Follow fisherbrothers on Twitter

It’s So Hard

by Danny Fisher on March 9, 2010

What can I say, but it’s so hard.  Hard to get out of bed.  Hard to go to sleep.  Hard to get through the night.  What can I say, but it’s so hard.

“You got to live,
You got to love,
You got to be somebody,
You got to shove,
But it’s hard,
It’s really hard,
Some times I feel
like going down…”

jack building

Rebuilding:  Jack works on a new edit room

I am trying to rebuild.  I am trying to redefine myself.  I am trying to reinvent myself.  I am trying to get back on my feet.  Hard to be with new people.  Harder still to be with people I knew.  How do people see me now?  How do I see myself?  What can I say, but it’s so hard.

“You got to eat,
You got to drink,
You got to feel something,
You got to worry,
It’s so hard,
It’s really hard,
Some times I feel
like going down…”

I live each day with great uncertainty.  Anything can happen.  My glass is either half full or half empty.  That depends on the day, the hour of the day and the minute of the hour.  Uncertainty can bring troubling thoughts and hardship – but it can also bring wonderful feelings and accomplishment.

“But when it’s good,
It’s oh so good,
And when I hold you
in my arms baby,
Some times I feel
like going down…”

joel dovev building

Rebuilding: Joel Dovev

I have been off antidepressants for more than two years.  Today I looked at the old pill bottle and said maybe its time for that bit of help.  But is that really what I want?  I thought of my last blog post, the last quote from Sean Stephenson said “On your darkest days remember what it feels like to have sunshine on your face.”  So I walked out of my house as the sun was setting and walked the 3.5 miles around Prospect Park.  The sun glowed golden on the lake and the air was breezy and nice.  Spring will soon be here.

“You got to run,
You got to hide,
You got to keep your
woman satisfied,
But it’s so hard,
It’s really hard,
Some times I feel
like going down.”

-John Lennon

(If you like this post and my blog please visit my facebook page here and click “like”)

{ 0 comments }

Three Foot Giant

by Danny Fisher on March 2, 2010

“When we’re being puppeted by our insecurities, we read into everything. It’s as if we plot our own demise.”

Ever since I met Sean Stephenson, who is three foot tall and has overcome tremendous physical and psychological hardships, I have turned to him for wisdom and inspiration.

sean stephenson

Sean is not only one of the happiest people I have met, but he has dedicated his life to help others find contentment and overcome life’s challenges.

“Just imagine a world where everything is ALWAYS going your way, even when it doesn’t look like it. That’s actually the truth of life.”

I turn to Sean’s sayings every day – sometimes every five minutes. I need to be continually reminded.

“If you know your personal truth there’s no need to prove it to anyone else. Energy spent proving is energy wasted.”

I spend so much time trying to prove myself to others. Why do I do that? I wrote one and only one screenplay in my life, and I placed it on a far away shelf for no one to see. I am not a writer and why would anyone want to read my screenplay? It is now moving closer to production as a major movie (“Interrupted”) with big stars and will be directed by one of America’s greatest living directors (Philip Kaufman). My co-writer (Oren Moverman) has been nominated for this year’s Academy Award for Best Original Screenplay (“The Messenger”). I suffer from phobias. One of my lifelong phobias has been winning an Academy Award, as I would never be able to step up onto a stage with the world watching. I have so far been spared such a nightmare! Good luck Oren!!!

“We waste so much time brooding about the past and worrying about the future, we often miss the shimmering of the present.”

Life is now. It is so obvious – why do I continually forget?

“Working on yourself is the best gift you can give to those you love.”

I found the gym to be incredibly crowded the first week of January – New Year’s resolutions week – I think it must be much less crowded now – but, then, how would I know?

“If something is meant to happen, take solace in knowing that it will and no force can stand in its way.”

On the first film my brother Jack and I made, “A Generation Apart,” Jack said the project was blessed and meant to be. We had no money, but it somehow materialized. I will never forget Jack and I sitting in a windowless room, facing each other in silence across opposite sides of a desk, on which was a black phone. We stared at the phone for hours and realized we had no one to call. But there was always someone to call, even if it was a name out of the white pages. The phone on the desk represented an insurmountable barrier – yet it also represented an entire world of unbounded opportunity.

“Staying calm is so underrated. The calmest person in the room controls the dynamics of the interaction. Your ability to stay calm, no matter what madness arises is your greatest resource.”

I have surprised people with my calmness for so many years and have had success with it. Yet I become hotheaded on occasion – usually at the absolute worst times.

“If you avoid difficult conversations you experience painful situations.”

The greatest mistakes in my life arose from avoiding difficult conversations. With others. And with myself. If I can go back in time and change my past to make it better, it would mostly involve adding the many difficult conversations I never had.

“Create a future that is so compelling that you laugh at obstacles. You know where you are headed, keep going my friend!”

I’m going. On and on and on and on.

“On your darkest days remember what it feels like to have sunshine on your face.”

