By Michael Kaufman

Say this about Barack Obama: He sure makes a great speech. If only his job consisted of making speeches he’d already be right up there with the all-time great presidents in American history. His moving remarks Wednesday night in Tucson struck just the right tone. Only the most ardent of Rush Limbaugh’s “ditto heads” (and some other unprintable-on-a-family-blog-site heads) would think otherwise.  So will someone please explain to me why someone as bright, articulate, and seemingly decent as President Obama keeps sending members of our armed forces to occupy, fight, kill (or be killed or maimed) in Afghanistan and Iraq?

Meanwhile, as I listened to the president’s plea for civility Wednesday night, my thoughts turned to people I know or have known whose political views differ greatly from my own. There was Karen Coolidge, president of the Young Republicans when I was a student at SUNY New Paltz.  Back then I was part of a group of socialist-minded students seeking authorization from the college administration to hold meetings on campus just like the Young Republicans and Young Democrats did. When the administration denied our request, Karen spoke out in favor of our right to meet and helped get the bureaucrats to reverse their decision. During our time together at New Paltz, Karen and I argued vehemently about the war in Vietnam, the Cold War and other divisive issues. I never once doubted her honesty, sincerity, or good intentions nor did she doubt mine. 

I thought about my childhood friend Paul Elis, who served in the Green Berets in Vietnam while I was protesting against the war and resisting the draft at home. Our friendship, strained as it was at the time, has endured.  

More recently, when I wrote about losing my job a couple of years ago one of the first people I heard from was Douglas Cunningham, a political conservative who had previously lost his own job at the Times Herald-Record.  I still have the email. “The family matters,” he wrote. “The job is just a job.”

That was the last of four bullet points labeled “practical thoughts.” It was followed by nine helpful tips on job searching. I still don’t like Doug’s politics. He worked for Nan Hayworth’s campaign in the last election against John Hall, targeted for special attention by the Republican National Committee (but not among those included in Sarah Palin’s infamous “bullseye” map). But I like Doug…..and we can converse with civility. The Record is much the worse without him….as it is without Beth Quinn, who used to argue collegially with him within its pages. 

I have spent parts of the last couple of days listening to Sean Hannity and Rush Limbaugh on the radio. I wanted to hear what they had to say about the events in Tucson and particularly regarding the blunt and I believe truthful comments of Pima County Sheriff Clarence Dupnik. Had they heard Keith Olbermann’s “special comment” on MSNBC wherein he apologized for any intemperate remarks of his own that might have been interpreted by a deranged person as suggestive of an act of violence? Would they too renounce or reconsider the use of inflammatory language? What did they think of the president’s speech?

When I listened to Hannity, he and his callers were railing against Sheriff Dupnik as if he had directly accused right-wing radio and television commentators like Hannity of causing last Saturday’s deadly rampage. No one….not Dupnik, not Olbermann, not anyone I know of, said any such thing. But Hannity and his callers spent their time gleefully recalling instances when Democrats, including the president, used language like “hand to hand combat” and “bullseye” to discuss their electoral or Congressional confrontations with Republicans. 

Rush was even more clueless. He began his program by telling a convoluted story he said he’d heard from a man who had been on a plane returning to the U.S. from abroad. The man heard the couple sitting behind him say that Rush had killed people in Arizona. “Can you believe that?” The man did not say anything to the people because he didn’t want to create a disturbance, but when he got up he glared at the couple to show his displeasure.

After that heartwarming story Rush began his program by making fun of Professor Carlos Gonzalez, the Native American who gave the invocation at the beginning of Wednesday’s memorial gathering in Tucson. Then he ridiculed Eric Holder, U.S. attorney general, and Janet Napolitano, director of homeland security, for reading from scripture. “That must have really alienated the Democrats’ base,” he laughed. He noted that there were no rabbis, priests or ministers included, and joked, inanely, “I wonder what the Muslim brothers thought.” He called the memorial a “pep rally” and suggested it had been delayed for a week (actually it was four days) so the president could tailor his speech to reflect public opinion polls and “they could print the t-shirts they gave out.” Click.

I’d had enough. The president is wrong about a lot of things, including the deadly occupation of Iraq and Afghanistan, but he is right about the need for civility. I think Karen Coolidge, Paul Elis, and Doug Cunningham would agree.

Michael can be reached at michael@zestoforange.com.

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