Whatever Happened to Our Icons?

News&Views

The Armchair Curmudgeon

March 28, 2007



_______________________________________







Whatever Happened to Our Icons?





One thing that has bothered me immensely

over the past six years is the feeling that all

of the old icons I had become dependent

upon had seemingly evanesced like a whiff of smoke.





Where were all of the great one's, the ones who I had looked upon for guidance in my life and who I turned to in moments of need?



. Aside from the one's who have passed from this mortal coil, what had happened to our elders, our wise men, the "best and the brightest?"



Were they all gone?



Had they changed their stripes? Were they beyond redemption--like the Supreme Court and most Republicans who I had known in the past to be centrist and rational. Was it all now extremes?. Were we all so polarized that we wouldn’t even recognize moderation if it hit us in the face?



I don't know the answer to any of this, I just feel that there must be others like myself who are posing the question.



When I was growing up, there were plenty of roll models from Gene Autry to Roy Rogers, from just about everybody on the old Dodgers baseball team to people like Murray Kempton, Max Lerner and the other liberals and progressives of their day. Our old baseball players didn’t sell their sweat; they were just happy for the privilege of playing the game. There were the people on the radio who we could trust, too, like Gabriel Heater on the radio and Douglas Edwards and the CBS News...There was Harry Trout, and Walter Lippman in the newspaper. These were people who had the courage to tell it like it was. No gilding the lilly here; or distracting us with lightweights who seem not to care….



In Science, there was Carl Sagan and Jacob Brownowski and Stephen J. Gould and others who advanced the scope of our knowledge. None of these people were afraid to speak the truth. There were even politicians with that kind of courage like Eisenhower and Truman and Roosevelt, people from both parties who put the truth over partisan interests. They didn’t take a poll every time they said something.



That doesn't seem to hold true any longer today!



Nobody says anything that might be construed as a position--whether it is the right thing to do or not and it seems everyone is aligned with a party that dictates what they can say or not say.



It is a different world ruled by an amalgam of business and government and it is unhealthy.



Instead of people dialoguing together, we have vast multitudes hidden in fenced communities and the have-nots, those who don't know whether they will even be able pay the mortgage next month. Thanks to the baloney about “off-shoring” and NAFTA being good for us…



This country cries out for leadership and it is slow in coming.



I hope that someday I will be able to trust in a whole new lexicon of icons who I can respect for their intelligence, judgment, fairness, integrity and willingness to tell the truth.



It hasn't happened as yet.



And I hope it is only a temporary thing and that things will be restored to normal once again, but I will always wonder why those few who set the standard are so scarce when we need them most.



Les Aaron

The Armchair Curmudgeon