(If you like this post and my blog please visit my facebook page here and click “like”)

{ 2 comments }

Instant Karma!

by Danny Fisher on February 24, 2010

I have been listening to Instant Karma! every day for the last two weeks. Listening to the raw power of the words and the music. This song is keeping me going. On and on and on and on…

Instant Karma’s gonna get you
Gonna knock you right on the head
You better get yourself together
Pretty soon you’re gonna be dead
What in the world you thinking of
Laughing in the face of love
What on earth you tryin’ to do
It’s up to you, yeah you

john lennon karma

Instant Karma’s gonna get you
Gonna look you right in the face
Better get yourself together darlin’
Join the human race
How in the world you gonna see
Laughin’ at fools like me
Who in the hell d’you think you are
A super star
Well, right you are

Well we all shine on
Like the moon and the stars and the sun
Well we all shine on
Ev’ryone come on

Instant Karma’s gonna get you
Gonna knock you off your feet
Better recognize your brothers
Ev’ryone you meet
Why in the world are we here
Surely not to live in pain and fear
Why on earth are you there
When you’re ev’rywhere
Come and get your share

Well we all shine on
Like the moon and the stars and the sun
Yeah we all shine on
Come on and on and on on on…

- John Lennon

(If you like this post and my blog please visit my facebook page here and click “like”)

{ 0 comments }

Centrist Manifesto

by Danny Fisher on February 18, 2010

Following Scott Brown’s upset win in Massachusetts, following President Obama’s State of the Union that was confusing and offered mixed messages –and more recently, following the abrupt exit of Evan Bayh from the reelection race for the United States Senate seat in Indiana where polls had him 20 points ahead, I thought I would appeal to those of all political ideologies for a bipartisan/nonpartisan political platform.

bayh

1. HEALTH CARE:

a. Start from scratch on health care reform. Seek incremental but meaningful healthcare legislation that may be realistically passed and improve and extend care by reducing costs and increasing competition.

b. Tort Reform. Malpractice by health care professionals and organizations should indeed face severe consequences. But we need to strike a balance between accountability for gross and overt negligence and lawsuits whose merits are questionable, and for which there is no downside to initiating such malpractice claims as the plaintiffs in potentially frivolous lawsuits suffer no adverse monetary consequences by losing. They do not have to pay for the defendants’ legal bills, which encourages lawsuits. Caps on awards, while distasteful in many respects, need to be balanced by the fact that all health care costs are substantially higher due to the high costs of malpractice insurance and the widespread practice of “defensive medicine” whose primary objective is protection from lawsuits rather than the health of our citizens.

c. Foster competition through the ability to purchase insurance across state lines.

d. Incrementally address the unfair exclusion of “preexisting conditions” by insurance companies through a fund that could be established in the private sector with public sector support as a consequence of savings from tort reform and reducing costly “defensive medicine” to combat potential legal claims.

e. Gradually expand health coverage for the uninsured by lowered health costs – this can be accomplished through the private sector working with the public sector through such methods as tax credits and other support structures that are commensurate with the savings resulting from tort reform and increased interstate competition.

2. GAY RIGHTS:

a. Immediately repeal “Don’t Ask/Don’t Tell.” Gay and lesbian American citizens should not be required to hide their identities in shame in order to place their lives at risk as they protect our nation. There is nothing to debate – do it now. Gays and lesbians serve openly in other countries’ armed forces – America should be at the forefront of civil rights, not followers of the rest of the world.

b. Legalize gay marriage. Here too, there is nothing to debate. Don’t believe in gay marriage? Don’t marry a same-sex partner. Want to preserve the sacred institution of the family”? Stop screwing other people’s spouses and getting divorced at a greater rate than you get married. Gay marriage is not a “values” problem for anyone.

3. THE ENVIRONMENT/ENERGY:

a. Preserve the environment and do whatever you can to reasonably keep the earth as nature intended.

b. Develop alternative energy sources as a long term solution to energy independence: solar, wind, all reasonable and realistic alternative energy strategies need to be researched and explored. Do not be misled into believing that alternative energy will solve our energy needs this year or next year – but that does not mean we should not do everything we can.

c. Expand existing energy resources in an “all-of-the-above” strategy: that includes off-shore oil drilling, natural gas exploration, development of cleaner coal technology, and a serious plan to compete with the rest of the world on peaceful nuclear energy development.

d. Kill Cap and Trade. Do not waste time debating it and wining and dining lobbyists and politicians. We need jobs and we need to simulate and invigorate our economy. Cap and Trade will be devastating to our economy and is an unreasonable solution to an environmental problem that has not been adequately assessed by a science that is in fact not settled.

e. Global Warming aka as Climate Change is an unsettled science. I have said it – does that make me a skeptic or a denier? Actually, no – I am saying what the embattled head scientist Phil Jones effectively conceded as he stepped down from the IPCC: that the science is clearly far from settled, that verifiable man made global warming has not occurred for the past 15 years, that there were other warming periods in the 20thcentury that were not attributed to man-made causes, and that there was likely a medieval warming period that was clearly not caused by man. Moreover, major fixtures of the “scientific consensus” on global warming have been recently determined to be questionable at best: the hockey stick graph, the Himalayan glaciers, the Amazon, reports of weather stations throughout the world which are being questioned – that is, of those records that can be found and have not disappeared. Everyone, let’s come to grips with reality: man-made global warming may exist. But even if it does exist, we are not even close to knowing its true trajectory. We have learned over the past 15 years that hysterical and extreme claims of impending immediate worldwide doom from global warming have been alarmist rhetoric. We have learned over the past few months that climate science has been largely hijacked by those more interested in proving an agenda then studying science for the benefit of all. If that means manipulating data to “hide the decline” or using anecdotal reports by mountain climbers and environmental activists as a substitute for peer reviewed scientific research, it is a disgrace to true science.

