Selective Outrage

Ok, so if I understood my morning car radio session with NPR correctly, I should be very concerned about the integrity of a person (Mitt Romney) who refuses to submit his tax returns.   This election, after all, is about character.

Hmmm...     [sound of hamster wheel spinning in head]

So...   If I ask "why there was not a similar outrage by some over Timothy Geitner's tax evasion as there is about Mitt Romney's refusal to disclose his tax returns?", it's not because I think he (Mitt) shouldn't discose his taxes. I think he should. I just think we are selectively outraged, depending on our alliances, that's all.

It happens again and again and again, and I am incredulous that no one seems to be able to recognize it. 

   Both sides have huge flaws and significant amounts of corruption, greed, power grabbing and manipulation... and their die-hard supporters have major blind spots, not to mention the makings for some serious back pain from all the bendy wendy gymnastics to justify their side and villify the opposing side. Republicans do it. Democrats do it. I have done it. And I am sick of, and hereby repenting of it.

Can we not be honest with ourselves? Can we not just admit that when we engage in this kind of finger pointing, we are saying more about ourselves than what we claim to believe in?

In the end, we are fooling ourselves if we really think this is about seeking and defending truth. We are seekers and defenders of self. Period.

The View

It was your typical Saturday night on Goat Island.  From our vantage point, here’s what we saw: 

Highwire walker at 2 o’clock…  Lesbian wedding at 10 o’clock… and a cadre of Burmese monks demonstrating for democracy dead ahead at 12 o’clock.

Something for everyone.

Forget about scenery…  I mean if you’re into that…  whatever floats your boat.     But what I love most about Niagara Falls is the humanity.  Sure, ok, the Falls themselves are great, too… but we’ll get to that.  Allow me to digress for just a moment. 

Where else can you go in Western NY, or for that matter, anywhere, to literally see the world come together with no other agenda than simply to enjoy the view?  With so many other things that take us in so many different and divisive directions,  we have this phenomenal focal point right here in our own back yard, and that, my friends,  is indeed a wondrous thing. 

Whatever your background, backstory, beliefs or lack thereof, the thing that truly makes the Falls a wonder in this age of ever-increasing people  polarization, is that those things  just don’t matter here.  The stuff that in every other venue in life, so beckons us to prod each other about our differences, frankly isn’t so important here.  Not your views on life.  Not mine.  Only The View, regardless of our worldviews.   Everyone gets to enjoy it.  Period.   

And why is this?  Maybe it’s because NF is one of the few places in the world that reminds us there’s actually something grandios-er out  there than our own sense of self.  Maybe that’s why 12 million plus people of all shapes, sizes,  colors and clans flock to it every year – just to shut out the small world as we know it, if only for a few moments, lose ourselves in the giant, swirling mist cloud rising up from overpowering,  turbulent waters below,  and soak in a sense of what grandiose really means. 

In light of all that, our clashing lifestyles seem a little insignificant. 

Now don’t get me wrong.  I have a definite world view, and I’m sure it would make at least some of you not want to friend me on facebook.  But… I bet if we were standing next to each other at the Falls on a Saturday night…  at least for those few moments, anyway…  you wouldn’t care one bit.  And neither would I.

We’d be too busy enjoying The View.