What We Can Learn From Donald Trump
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The flight itself was fine. The journey was trial-by-official.
A business executive was on his way to conduct a training seminar in Chicago. He had angled for months for the opportunity and had finally gotten it. Executives from around the nation would be attending. It could be a hairpin turning point in his career. I was there to assist.
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We had purchased tickets through a local travel agency. The rate was low and conditions were attached. The agent told us he was waiving those conditions. I remember pressing a little. The trip was important and I wanted to be sure. As we left, my business companion wondered if I had pressed too much. The agent seemed to have been getting a little anxious, assuring us repeatedly that there was no reason for concern. It was a good deal at an unbelievable price.
At the airport, our experience at the counter diverged from those assurances. Sorry, the agent said, the reservations were conditional and we did not qualify. He could stretch the rules enough to refund the cost of the tickets. Then, if we wanted to continue, we could purchase new tickets at the inflated last second gate price.
My friend sighed and reached for his wallet. I stopped him. I raised my voice and asked loudly where we could file a formal complaint. “This is a pretty clear case of financial fraud.” The place was crowded and those waiting in line were turning toward the commotion. “And it seems clear this airline is part of that fraud.” My buddy froze in place, the agent was flustered.
A manager appeared out of nowhere. “Please let me help,” she said pleasantly. A hurried and muted conversation followed. We were soon on the plane at the original ticket price.
When we got to Chicago, our luggage was lost. That was inconvenient.
Presentation materials my friend had paid to have shipped on the same flight were also missing. That was devastating. His entire presentation had been organized around those materials.
We found our way to an airline office. The busy attendant behind the counter told us brusquely that we were entitled to personal hygiene kits until our luggage was found.
My friend explained the bind he was in. His presentation was now in danger. Those materials were way more important than our baggage. More important than any baggage The employee looked at us with evident impatience. “Everyone’s luggage is important, sir,” he said testily. My friend was resigned. Then he straightened, turned, and looked at me. And waited.
I took a deep breath.
In the end, it took the baggage officials a couple of hours, but his materials were delivered personally by an airline manager to the conference hall that night.
That dismissive agent, the everyone’s-luggage-is-important-SIR person, came to mind as I thought about political performances we’ve seen in the last few days.
Former Maryland Governor Martin O’Malley is a minor candidate for the Democratic Presidential nomination. He and fellow candidate Senator Bernie Sanders were confronted by angry protestors at the Netroots Nation convention in Arizona. The anger was long coming, sparked by the disproportionate number of deaths of African Americans at the hands of police officers. The focal point this time was black women who died while in police custody.
Both candidates were caught flatfooted.
Perhaps the best response, in retrospect, could have been some variation on Robert Kennedy’s answers in a series of angry meetings shortly before his assassination in 1968. I have a few ideas, but you’ve given it a lot of thought and I’d like to listen.
It was understandable that neither candidate handled the surprise confrontation well. It would have been difficult for anyone to withstand the sudden tactic of shock-and-awe protest.
Martin O’Malley stepped into quicksand of his own making. “Black lives matter. White lives matter. All lives matter.”
Moments of understanding can come from any of us. The daughter of a famous politician later explained why O’Malley’s response was provocative. Nancy Pelosi’s daughter, Christine, texted this: “My fellow White Progressives, please understand ‘all lives matter’ is received as erasure not inclusion.” She is right.
“All lives matter” was an obvious attempt to include the well being of black people. But it came across as our impatient airline representative:“Everyone’s luggage is important, sir.” How dare you think your case is special.
The principle of “everyone is respected so you are as unimpressive as everyone else” was later illustrated by Donald Trump as he talked about John McCain. McCain a war hero? No, he said at first. “He’s not a war hero.”Then after he was called on it, “He’s a war hero, because he was captured, okay? I believe, perhaps, he’s a war hero.” Perhaps.
Later he insisted correctly, “Four times, I said McCain is a hero.” Actually it was five times. On later occasions he repeated it even more. In every case it was a reincarnation of our impatient baggage agent. Those who were captured were heroes. Those who were not captured were heroes. Everyone who served was a hero. What makes McCain exceptional?
The heroism part was true. All would have been true had John McCain’s very special courage not stood out. But even in a constellation of heroism, he did stand out.
Donald Trump finds himself under fire. He deserves it. Some who condemn might reconsider their own joyful denigration of another war hero a few years ago. In 2004, John Kerry found his heroism challenged by those hired in secret to slander him in public. The fun was picked up and carried by Republicans for the rest of that year and beyond.
That was okay, though. He was a Democrat.
In our best moments, we believe in the potential power of redemption.
We pay a price but we become a little wiser for it, when we learn from our mistakes.
We are given wisdom as a free gift when we learn from the mistakes of others. We can find even more valuable lessons in life when the behavior we witness becomes egregious and accountability is lost in denial.
It is possible that occasional blustering political blowhards, like occasional officious airline representatives, may provide blessings of wisdom that are beyond their intent, beyond even their awareness.
Their lack of decency can sometimes help us discover that same decency within ourselves.
This article is a collaboration between MadMikesAmerica and FairandUnbalanced.com.
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” ‘all lives matter’ is received as erasure not inclusion.” She is right.
Inclusion is not erasure no matter how its perceived. The problems of African Americans are not the only nor the biggest problems on Earth and perception is not reality. I will not surrender honesty or syntax to the demands of politics and Jesuitical casuistry.
We perceive things as we are, not as things are — or statements are or the truth is. If the truth is offensive, I’m not obligated to acquiesce. If I’ve had my family interned, my passport revoked, my land confiscated, my marriage ruled illegal or my children taken away, I have a right to assert that my life matters – just like every man woman and child in the world.
Nobody has an exclusive claim to human rights and if one group is more important than another we have a violation of law, of Liberal principle and of every claim to being a free and moral country. Anyone who says my life doesn’t matter, my human rights are conditional on the approval of a racial or political group or on being worse than another’s problems can kiss my Kalashnikov. All lives matter. Human rights are inalienable. I consider it self evident.
All lives matter and if not, you can stop calling yourselves Christians or Humanists or even Liberal. You can call “don’t risk offending” a kind of wisdom, but you can call it cowardice, you can call it moral abdication and I can call it wrong minded. If we’re not all equal under the law and with equal rights and if we can’t assert that such things matter without pissing off some political manipulator, you’ve pissed on the lives of everyone who has ever fought to make this a better country because the civil rights movement is dead and you killed it.
Yes. Yes. Yes. All lives matter and no race has exclusivity.
I couldn’t agree more.