f. Energy Independence: we need to be energy independent for many reasons. Preserving the environment is one reason. Another major reason – perhaps the overarching reason at this moment in time – we cannot be beholden to the tyrannical regimes of petro-dictators. We support terrorism each and every day by financing terrorism – not intentionally, of course – but we are financing some of the most ruthless and repressive regimes in the world, who in turn finance the terrorists who are bent on our destruction.

4. CIVILITY, BIPARTISANSHIP, NONPARTISANSHIP, POSTPARTISANSHIP:

a. President Obama promised us a post-partisan world. I am not going to get into whether he failed at it or Harry Reid or Nancy Pelosi failed or the Blue Dogs or Glenn Beck or Mitch McConnell or Rush Limbaugh or Sarah Palin failed at it. I don’t really care who is to blame. The fact is, the post-partisan world did not materialize – far from it. From what I can see, it’s worse than ever. It most likely led to Evan Bayh’s surprise departure from seeking reelection and, just as with Scott Brown’s upset win in Massachusetts, we should not understimate the significance of the message.

b. What to do about it: Fix it. Zero Tolerance for partisan bickering on either side of the aisle and even if you have no aisle. Stop blaming everyone else and put at least the most modest measure of civility in our national political discourse. Focus on how to solve things, not on how everyone else is to blame. Perhaps it is an old fashioned concept – but imagine a world where those who have the power to do something about our challenges are actually more concerned about addressing our challenges than scoring points against the other side and points for themselves and their side. The current political environment is an absolute disgrace.  Look at the polls on Congress – both parties.

c. Respect and listen to opinions that are not your own, that are not your parties’ own, that are not even the opinions of your circle of friends. Listen to opposing viewpoints without getting hysterical. I am simply amazed about the things I hear about Sarah Palin, the Tea Partiers, about those who oppose Obamacare, which happen to be the majority of Americans. Sarah Palin is a smart woman with great populist appeal, who actually carried out her pro-life principals in her personal life. She believes in limited government, tax cuts and strong national defense. So did John Kennedy. Some of my friends compare Sarah Palin to Hitler. Most of my family was wiped out by Hitler. I fail to see the comparison. Hitler wrote about and spoke about ethnic cleansing of the Jews – that was his dream – not tax cuts to incentivize business.

d. If you do not agree with the policies of our current president – and over half of Americans polled currently do not – that does not make you a racist, notwithstanding Jimmy Carter’s unfounded and absurd allegations to the contrary. It is ok to disagree with your elected representatives – it is downright American to do so.

5. THE ECONOMY:

a. Repeal Sarbanes Oxley (SOX). Yes, the scandals of Enron and other greedy and reckless corporations demanded a regulatory response. However, SOX is primarily further punishing the innocent. SOX is a significant factor in fostering economic stagnation and the stifling of free enterprise. It is costing Americans jobs . Investors are more reluctant to invest in private companies – including small businesses- as they are much more reticent about an investment exit strategy that involves going public. Yes, there are other reasons investors are reluctant to take companies public, but SOX adds discouragement in an environment where we urgently need encouragement.

b. Reduce or eliminate capital gains taxes. We need investment in business to create jobs.

c. Reduce corporate tax rates. I know, that is heresy for a liberal, even a centrist, to declare. But U.S. corporate tax rates are among the very highest in the world, and now that our economy is a global one, American companies need to be competitive with their international counterparts. It is convenient to call corporations the greedy bad guys. But they provide and create jobs that sustain us all – and they also create and preserve value for Americans’ retirement funds.

d. Deficit: We are on an unsustainable course and something is going to have to be done about it. However, I rather agree with President Obama that we cannot commit to resolve the deficit right now, without any regard to the stability of our financial systems. We do, however, need to recognize that a Great Reckoning awaits us, and we cannot simply defer and grow the deficit until the end of time.  We need to begin to address the deficit with seriousness of purpose and with consensus.

