The face of privilege in America

There was a time that “kid” applied to a child who was not yet a legal adult, someone between the post-infant ages of 2 and 17. So it’s fairly perplexing to consider a 39-year-old man as a “kid.”

Or a 30-year-old man. 

Or even an 18-year-old, for that matter.

Then again, there tend to be convenient exceptions when reconciling poor judgment or criminal behavior.

Be wealthy, say, Donald Trump Jr., and flagrant actions that could be considered treasonous are tossed off as “mistakes” by a “nice young man,” a “good kid.” 

Be motivated, say, Edward Snowden, and impertinent activities may be considered “patriotic.”

Be sheltered, say, Brock Turner, and “20 minutes of actions” can be dismissed as a youthful yearning to “fit in.”

We claim to frown upon selling out your country or raping our women. But those standards clearly don’t apply across the board.  Our society can – and does, routinely – excuse the activities of those whom we value, even if those activities are antithetical to principles we have codified. 

Faces of American privilege (l.-r.):
 Donald J. Trump Jr., Edward Snowden and Brock Turner

Articles I and III of the U.S. Constitution give specific references and definitions for federal crimes, as outlined by the Founding Fathers – piracy, counterfeiting and treason. Given such prominent positioning, one could extrapolate that in the minds of the nation’s original framers, theft, even murder (which they got to in 1790), were considered of lesser gravity to the health of the republic than the other aforementioned infractions.

A traitor, then, would be deemed worst than a killer – or drug pusher – following Constitutional originalist theory, often attributed to conservative jurists such as U.S. Supreme Court Associate Justices Samuel Alito, Clarence Thomas and the late Antonin Scalia,  Self-proclaimed political conservatives love to extol the views of these jurists. And traitors certainly wouldn’t qualify as people grinding to “Make America Great Again.” That may be why the unfolding case of Trump Jr. is marked as “a Democratic witch hunt.” The recriminations might make your head spin. In short: Nothing to see here!

Switch to Snowden, the infamous former National Security Agency contractor who leaked confidential cables casting the Obama Administration in a poor light, and find conservatives hailing him as a “patriot.” Ditto some liberals. The Kremlin extended his asylum last January through 2020, because of uncertainty about how the new administration would handle him. But these mink-cozy Russian relations fostered by the current president could mean an even earlier, jail-free return for Snowden.

When Turner’s father wrote to the judge presiding over his rape case and pleaded with him to release his son on probation, he argued that jail time would be too harsh for “20 minutes of action.” His mother sent her own save-my-tender-son letter, conveniently failing to acknowledge the Stanford swimmer’s arrest or disturbing behavior that predated the sexual assault charges. While his crimes could have landed Turner a 14-year sentence – or at least two years, according to minimum statutory requirements, Judge Aaron Persky defended his decision to release Turner after a six month stint in jail. After all, he did tack on three years of probation.

Yay, justice for all.

Except for average black boys in school, or walking down the street. They are instantly suspected of something, even if they demonstrate identical – and unpunished – actions of their white peers. Black boys as young as 10 are seen as “men” in the eyes of too many police officers. