“That guy is worse than Juan Williams.” These were my mother’s last words. I have chosen to interpret them as an indictment of Fox News and all other partisan outlets that have poisoned our ability to understand one another. In a nutshell, these words will always remind me that my mother, who I admired as someone with an optimistic, positive outlook, was conditioned by a steady stream of talking points disgorged by Rush Limbaugh, Sean Hannity, Bill O’Reilly, Tucker Carlson, Greg Gutfeld, and others, to become a pessimistic, negative person – the kind of individual for whom practically nothing was ever done right or was ever good enough. She went from expressing her appreciation for so many little things in life to constantly finding fault, just as her instructors on Fox had taught her.
When we were children, mom told us to “stop being negative,” to look for the good in others, and often said, “if you can’t find something nice to say, it’s better to keep your mouth shut.” As I write this, I realize that it’s been over three years since my mom’s last words. According to my dad, she spoke them just before she collapsed to the floor and died. Her doctor later said she was probably dead before she hit the floor, so there was nothing my dad or anyone else could have done. I suppose, like all of us, she had hoped her last words would be more insightful, more inspiring in some way, but they were what they were.
It is our nature to judge the world and those in it, especially those who claim to oversee parts of it. Of course, “news” personalities believe it’s their job to be judgmental, to “afflict the comfortable,” as the reporter said in Inherit the Wind. Yet, there is such a thing as constructive criticism and rational debate, as opposed to intellectually dishonest rants intended to provoke outrage and irrational fears. The stock-in-trade of Fox commentators is to portray the actions of a few, or even just one, as representative of everyone they hope to discredit – for example, while a few may be criminals, not all immigrants are crossing the southern border to kill you, rape your daughters, and get your kids hooked on drugs. Only a handful of representatives (less than 1%) constitute “The Squad.” Not all Democrats are “evil,” even though a few have been caught expressing “radical” views – usually quoted out-of-context and conflated with poorly-defined catch-all terms, like critical race theory. Special pleading, double standards, strawman arguments, “no true patriot” assertions, and other logical fallacies help the talking heads “prove” the left is nothing but corruption, fraud, and conspiracies. And after the left has been branded as liars, cheats, and traitors, nothing anyone can say will make any difference. Nothing will be done right. Nothing will ever be good enough.
Perhaps the greatest loss to our well-being – as families and as a nation – is that cable news often does very little to keep things in perspective, let alone in context. Each “side” serves up a cherry-picked piece of reality – whatever allows them to score points for their ideology – and generally omits information that might clarify other legitimate points of view. For the record, Juan Williams isn’t so bad, but the system he’s been a part of has helped turn many of us into raging critics and fault finders rather than clear thinkers and problem-solvers. In her dying breath, mom declared her political opinion. She didn’t express her kindness, sadness, love, or regret. She chose sides. She judged one person better and another worse. To me this represents a tragic loss, not only in her life, but in ours. We are not meant to judge – at least not in this way. I know I lack the competence to judge my companions on this planet. The best I can hope for is a better understanding of them. I hope my last words might be something like, “Thank you for being part of my life.” May God grant that I remain appreciative to the end.
MurrayWorks 