6. NATIONAL SECURITY:

a. We are at war with Islamist Jihadists. There is a time for political correctness, and on this issue, we cannot afford political correctness (see: Fort Hood). Terrorists should not be Mirandized 50 minutes after nearly blowing up a plane full of people. Terrorists should not be allowed to further bleed our country’s treasure by being granted civilian trials in the shadow of the World Trade Center were they would also be provided with an obscene public relations platform – at our expense – from which to recruit future Islamist Jihadist terrorists who want to destroy us and our way of life.

b. A World Apology Tour sounded idealistic and even cathartic after having a brush-clearing cowboy in office for eight years. But it did not work. Our enemies perceive us as weaker and less determined. Yes, our country has made lots of mistakes – everyone knows that – as has the rest of the world made lots of mistakes – all of the rest of the world. We should not be the only ones in the world to apologize for our mistakes, as it is misinterpreted as irresoluteness.

c. Support the State of Israel, fully and unequivocally. The Palestinians have long suffered, and the collective Arab States are primarily to blame for the perpetual suffering of the Palestinians. Why has the world forgotten that the Arabs attacked Israel upon its founding and not the other way around? Why has the world not acknowledged the expulsion of Jews from Arab lands, only the expulsion of Arabs from the State of Israel that was brought about by the attack against Israel by Arabs after its founding by the United Nations? Israel is the only true democracy in the Middle East and must be supported and defended. Peace is obtainable. Palestinians and Israelis know exactly what the final peace treaty looks like, down to highly specific maps and details that have been worked out by working committees on both sides. Return to 1947 lines, with land swaps to adjust for the realities on the ground. The peace is there for the taking. All we are saying is give peace a chance. Extremists on both sides, and agitators on the sidelines (see: Iran, Syria) have no interest in peace. Their populaces run the danger of turning towards real grievances of their own, such as their being forced to live in a society more suited for the Dark Ages.

d. Keep the Bomb away from Iran. No one seems to be taking this very seriously. The Bomb in Iran will destabilize the region, the world, and the likelihood of The Bomb or an improvised version of it landing in the hands of Al Qaeda, other Islamist Jihadists and generally unsavory characters increases incalculably.  Support dissidents for reform in Iran.

7. SOCIAL ISSUES:

a. Roe versus Wade decided the abortion question once and for all. Pro Choice. A woman must have the right to choose what to do with her body. Against abortion? Don’t get one.

b. Stem cell research is pro-life. Do it. Save lives.

c. Separation of Church and State: It is in the constitution. Honor the constitution on this issue and stop debating it.

(If you like this post and my blog please visit my facebook page here and click “like”)

{ 2 comments }

In the Middle of the Night

by Danny Fisher on February 6, 2010

“In the middle of the night
In the middle of the night I call your name…”

john lennon

I have spoken here of my effort to rebuild my life and career.

I have spoken about Haiti and its suffering, of my mother surviving Auschwitz to rebuild a life she considered blessed until its end.

I have spoken about the impact of the recent Massachusetts senate election and a quest for a politics of the center and of the people.

I have spoken about the fascist poet Ezra Pound and the beautiful artist and friend Cecilia Peck.

I have spoken about the hopes of my days and the torments of my nights.

“In the middle of the bath
In the middle of the bath I call your name…”

I continue to make great progress in rebuilding my career.

I am grateful to the many people who have expressed their support and encouragement.

I feel blessed to have the opportunity for a second chance.

I see many exciting things ahead.

I am thankful that my family and friends are well.

“In the middle of a shave
In the middle of a shave I call your name…”

I continue to face challenges.

I continue to be haunted by demons, imagined and real.

I struggle to get out of bed in the morning.

I will be haunted by demons until the end of my days.

I accept that life is a bumpy ride.

“In the middle of a dream
In the middle of a dream I call your name…”

I learn from the three foot tall Sean Stephenson, who says “Everything is always going your way, even when it doesn’t look like it – that’s actually the truth of life.” Sean also says “No one can hurt you without your permission.”

I learn from T.S. Elliot, who says “What we call the beginning is often the end. And to make an end is to make a beginning.”

I learn from Ezra Pound, who says “What thou lov’st well shall not be reft from thee.” And, “Pull down thy vanity!”

I learn from the great poet of my home town of Brooklyn, Walt Whitman– “I celebrate myself, and sing myself” and “Do I contradict myself? Very well, I contradict myself.”

I learn from my mentor Nicholas Ray, who said “Learn your limitations and take advantage of them” and “Do not care so much what other people think.”

“In the middle of a cloud
In the middle of a cloud I call your name
Oh Yoko,
Oh Yoko,
My love will turn you on…”
- John Lennon

(If you like this post and my blog please visit my facebook page here and click “like”)

{ 1 comment }

On Ezra Pound

by Danny Fisher on January 26, 2010

Ezra Pound, the greatest poet of the 20th century – and one of my favorite – was a fascist and anti-Semite. As a child of Holocaust survivors, it has always been difficult for me to appreciate Pound’s great artistry without highly charged and mixed emotions. But I still consider his writing among the highest art. Consider some excerpts from his monumental epic poem, The Cantos.

ezra pound

Canto I recounts Homer’s Odyssey in Pound’s stunning first person verse, where images, deep emotions, and the rhythm and sound of the poet’s words powerfully converge.

