A brief respite

July 13, 2024

I am sending a brief newsletter on Friday evening to open the Comments section to subscribers. Moreover, last night’s newsletter was too long; even I got tired reading it—and I wrote it! Finally, I had the honor of speaking to the congregation of Temple Isaiah in West Los Angeles after the Shabbat service on Friday evening—so I didn’t get to the newsletter until about 10:00 p.m. (See Concluding Thoughts for a summary of my remarks.)

We all need a break; I certainly do. And the news cycle is on a “rinse & repeat” setting. So, let’s take a brief respite.

In short, the internal struggles of the Democratic Party continued on Friday.

President Biden appeared in Detroit at a campaign rally, where he delivered a speech described as “fiery” by mainstream media as he launched aggressive attacks on Trump. The crowd chanted, “We’ve got your back” and “Don’t you quit.” See Detroit Free Press, President Joe Biden impassioned, invigorated in Detroit speech.

Movement Voter Project became the first major grassroots organization to call on President Biden to “pass the baton.” See MVP’s memo here: Why MVP is Asking Biden to Pass the Baton - Movement Voter Project.

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A fun diversion

A reader sent a note saying she used AI (artificial intelligence) to generate a folk song to the words of my newsletter, “Weekend lessons from astronomy.” The result is here: Youtube, Lessons from Astronomy (adapted from text by Robert B. Hubbell, style: folk). I don’t quite know what to say. It’s interesting, fun, eye-opening, and unsettling. Check it out.

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Opportunity for Reader engagement

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Concluding Thoughts

Two readers (Elaine and Mike D.) invited me to speak to the congregation of Temple Isaiah in West Los Angeles after the Shabbat service. The hosts requested that my remarks avoid advocating on behalf of political candidates or causes.

With that broad limitation, I addressed the question, “Why do we feel so bad at this moment in history and what can we do about it?” I opened my remarks by asking if people felt worse than at any time in recent memory. Every hand was immediately raised, accompanied by a loud groan.

There are many reasons for the collective sense of anxiety and despair. Every discussion of the current mood in the country should start with the acknowledgement that we recently emerged from a pandemic that killed 1-in-270 Americans and caused financial and health hardships for tens of millions more. The Covid pandemic officially ended in May 2023. If Covid had been a war, we would not be pretending like it never happened when gauging the mood of the American public.

Prior generations have faced more dangerous threats to democracy but did not experience the same pressures we face today. Although my list is incomplete, those pressures include the following:

First, we are experiencing a period of regression after having lived through an anomalous period of rapid advancement. Most of us remember the significant strides in civil rights and gender equality during the period from the 1950s to the 1980s. The pace of those gains was unusual, and we have returned to a steady state of slow, intermittent progress with frequent setbacks. Not only have we lost the sense of rapid and inevitable advancement, we are losing ground in absolute terms. In combination, that one-two punch hurts—a lot.

 Second, the frequency and volume of “breaking news alerts” is making it impossible to find time to reflect and assess the importance of stories that wash over us at the speed of light. We feel harassed, and the “fight or flight” reflex kicks in. Imagine what the Union soldiers would have felt like after the first day of the Battle of Gettysburg if they had received tweets every five minutes saying that anonymous sources on the staff of US Major General George Meade had lost confidence in his leadership after the Union losses on the first day of the battle.

Third, the mainstream media distorts stories to provoke the maximum amount of fear, anxiety, and anger. They do so to maximize clicks and revenue. We are the target audience, victim, and enabler of a news stream designed to frighten us. We unwittingly amplify that dynamic when we forward or post those stories so that friends and family can share in our panic.

What can we do?

First, we must maintain perspective. We are engaged in a long-term battle. The daily “wins and losses” are less meaningful than the trend over time. Measured by that metric—years rather than four-hour news cycles—we are making steady progress.

Second, we must seek out and join in community with others—where we can share our fears and combine our resolve.

Third, we must recognize our moral duty to abide and endure. We need not achieve a final victory by a specific date. Indeed, that is impossible. Our role may be to hold back the forces of darkness until the next generation reports for duty. We did the same for generations that preceded us. If that is all we do for the next generation, that will be a noble and sacred sacrifice. But we can accomplish more than holding the line. Indeed, we are doing so every day. We need only to continue in our efforts. If we can do that, we will repay the debt owed to prior generations and deliver democracy to the next.

Despite the turmoil, we have every reason to be hopeful but no reason to be complacent!

Stay strong, everyone! Talk to you on Monday!

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Weekend photo:

Messier 27 is a collapsing star (“planetary nebula”). Estimated to be 1,200 light years from Earth. The collapse is estimated to have occurred 9,800 years ago (after the last ice age ended). The photo is a fourteen-minute exposure taken with a Celestron Origin from Los Angeles, CA, on July 10, 2024. And, yes, those are the actual colors of the object.