I have come to hate phonies. I used to say, "Phonies live and move
among us, but we can ignore them since they will expose themselves in
time". But when the exulted Nobel Peace Prize was awarded to our
Prince of Peace, Barak Obama, I was forced to leave my world of Let's
Pretend, and face the fact that Phonies can be dangerous if left
unchecked.
While I did not set out in life to be a practicing phoney, having
first decided to be a comedian in the image of Groucho Marx, I
discovered that I had a talent which would carry me a long way in the
political arena. I was certainly not close to being as bright as many
who rose to the top, the John Kennedy's and later, the Bill Clinton's
and Barak Obama's, but I had the one thing they all possessed. The
ability to Schmooze. I schmoozed my way through 3 and two thirds
years of college without hardly challenging my brain. I schmoozed my
way into the Democratic Party politics in King County. I schmoozed my
way into the leadership in the Washington State NFB, and a rising
force in the national organization, at least until Kenneth Jernigan
and I crossed tongues a few times too many.
And in a way I have Kenneth Jernigan to thank for helping me to wake
up to the fact that I was patterning my life after one of the most
glib phonies I'd ever met. I looked int that pompous Jernigan mirror
and did not like what I saw. Our falling out came when he gazed back
into my eyes and could no longer see his own image. Figuratively
speaking, of course.
Realizing that I had been a practicing phoney, I joined Phonies
Anonymous. "Hi, I'm Carl, a practicing phoney". I went through some
hard times. In public meetings I felt compelled to announce publicly
that I was done with Schmoozing. People gave me funny looks and moved
a few seats away. I ate all the Humble Pie I could get my mouth
around. Do not eat humble pie if you are trying to shake being a
phoney. Humble Pie eating gives everyone a chance to dump on you, and
by day's end you don't feel better, you feel like a battalion has
marched over you...which it has.
Although I still believe I'm only part way down the road to recovery,
what is working for me is to return to my Working Class Roots. I read
books and listen to talks by folks such as Howard Zinn, Chris Hedges,
Angela Davis and so many others.
I once worked with a would be schmoozer who told me, "If I can't
dazzle them with my brilliance, I'll baffle them with my bullshit".
He never did get the message that his brilliance wasn't working and
most folks saw through the bull. But in this fellow I learned
something. Phonies are actually very insecure people. And I took a
deeper look inside me and saw that this was true in my own life. But
folks like Bill Clinton and Barak Obama are super bright men. They
cover their insecurities with high class schmooze. But underneath it
all they are Lost Souls looking for themselves. One way to cover up
our insecurities is to surround ourselves with lots of material stuff.
We can also surround ourselves with fawning servants. We can seek and
accept medals and awards, humbly mumbling that we really don't deserve
them. And if we are good at it, no one will find us out.
We recovering phonies finally come to that Step in our Big Book that
reminds us that life is short and we need to step up and be ourselves.
We do that by stopping looking outward and take the time to study
what's going on down inside. Get to know myself, tell me I like
myself and learn that I'm okay. Flawed, but okay. And then work hard
at no longer trying to please others, but practice speaking my own
mind. Carl Jarvis
On 7/7/15, Miriam Vieni <miriamvieni@xxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:
I'm not sure that's relevant. It's the US which presents itself as the
cradle of freedom and democracy which we want to export to the rest of the
world and it is the US that claims to have a free press which accurately
reports world events. Other than Israel, no other country in the US claims
that image for itself. The Mid East has been divided up by western
countries
for a few centuries. Like most of the world, it has been dessamated by
Colonialism. It makes no sense to hold our victims to our standards.
Miriam
-----Original Message-----
From: blind-democracy-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
[mailto:blind-democracy-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx] On Behalf Of Bob Hachey
Sent: Tuesday, July 07, 2015 12:01 AM
To: blind-democracy@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
Subject: [blind-democracy] Re: Today's Civilian Victims in Yemen Will Be
Ignored Because US and Its Allies Are Responsible
Hi Miriam,
Yes, it is disgusting how the American Wall Stream media ignores the
bombings and killings such as those described in Greenwald's article. But,
I
wonder how deaths here are covered in the Middle East. For instance, how
much do those living in the Middle East know about the Boston Marathon
bombing of 2013?
Bob Hachey