“And then went down to the ship,
Set keel to breakers
‘forth on the godly sea, and
We set up mast and sail on that swart ship,
Bore sheep aboard her, and our bodies also
Heavy with weeping, so winds from sternward
Bore us out onward with bellying canvas,
Circe’s this craft, the trim-coifed goddess.
Then sat we amidships, wind jamming the tiller,
Thus with stretched sail, we went over sea till day’s end.
Sun to his slumber, shadows o’er all the ocean,
Came we then to the bounds of deepest water,
To the Kimmerian lands, and peopled cities
Covered with close-webbed mist, unpierced ever
With glitter of sun-rays
Nor with stars stretched, nor looking back from heaven
Swartest night stretched over wretched men there.
The ocean flowing backward, came we then to the place
Aforesaid by Circe.
Here did they rites, Perimedes and Eurylochus,
And drawing sword from my hip
I dug the ell-square pitkin;
Poured we libations unto each the dead,
First mead and then sweet wine, water mixed with white flour.
Then prayed I many a prayer to the sickly death’s-head;
As set in Ithaca, sterile bulls of the best
For sacrifice, heaping the pyre with goods,
A sheep to Tiresias only, black and a bell-sheep.
Dark blood flowed in the fosse,
Souls out of Erebus, cadaverous dead, of brides
Of youths and at the old who had borne much;
Souls stained with recent tears, girls tender,
Men many, mauled with bronze lance heads,
Battle spoil, bearing yet dreory arms,
These many crowded about me; with shouting,
Pallor upon me, cried to my men for more beasts;
Slaughtered the herds, sheep slain of bronze;
Poured ointment, cried to the gods,
To Pluto the strong, and praised Proserpine;
Unsheathed the narrow sword,
I sat to keep off the impetuous impotent dead,
Till I should hear Tiresias.”

Now Pound/Odysseus meets the soul of a man who was left behind, unburied, and he continues sorrowfully:

“But first Elpenor came, our friend Elpenor,
Unburied, cast on the wide earth,
Limbs that we left in the house of Circe,
Unwept, unwrapped in sepulchre, since toils urged other.
Pitiful spirit.And I cried in hurried speech:
“Elpenor, how art thou come to this dark coast?
Cam’st thou afoot, outstripping seamen?”
And he in heavy speech:
“Ill fate and abundant wine. I slept in Circe’s ingle.
Going down the long ladder unguarded,
I fell against the buttress,
Shattered the nape-nerve, the soul sought Avernus.”

“Ill fate” – we are all victims of events beyond our control. “Abundant wine” – well, there are things that are in our control. Hear now what Elpenor states – a plea for being remembered:

“But thou, O King, I bid remember me, unwept, unburied,
Heap up mine arms, be tomb by sea-board, and inscribed:
A man of no fortune, and with a name to come.”

“A name to come” – perhaps that is what Pound the artist seeks or envisions.

“And Anticlea came, whom I beat off, and then Tiresias Theban,
Holding his golden wand, knew me, and spoke first:
“A second time? why? man of ill star,
Facing the sunless dead and this joyless region?
Stand from the fosse, leave me my bloody bever
For soothsay.”
And I stepped back,
And he strong with the blood, said then: “Odysseus
Shalt return through spiteful Neptune, over dark seas,
Lose all companions.”

“Lose all companions” – Pound the artist is alone. Ezra Pound the man was captured at the end of World War II and spent time living alone in a cage that was his prison. He was eventually found not guilty of treason by reason of insanity. I recall that Pound remarked to a poet friend who visited him in the American insane asylum that was his residence in the fifties: “Bird in cage does not sing.”

Turning far ahead to Canto LXXXI is this memorable and powerfully passionate verse:

“What thou lovest well remains,
the rest is dross
What thou lov’st well shall not be reft from thee
What thou lov’st well is thy true heritage
Whose world, or mine or theirs
or is it of none?
First came the seen, then thus the palpable
Elysium, though it were in the halls of hell,
What thou lovest well is thy true heritage
What thou lov’st well shall not be reft from thee
The ant’s a centaur in his dragon world.
Pull down thy vanity, it is not man
Made courage, or made order, or made grace,
Pull down thy vanity, I say pull down.
Learn of the green world what can be thy place
In scaled invention or true artistry,
Pull down thy vanity,
Paquin pull down!
The green casque has outdone your elegance.
“Master thyself, then others shall thee bear”
Pull down thy vanity
Thou art a beaten dog beneath the hail,
A swollen magpie in a fitful sun,
Half black half white
Nor knowst’ou wing from tail
Pull down thy vanity
How mean thy hates
Fostered in falsity,
Pull down thy vanity,
Rathe to destroy, niggard in charity,
Pull down thy vanity,
I say pull down.

But to have done instead of not doing
This is not vanity
To have, with decency, knocked
That a Blunt should open
To have gathered from the air a live tradition
or from a fine old eye the unconquered flame
this is not vanity.
Here error is all in the not done,
all in the diffidence that faltered . . .”

The final verse, Canto 120, was published posthumously. I think of this verse often. Perhaps Pound here admits the errors of his life. Perhaps it is about how all people err. This is the entire Canto 120:

“I have tried to write Paradise

Do not move
let the wind speak
that is paradise

Let the Gods forgive what I
have made
Let those I love try to forgive
what I have made.”

