Beauty v. Hate

This pandemic is having many ancillary effects, some only obliquely related to the suspension of our old lifestyles. One such effect may be a renewed interest in the past.

For me, this became apparent during my virtual reunion with fellow Rolling Stone staffers from the San Francisco era in the 70s. Although I visited the magazine's office in Manhattan many times after it moved there in 1977, I didn't realize until Wednesday that the San Francisco years have acquired something approaching legendary status in the collective memory of those who worked there.

The most spot-on comment any of us who attended the call was made by Jann Wenner, the founder, editor and publisher of Rolling Stone, when he said that after all this time, mainly it's the good memories that remain.

We all remember the disputes, the firings, and the melodrama of a fledgling Baby Boomer institution growing up in a warehouse South of Market Street. But that was then.

As Rolling Stone evolved into a cultural icon, we all grew stronger in the process. Perhaps most importantly, those of us who are writers and artists developed a sense of responsibility to speak out about what is right and what is wrong in this society.

What is right and good is the diversity of today's America. We are fortunate that our neighbors speak so many languages, practice so many religions, and reflect so much of the lovely racial diversity of the larger world. 

It is also beautiful that so many millions of our fellow citizens are willing to march peacefully in support of the movement to end the structural racism that stains this society.

But what is NOT beautiful is the attempt to berate people who are different from the traditional white European culture that once but no longer dominates this society.

And what is NOT beautiful is using code words to celebrate racism and hate.

This is why people of conscience are speaking out against Trump. Not because he espouses conservative views, many of us like conservative ideas and thinking. Not because he is a Republican, most of us don't like either party, frankly.

No, we oppose Trump because he epitomizes what is wrong at a time when we need to embrace what is right.

One small but important example. The Affordable Care Act that Trump wants to dismantle protects those among us with pre-existing conditions like diabetes and asthma. If he succeeds, they will no longer have access to affordable health care.

That is simply wrong. 

By contrast, Biden won't undo that protection.

That is right.

***

Sadly, the news indicates that the faultiness dividing us are widening, not narrowing. Too many are still falling for the wrong. That is indeed bad news.

* ‘Vote him out’ chant greets Trump on rare trip outside his hyperfriendly political bubble (WashPo)

* Americans say by a 13-point margin that Trump should allow the winner of the presidential election to nominate a replacement for the late Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg, a new HuffPost/YouGov poll finds. And they say 44% to 37% that presidents in the final year of their term should generally wait until after the election to handle any Supreme Court vacancies. Ginsburg's casket was laid in repose on Capitol Hill on Wednesday. [HuffPost]

* “Don’t think of it as the warmest month of August in California in the last century. Think of it as one of the coolest months of August in California in the next century.” [The New York Times]

* China is building vast new detention centers for Muslims in Xinjiang (WashPo)

* Of the Americans who’ve contracted COVID-19, 63% are facing serious financial problems, according to a survey from NPR, the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation and Harvard University’s T.H. Chan School of Public Health. (NPR)

* Weeks after universities reopened across much of Europe, thousands of students are in quarantine (WashPo)

* San Francisco expanded its Slow Streets program, creating a car-free route through Golden Gate Park. [The San Francisco Chronicle]

* Wildfires taint West Coast vineyards with taste of smoke (AP)

* Trump said that the expansion of mail-in voting during the coronavirus pandemic is a “scam” and that he wants a new Supreme Court justice in place to ensure election-related cases are decided in his favor. (HuffPost)

* Commissioner Ellen Weintraub of the Federal Election Commission has a news flash for Trump and anyone else who needs to hear it: “In the United States of America, we do not ‘get rid of’ ballots.” (HuffPost)

***

The county clerk hereabouts confirmed my accurate address, so I'll be voting soon.  By mail, which is the patriotic way to do it in the time of Covid-19.

Though my picture never appeared on the cover of Rolling Stone, my byline did. 

My memories of those days are available via Google (isn't everything?) The best piece, "Wenner's World," appeared in Salon.com in 1999.

Well, we're big rock singers
We got golden fingers
And we're loved everywhere we go (that sounds like us)
We sing about beauty and we sing about truth
At ten-thousand dollars a show (right)
We take all kinds of pills that give us all kind of thrills
But the thrill we've never known
Is the thrill that'll gitcha when you get your picture
On the cover of the Rollin' Stone

-- Dr. Hook & the Medicine Show