2007
Topic G - Watching Spin
November 30, 2007

One year to go of campaigning, speeches, debates, attacks, apologies. Heaven help us. The only way to cut down on spin is to shorten the time. We will not do that. To be clear, by spin I mean leaving out details that do not fit well, not twisting the facts. The spin I target is a person telling the story his way. In campaigns we must be alert to recognizing spin and asking for the rest of the story.

A teenager is not going to tell the whole story of an awkward incident that brings questions from parents. That is the spin I speak of. We all do it. Spin can be dishonest, but that spin unravels. I watch for when what is said has some truth to it but is not all of the story. We will have to work at discovering it. I feel we are able to do it. Wait for the other sides and evaluate the whole story.

One flag to watch for is spin words. When I was a young pastor, “communist” was a (dishonest) spin label. You were hurt by it, even though persons using it probably had no clue as to what a communist is or believes. They had never met one. They would shout “godless Communist” as though it was all one word, like “damnYankee.” (Some communists were atheists, some were not.) The label was thrown indiscriminately at pastors who were, above all else, Christian. Spin.

Spin words now include: pro-family, anti-tax, pro-tax, right wing, big government, gay, liberal, anti-child, bleeding heart, and a whole collection that “pull the eagle's tail” --which was sure to get you a lower grade in my debate class. Pulling the eagle's tail is using patriotic slogans which can help to ignore the point of debate. “We support our troops” is affirmed by everyone, without doubt. But it is used by persons trying to avoid the debate, or to mean we want war, or, we want no war. Troops are under orders. They are ours. The words mislead. Every president for the last forty years has supported dictators in the name of democracy. Please, be honest enough to leave out “democracy.”

Some describe the war as a conflict of good and evil. We are NOT fighting evil. There will always be evil and both Christian and Muslim do their best to oppose it. A recent speaker in Omaha, sponsored by Christian, Muslim and Jewish congregations, made that point as strongly as he could. Reza Aslan, a native of Iran and a scholar of many cultures, stated that our conflict is not historic and not inherent in our faiths. Mohammed fully accepted Jewish and Christian scriptures. For centuries we have examples of diverse believers living in harmony and in support of each other. Jihad is allowed only by those under attack and the fighters may not kill women, children or religious leaders. Obviously, we have “Muslim” radicals who intend to kill without those restrictions, as we have “Christian” radicals who want the U.S. to go to war to bring the Second Coming.

That serious distortion of what is true shows how far off trail we can get when we are not sensitive to words that spin. Our war is not about faith. It is about land, as it always is. And the agricultural or water or oil production that is involved. Does that imply that we ought not to be there? No. It implies that we should have straight talk about what we are doing there and what it is worth to us. Certainly peaceful relations in the Mideast is of immense importance to our national interest. We should talk about that.

The label of socialism is one of the current distractions to good debate on health care. It refers to a social system for a community of people, not a political party. Medicare is a socialist system for the elderly. The question is if we want it for all of our health care. Talk about it without the spin. Bigger government and less personal responsibility is a major philosophical issue and deserves a legitimate debate without barbs.

Immigration is such a hot-word topic I doubt we can have intelligent debate in public. We beat up on the immigrant teenager and praise the immigrant who is one of the top brain surgeons in the nation. Both broke a law, as a child, to get here. We recognize that both will stay here. Will we continue to (mis)use them to mine for votes??

I plead that we respect each other, listen to our opponents and recognize that we all long for a better community. Have you ever played the game using jigsaw puzzles, where the puzzle on each table has a few of the pieces from the other tables? It makes for very interesting competition. Rabbi Lawrence Kushner, in “Honey From the Rock.” has written pointedly about our life puzzles. Each of us has a piece of someone else's puzzle. That's life. We need the gift of what others have that would fit our puzzle. Good food for thought.

“Each lifetime is the pieces of a jigsaw puzzle.
For some there are more pieces.
For others the puzzle is more difficult to assemble.
Some seem to be born with a nearly completed puzzle.
And so it goes.
Souls going this way and that
Trying to assemble the myriad parts.

“But know this. No one has within themselves
All the pieces of their puzzle --
Like when they sealed jigsaw puzzles in cellophane.
Insuring that all the pieces were there.

“Everyone carries with them at least one and
Probably many pieces to someone else's puzzle.
Sometimes they know it.
Sometimes they don't.

“And when you present your piece
Which is worthless to you,
To another, whether you know it or not,
Whether they know it or not,
You are a messenger from the Most High.”

May we help each other with our puzzles and watch for pieces in the spin.

Lowen