(If you like this post and my blog please visit my facebook page here and click “like”)

{ 1 comment }

It’s the People, Stupid

by Danny Fisher on January 22, 2010

It was refreshing for me to see Cindy McCain today posing with duct tape over her mouth on the home page of the website NoH8 Campaign endorsing equal marriage rights for gays.

cindy mccain

This follows the appearance on the same site of marriage equality advocate Meghan McCain.

meghan mccain

The banner on the website says “Redefining Republican.” But it is not a matter of redefining a political party or other labels like “liberal” or “conservative.” Just as our society strives to become post-racial – we have elected an African American as president, something unthinkable only a very short time ago – we should get beyond the labels of political persuasions. It’s really all about people – individuals who have their own opinions, concerns and realities.

I expressed some thoughts in my last blog about the meaning of the election in Massachusetts. I received hundreds of responses – from those who identified themselves as liberals, conservatives, members of the Tea Party Movement and independents. Some people saw my comments as fitting a particular label or political persuasion of their own identification and it made me think that perhaps there is something that is not constructive in an identification to a group. Because then you are forced to agree with all the opinions of that group. And then that group itself tries to change the laws of the land more for the sake of the survival of the group than survival of the land. In the recent health care debate, the group called the Democrats even found nothing wrong with purchasing the votes of individuals in the group (see: Louisiana and Nebraska) because those individuals just really did not agree with the program. This is not confined to the Democratic Party – we see this happening all the time with the Republican Party and other groups with identifying labels.

In the end, it’s about individuals – it’s the people.

{ 2 comments }

Confucius on the Massachusetts Election

by Danny Fisher on January 20, 2010

Yuan Jang sat by the roadside pretending to
be receiving wisdom.
And Kung said
“You old fool, come out of it,
“Get up and do something useful.”
And Kung said
“Respect a child’s faculties
“From the moment it inhales the clear air,
“But a man of fifty who knows nothing
Is worthy of no respect.”

Scott Brown’s stunning upset victory in Massachusetts has redefined the American political landscape. I recall the words of Confucius as interpreted by Ezra Pound in Canto XIII:

“Anyone can run to excesses,
“It is easy to shoot past the mark,
“It is hard to stand firm in the middle.”

brown flags

Scott Brown was down 30 points a few weeks ago and won Ted Kennedy’s seat by 5. How and why did this happen? What does it mean?

Some things are obvious: it would have helped the Democratic candidate, Martha Coakley, if she knew the names of her constituency’s great baseball stars, if she understood that shaking hands in the cold outside of Fenway Park was actually a smart thing for a candidate – not something to be derided – and, in general, if she ran a campaign that was at least a half-step above disastrous. It helped Scott Brown that he not only knew the names of the sports stars but had them by his side, that he was good looking and drove a pickup truck, that he ran a serious, persistent and intelligent campaign and that he provided an excellent debate retort to moderator David Gergen questioning how he could vote “no” on health care while sitting in Ted Kennedy’s seat. “It’s the people’s seat” is not just a truism; it resonated within deep blue Massachusetts and became the “Scott heard ’round the world.”

Americans are frustrated and in great despair. We do not like being taken for granted. There has been an increasing disconnect between the governors and the governed. Real unemployment – taking into account the underemployed and those who have given up looking for work – is 17.5%. That means nearly one in five Americans are out of work. Iran is building nuclear weapons with impunity. An Islamist extremist commits a massacre at Fort Hood and the recent official government report of the incident fails to mention that the murderer is an Islamist extremist. Another Jihadist terrorist attempts to blow up an airline full of people and is granted the right to remain silent. Massive and costly environmental legislation that is supposed to save us all from immediate extinction takes no account nor debate of the inconveniently leaked emails from scientists discussing ways to manipulate climate data to fit their prior models.

What was supposed to be an era of post-partisanship in government has been one of the most partisan eras in history – it is an embarrassment and a shame and we are all fed up with politicians of all stripes gone wild. Meanwhile, the Leader of the Free World flies to Oslo to prematurely accept the Nobel Peace Prize, flies to Copenhagen to make a sales pitch for the 2016 Chicago Olympics – why did we not send Don Draper? – then returns to Copenhagen to participate in a global climate conference debacle that has nothing to do with the environment and everything to do with the transfer of wealth to nations run by brutal and ruthless dictators.

On Capitol Hill, after the stimulus failed to stimulate and the bailouts failed to bail out working people and the middle class, legislators have been trying to force feed the American people with health care legislation that they do not want, cannot afford, and which is a nonsensical hodgepodge of deals and bribes made behind closed doors that tackle everything about health care except the only thing I can think of that could actually improve health care and reduce costs: tort reform. Our legislators gone wild have taken to making a deal for the sole purpose of making a deal and achieving a political victory – with no calculation whatsoever on its impact on society, its atrocious timing during the midst of the Second Great Depression and the greatest deficits in our history.

And Kung said, and wrote on the bo leaves:
If a man have not order within him
He can not spread order about him;
And if a man have not order within him
His family will not act with due order;
And if the prince have not order within him
He can not put order in his dominions.
And Kung gave the words “order”
and “brotherly deference”
And said nothing of the “life after death.”

