Candles in the Wind

To-morrow, and to-morrow, and to-morrow,
Creeps in this petty pace from day to day
To the last syllable of recorded time,
And all our yesterdays have lighted fools
The way to dusty death. Out, out, brief candle!
Life's but a walking shadow, a poor player
That struts and frets his hour upon the stage
And then is heard no more: it is a tale
Told by an idiot, full of sound and fury,
Signifying nothing.

-- William Shakespeare, Macbeth, Act V, Scene V

Snuffed out just like a candle, Mr. Tim Russert is gone. The suddenness is almost overwhelming. We can adjust to death more easily when it comes in its natural course, but to have someone this visible taken so suddenly shocks us all. My thoughts and prayers of course go to his family.

This is a time to speak well of the dead, and I'm not going to attempt to tarnish any legacy he has left. He saw his task as one of reflecting events, and not as a moral arbiter. He asked some pretty tough questions when he got the chance, and he so obviously loved his work and his life that it's very affecting, especially in this moment. We've suffered a serious loss to the political dialogue as well as a touchstone for all that is happening in this world. I would have much preferred if he were still around to share it with.

I have two themes on my mind as I write this. One is how deeply this touches my sense of the fragility of life, and with my recent history, that shouldn't be too surprising. The other is the media in general, and its place in our lives. They're practically family sometimes, but I'm sorry to say it's still a largely dysfunctional arrangement. The kinds of conversations we need to be having, the new dialogue that I promised will start to take place as these months roll on, are only beginning to surface, and I heard some of it only days ago from Russert himself. After Obama won the nomination, I recall Russert suggesting that the media task itself in the weeks ahead to push aside trivialities and focus hard on the main issues. It sounded almost like a mandate coming from Russert, although I have my skepticism as to how well the media is going to behave between now and November. I think we may have lost some of that push toward discipline from the media this afternoon, and I do believe we'll feel that loss. I hope we all try to take up the slack from Mr. Russert just a little when we have the chance, and do our part to hold the candidates fully accountable. I have my own opinions about what will happen if we can do that, and perhaps your opinions differ. I think yesterday's 5-4 Supreme Court decision is as vividly graphic a reminder as you can have that we are teetering on a precipice between reason and madness. What responsibilities might the media have for helping us to cope with such a crisis? I think it's obvious that we're not getting the whole story much of the time. Important stories aren't being sufficiently reported, the range of allowable opinions is severely restricted, more cogent and coherent perspectives are rarely offered, and the trivial perspective with disturbing subtext is by far preferred in many venues. To rely on the mainstream media sources for information is merely to float above the surface of the truth, and all too often to be so tragically misled as to go to war on a faraway nation and witness the corruption of all the nobler ideals of the American soul. Media! The MSM! What have you done?

We have dramatically new sources of information now. The internet is a new world, and the old guard doesn't begin to have a handle on it yet. They'd love to control it, eliminate net neutrality, and turn this free internet into another tool for feeding us only what they want us to get. We have to protect it. It's through the internet, through YouTube, through the ability to research and Google and blog and viral video that we begin to establish a more intelligent and comprehensive point of view, one that highlights the cognitive dissonance of the mainstream talking points. We have a long way to go. The media is a monster of conglomerate corporate power. I have no idea whether it's good or evil, and perhaps that doesn't even matter. Those familiar faces we see every day are extremely well paid, and they're going to have to pay a lot of extra taxes if Obama is elected, many of them paying a million or more than they're paying now. How does that affect their opinions? That isn't chump change, even if you're Wolf Blitzer. Don't expect objectivity when there are stakes involved like that. This is all just going to get weirder.

Until it stops. And it could stop at any moment. What must we do to take each vanishing, precious moment and say we have lived it as fully as ever we knew how? We go along with a smugness that says we must be immortal, and in an instant, a puff of wind, and we're no more. Full of sound and fury. I'm going to give Russert credit one more time. When I hear people talk about him today, what I hear being emphasized most about him was his love. It has the ring of truth to it. I believe this was a truly loving guy, and I think in the final balance that's all you can do. Right now, I think this big dysfunctional family just needs a hug.