Some days, turning on the news takes an act of courage. Can I bear to eat one more piece of the hate and fear pie being baked for us by the current administration? We are told it is a great American pie and we should love it. The chefs, primarily white men regularly dish up a concoction of misogyny, racism, xenophobia, homophobia, transaphobia, urbaphobia, pooraphobia, and a variety of other stuff THAT'S harder to identify.
These chefs are pretty good at THEIR WORK. They tuck their ingredients into a crust of double talk, lies, blaming, ignorance, naivete, childishness, and insensitivity. Then, the top of their concoctions are brushed with a generous helping of hypocrisy, passing the buck and lack of accountability. It is often baked in secret and fed to us in small enough servings that we don't really complain too much. After all, we have lives to live.
If we don't like the slice of pie we are given, that's our fault because we are told how healthy this is for our nation and that our bad taste makes us unpatriotic.
There is always a crowd screaming for the chefs telling them how wonderful they are and that there has never been such a good group of bakers.
If one were to ask one of these pie lovers what they like about the pie and the chefs who made it, they would say that the chef doesn't take anything from anyone and doesn't care what anyone thinks. The chef really knows them and cares what happens to them.
When the pie is actually examined, it is clear its ingredients do not include generosity, caring, kindness, loving one's neighbor as oneself, or any of those things once thought to be essential to a good American pie.
Many gag on the fear and hatred wafting from this pie, but it is hard to escape it. The chefs were carefully selected to be sure they had a hate and fear level high enough that some could be transferred into the pie during each baking session.
There is a problem. Even if one does not want to eat a piece of the pie, it is hard to escape. It's brought out every day with fanfare, like the pie with the four and twenty blackbirds was brought out. So much of it comes out each day that the nation is choking on it. Just as one recovers from the last bite, the next is coming along.
"Fire the Head Chef!" you say. That will not help much because the assistant chefs are of equal quality and this American pie will just keep coming.
Maybe it is possible for other chefs, rival chefs to arise and begin baking pie that is more in keeping with the kind of diet Americans mostly want. This will keep the recipes fresh for when this becomes the pie of the land again.
The recipe we will keep alive has a filling of acceptance, understanding, caring, kindness, and courage. It must be served in a crust of generosity, honesty, insight, intelligence, and topped with faith in our democracy.
Pass the recipe. Add all the positive ingredients you want. Share the pie so we will have practiced enough to make a truly glorious pie in the near future.
No comments:
Post a Comment