubber bullets and projectiles. Protesters have been responsible for some of the attacks but the overwhelming majority have been the work of police.
Like other journalists, I am aware of additional illegal actions against reporters not included in those totals; the problem is much bigger.
While citizens have been peacefully exercising their rights under the First Amendment (speech and assembly), the journalists out there covering the protests have been exercising theirs. Public officials and law enforcement organizations need to respect what is going on -- indeed support it -- rather than launching attacks, rhetorical and real, against the people of this country.
It's no surprise why the attacks on reporters are happening. When you have an elected leader who relentlessly attacks the press, calling us the "enemy of the people," and who aspires to authoritarian power, this is what results. President Trump has led chants against journalists at his rallies, at times subjecting them to potential physical harm by his revved-up followers.
In 2017 he asked the director of the FBI whether he could arrest and jail journalists who he felt were critical of him.
What we are witnessing is a fundamental assault on the foundation of our society.
The upcoming election, as I've predicted before, is going to be nasty and dangerous. The ugly aspects will not be confined to the GOP side, as the Democrats will willingly take part in that unfortunate aspect of modern political warfare.
The political attack ads launched by both parties will be appearing on some of the major networks and news sites that are seeking to cover the story. They should collectively refuse to run those ads and reduce the poisonous pollution that will otherwise ruin what should be a peaceful transition of power.
They won't do that, I'm afraid, because major media institutions make lots of money from those ads, and also from the increased audience metrics that inevitably characterize election years. But they should.
***
My six-year-old granddaughter excitedly announced the local news this morning that the covey of domestic quails living in an enclosure out back has produced their first egg! She brought it in -- fresh, tiny, blue-green -- from where she discovered it under a blue sky.
She is learning to read and write in her two native languages and says she wants to be an artist when she grows up.
Out front, the vegetable garden is green and some of the crops are sporting yellow blossoms. A sense of the balance of life surrounds her.
She never watches TV news and of course cannot read other sources of information yet. But she is aware of the protests, because they occur near here, as close as half a block away on occasion. She is color-blind in her friendships and cannot understand any other way of being.
Her innocence stands in stark contrast to the evils afoot in this land. Racism, injustice, and exploitation are the realities she will have to grow up and into. That she is a person of relative privilege will occur to her, because the color of her skin alone guarantees her opportunities that are too often denied to others around her.
The majority of her generation of Americans do not have white skin but present a lovely range of all the colors of the human race. As she sings and dances and draws what she sees of her world, her innocent hopes and dreams seem every bit as fragile as a quail egg.
***
As poets emerge to chronicle this age, they will seek the tranquility of language that comforts and inspires; they also will feel their words erupt like volcanoes at the hate spewed by haters, at the oppression of the poor.
As they establish their voices, the songs of our predecessors will ring in their ears:
"...deep in my heart, I do believe,
The truth shall make us free someday.
...deep in my heart, I do believe,
-30-
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