I am a lifelong registered Democrat who is pro-choice, pro gay marriage, pro stem cell research, and am generally liberal on most issues. And these days I have to go to the right wing Drudge Report, and – yikes – even to Fox News – to find some basic news that you often cannot find in the mainstream media. Little things of possible interest and relevance like the Islamist links of the Fort Hood murderer and the attempted airline bomber, the leaked emails of “Climate Gate,” massively growing tea party rallies and town hall meetings in which our enraged fellow citizens are trying to say: “listen to me!”

What we are seeing in our government is arrogance, pure and simple. It is not about left versus right, liberal versus conservative. Republican Scott Brown cleverly summoned Democratic (and Massachusetts) icon JFK in a TV commercial about the importance of tax cuts to stimulate the economy (while hapless Martha’s TV commercial could not even correctly spell the name of her state). We hear meaningless slogans from both left and right, from “drill baby drill” to “soak the rich.”

We do need intelligent and reasonable energy and environmental policies that are sensible for the times and context we live in – and not driven by hysteria and fanaticism. We need fiscal programs that help working people and the middle class, and while “soaking the rich” sounds populist, we will not create jobs unless the economy is truly stimulated – and that requires providing incentives to those in our society who create jobs – “soaking” those who create jobs hurts us all.

We have found villains that are too convenient, foremost among them Sarah Palin. The only rational writing in the media that I have read about Palin comes from liberal Camille Paglia, who has recognized that Palin’s life, words and deeds have been distorted beyond belief through blatant sexism and absurd double standards. It has gotten to the point for me, a liberal Democrat, to find it hard to even read Republican David Brooks’ op eds in The New York Times because, well – even he has become too “coastal elite” for me.

It therefore came as no great surprise to me that the most liberal state in the Union has collectively sent a message to our leaders: “we’re mad as hell and we’re not going to take it anymore!” and elected Scott Brown to Ted Kennedy’s senate seat.

And Kung said, “Without character you will
“be unable to play on that instrument
“Or to execute the music fit for the Odes.
“The blossoms of the apricot
“blow from the east to the west,
“And I have tried to keep them from falling.”

-From Ezra Pound, Canto XIII

(If you like this post and my blog please visit my facebook page here and click “like”)

{ 11 comments }

Thinking About Haiti

by Danny Fisher on January 14, 2010

The devastation in Haiti is a sledgehammer of a reminder to us all that our problems are nothing.

haiti

I had a very successful day and made continuing progress in my efforts to rebuild my business. But as I look at the images and reports coming out of Haiti, I realize that what I am rebuilding is nothing. My parents truly rebuilt their lives after their lives and families were devastated in the Holocaust. My mother was a beautiful girl – just 16 years old – when she was rounded up and put on a cattle car bound for Auschwitz. Her sister was even younger, just 13. When her train arrived at Auschwitz, she was quickly separated from her mother and most of her brothers and sisters – they were never again to be seen and soon disappeared into the black smoke that rose from the tall smokestacks at Auschwitz. My mother and her sister were forced to strip naked, their hair was cut and their heads were shaven and my mother watched with tears as her sister’s beautiful locks of curly hair fell to the ground. Doctor Mengele, Auschwitz’s notorious “Angel of Death” examined my mother each day as she stood in line and Mengele made his “selections” – who was to live and who was to die.

My mother had a boyfriend who was put to work in the crematorium and knew the fate that soon awaited him. He saw my mother and admonished her to do anything she could to get out of Auschwitz – anything. He forced her to say the following words out loud: “I will do anything to get out of Auschwitz.” Soon after his warning, the German SS were rounding up the most beautiful girls to be taken somewhere – my mother did not know where but suspected the worst. She remembered what her boyfriend had made her swear – he had already disappeared – and she raised her hand and called out to the SS soldiers and asked to be taken. A fellow inmate was horrified and said to her: “Are you crazy? Do you know where they are taking you? For the pleasure of the Nazis!” But my mother decided to keep her promise to her boyfriend. Her instincts were to survive. She survived.

After her liberation, she learned that her 13 year old sister had survived, too. They embraced in tears and in joy and the first words her sister exclaimed were: “I’m a virgin!” My mother answered, “I am, too” And they hugged and cried on the street corner for a long time. My mother told me this story, among many others. I will never know what she had to do to survive, and it is possible that whatever she had to do, along with so many things she experienced, were just too shocking for even her to recall. But she did have recurring nightmares throughout her life.

The worst nightmares she had, however, were in Auschwitz. Sleeping on cold planks in barracks with hundreds of other starving inmates, she would awaken from her nightmares only to find herself in a reality that was even worse than her nightmares.

My mother passed away nearly three years ago, from Alzheimer’s. As she deteriorated, she began to mistake me for one of her younger brothers who did not survive the death camp and she called me by his name whenever she saw me. I took her aside once and explained to her that I was her son, not her brother, and that her brother was murdered by the Nazis. She laughed and claimed that I was speaking nonsense and said, “why would anyone want to murder my young brother – he was so sweet and innocent and just 12 years old and besides I just saw him riding his tricycle and you are speaking complete nonsense that anyone would want to murder innocent people like my little darling brother for no reason.”

