IT'S ONLY WORDS

Those of us of a certain age of Aquarius remember that tune. For those of you whose taste runs along the lines of K-Pop, it was a big hit released by The Bee Gees in 1968.

“It’s only words and words are all I have, to take your heart away.”

According to Robin Gibb, “Words reflects a mood.   It was written after an argument.  Barry had been arguing with someone.  Robin had been arguing with someone and happened to be in the same mood.  The arguments were about absolutely nothing. They were just words.  That is what the song is about: words can make you happy or words can make you sad.”

1968 was a hell of a time in America.   

The year began with the Tet Offensive in the midst of the Vietnam War, Martin and Bobby were assassinated, cops and protestors clashed in Chicago and even though the Civil Rights Act was passed in April, a particularly strong showing  by segregationist George Wallace  highlighted the strong element of racism that continued to strive across the country, particularly in the South and that pesky little country North Korea seized the USS Pueblo calming that the ship violated its territorial waters while spying.  

There were lots of words back then including the lyrics of “Hair,” Beatle songs and the Oscar-winning “Oliver.” Elvis returned for a resurrection TV special circle chat and Jimi let his guitar do all the talking.

The bottom line is there was a whole lot of dialogue going down amidst a ripped apart to shreds America.  

We were polarized and we had a President who was an extremist, right-wing thug.

Let’s hop aboard our time machine and take a quantum leap forward to fifty years into the future, to the year 2018.

Things surely must be different now!

Let’s see:  Racism: still alive and thriving.  North Korea?  Yeah, no.  The President? Really?  Another thug?   And surely women have come a long, long way.  Wait. What?  Men are still harassing and raping them?  How are the Washington Post and the New York Times doing?  Still under attack by the White House?  

And what of words?

Wait.  What did Roseanne say?  Are you kidding me?

On the drive over here, from 68 to 18, we did fly over Woodward and Bernstein so we were reminded how powerful words can be when used for the public good.

But here in 2018, it seems that the second that you Ambien blurt out a racist or sexist comment your entire existence can be wiped out,.

Well, there is good and not so good there.

The good: it’s about time that women, Jews, the black community, Latinos, and Muslims got some much-needed air support.

The bad: way too many innocent people get caught in the crossfire.

When Roseanne was napalmed by Disney, hundreds of innocent people’s salaries were also wiped out.

When a baseball player like Robinson Cano gets caught adding PEDs to his diet, he gets an 8-month suspension which costs him millions of dollars, he gets shamed publicly, but his team stays intact.

To me, a far better punishment for Roseanne would have been, docking her pay while forcing her to do some very public community service, like helping Jimmy Carter habitat build, pick up trash along the highway and attend services at a black Gospel church every Sunday for the rest of her life.

Because, other than having her ego candy crushed,  she will simply sprint back to her Hawaii paradise, where she will load up on weed and pineapple and live on the Dole.

And what about all the other standup comics?   They have been caught in the crossfire as well.  To me, that is the wrong kind of censor-ship of fools.

We desperately need our comics to be our most vocal id.  We need them to be our primitive and instinctual part of our collective consciousness that houses our sexual and aggressive drive and hidden memories, while we, the audience that sits in the dark of the Comedy Store, represents the super-ego, which operates as a moral conscience so that the rest of the world, the ego, the realistic part of our universe, mediates between the desires of the id and the super-ego.

They all need to interact successfully as a whole as each section makes a relative contribution to our overall national behavior.

If any one part of us becomes overactive, then the entire system will collapse.

Now sometimes, in the heat of the moment, we get it right.  Little boys were lost in Spacey.  And then there is Harvey the invisible grab-it.  And as for Bill Cosby: well there is always room for Jail-o. 

Before that, there was O’Reilly, Louis C.K., Charlie Rose and a host of others all the way back to Mel the mensch Gibson.  

And then there is Trump and merry brand of collunatics. 

Trump, who is staggeringly illiterate has informed us that he has the best words.

Let’s think about that for a moment.

Billy the Bard knew a thing or two about language.   He did famously say, “Women speak two languages—one of which is verbal.”   

And in the end, he did say, “The language I have learnt these forty years.  My native English, now I must forgo; And my tongue’s use is to me no more than an unstringed violin or harp or, being open, put into his hands that knows no touch to tune the harmony.”

Trump’s only weapon is words.  His id runs amok, completely unsupervised, while his super-ego takes a permanent vacation at Mar-A-Lago because his ego has no idea how to act presidential.

Basically this a guy who not only cannot apply the art of the deal to himself but can you imagine what his actual contributions will be at the upcoming summit?

What is really happening, is that his handlers are going to sic the uncontainable beast on the North Koreans who, like Kong before him, will stomp and fume, while they do the actual negotiating.  Then Trump can brag about how his negotiating skills saved the world.  He will use that in his defense against Mueller. Sure, I do stupid, impulsive things and yes, I lie and make racist comments, but that is my style to help the greater good.

His base will swan dive right into that Titanic-sized vat of bullshit because they are gullible, desperate, narcissistic, prejudiced and incapable of even flirting with any form of reality. 

If a lunatic sees the Virgin Mary in the pancake syrup of his Denny’s grand slam breakfast, trust me, you will never convince him of otherwise.

The biggest problem for me is that here, in 2018, words have become even more weaponized than ever.

As a writer,  I have chosen to write about compassion, love, and optimism.  And if you think that is easy, try doing it for a week.  I have hit my head so many times with dinner plates, that I have to restock my kitchen shelves at least three times a month.   At this point, Pottery Barn should send me at the very least, an edible arrangement and maybe a puppy.

The bottom line is I think we all have to begin to choose our words far more carefully.   We need to regulate both our language and our misbegotten belief that it is the inalienable right of even the mentally challenged to own and freely operate military grade mass murder weapons that shoot school children at point-blank range like innocent forest deer.

Freedom of expression is recognized as a human right under article 19 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and recognized in international human rights law in the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights. Article 19 of the UDHR states that "everyone shall have the right to hold opinions without interference" and "everyone shall have the right to freedom of expression; this right shall include freedom to seek, receive and impart information and ideas of all kinds, regardless of frontiers, either orally, in writing or in print, in the form of art, or through any other media of his choice.

But spewing racist hate is not part of anyone’s freedom.  

It is, in fact, a total abuse of the concept.

So Roseanne, proud American tweeting patriot: go fuck yourself.

In America, we all want to live the Amazon Prime of our lives whose illusion is we are getting something for nothing.

To way too many, that is their interpretation of our constitution. 

Entitlement has become the new age definition of patriotism.

And spewing racist hate does not fall under the auspices of freedom of speech.  It is, in fact, an abuse

We have to reverse the current trend to get what we really need.

Because, when it comes to our lives today, nobody gets too much heaven no more. 

It’s harder to come by.

I’m waiting in line.