I did not cry when my mother lay in a coma in her final hours. I did not cry at her funeral. I cried when she sent me a birthday card soon after she was diagnosed with Alzheimer’s, when she was still able to communicate. She wrote: “God has blessed me with such a wonderful life.”

The photograph on the upper right of this blog is of my parents, taken in 1947 at a Cyprus detention camp, where my parents were refugees and waiting and hoping for a chance at a new life, in Palestine, soon to become Israel. There is joy in their eyes, the joy of liberation, the joy of a new beginning – the joy of life.

“We were slaves unto Pharaoh in Egypt, and the Lord took us out from there with a strong hand and an outstretched arm. If the Holy One, blessed be He, had not taken our fathers out of Egypt, then we, our children and our children’s children would have remained enslaved to Pharaoh in Egypt. Even if all of us were wise, all of us understanding, we would still be obligated to discuss the exodus from Egypt.” – From the Haggadah of Passover.

You can make a donation to help Haiti relief efforts at http://www.clintonfoundation.org/haitiearthquake

(If you like this post and my blog please visit my facebook page here and click “like”)

{ 5 comments }

Within You Without You

by Danny Fisher on January 13, 2010

I am grateful and appreciative of the responses I have received on my new blog. So now I am a bit self-conscious writing, as I know that some people are actually going to read what I write, and some of those people may be ones who have already told me how much they’ve liked what I’ve previously posted – so I am anxious to not disappoint.

“We were talking – about the space between us all
And the people – who hide themselves behind a wall of illusion…”

I may have connected with people because I have come out of the closet of pretense that all is well – others have gotten in touch with me and said that they have had a tough time this past year too, and I think people take comfort that they are not alone. I certainly do.

I am feeling good and remain confident about the future. I am more and more feeling a sense of ease communicating with people. So far, the toughest part of my life is the nighttime, as I still have anxiety dreams in which I relive some of the torment I experienced in 2009. I am so glad it is 2010. I can now compartmentalize last year into a number – 2009 – and I can declare last year officially over. But I can only do that in the day time. I have not learned how to do that while sleeping and dreaming, when for some inexplicable reason my mind wants to relive and experience again and again what I am working so hard to get behind me.

Some people last year said some hurtful things to me, and some people did some hurtful things to me. By day, I forgive them and I am so happy to move forward with my life. By night, those people say the same things to me and do the same things to me over and over again, and I wake up in a cold sweat and say to myself, “Did this really happen? Did these people really behave this way?” And then I start the day and those thoughts go away and I am focused on my day’s work. I find that I like everyone I speak to, whether by email, phone, or in person. I have lived my entire life as a rather shy person, not terribly social, and not very comfortable with people. Now I find myself more comfortable with people than I ever have been. And perhaps my nights of bad dreams are helping me to be comfortable with people. Because at night, there are bad people in my dreams, people who hurt my feelings, who astonish me with their behavior – real people, or composites of real people, people from that other time period – that period we call 2009 – and when I am awake and speaking with other people, they are so friendly, not at all hurtful. In the day I am liked. I like being liked, and I have lived my entire life being liked by just about everyone, with the exception of 2009.

“We were talking – about the love that’s gone so cold and the people,
Who gain the world and lose their soul -
They don’t know – they can’t see – are you one of them?”

Now to make matters more complicated, I also speak each day with some of the bad people from my dreams – and during the day even they are nice. They have changed, they have mellowed, they say nice things to me and it seems that they now like me. People who have issued severe threats to me in 2009 call me up these days to see how I am doing and wish me the very best and ask when we can get together and have lunch. I have even been discussing new ventures with some of them.  I tell you its bizarre.  One thing I have always believed in is not burning bridges.  Now, I have actually received a number of death threats in 2009.  And even with those people I am prepared to resume a professional relationship and friendship.  But I will not meet them in a back alley – just in case.

“Try to realize it’s all within yourself
No one else can make you change
And to see you’re really only very small,
And life flows within you and without you…”

I looked at the stock charts today and examined the Dow Jones Average for the past 12 months and I wondered – could people’s moods be fluctuating – literally – with the Dow Jones Average?  Can that possibly explain why some of the people who tormented me in 2009 are good to me today?

dow jones

When I examine the chart, it seems to correspond with the year I had last year.  January through March was a precipice for me, just like the chart.  March through June was getting myself off the mat.  In mid-July, a Wall Street tycoon, J. Morton Davis, invited me to work out of his offices at the company he owned, DH Blair, as an act of kindness and generosity, and it became a wonderful refuge for me, feeling supported and nurtured, and I met lots of terrific people there.  It was the beginning of rebuilding for me and it was so helpful to be in an environment that was so different than where I had been.  As you can see, the chart climbs up sharply from mid-July through today.  My own mood, my prospects for rebuilding and the way people treat me have coincided with the Dow Jones Average. Coincidence?

“When you’ve seen beyond yourself – then you may find, peace of mind,
Is waiting there -
And the time will come when you see
we’re all one, and life flows on within you and without you.”

- George Harrison

(If you like this post and my blog please visit my facebook page here and click “like”)

{ 0 comments }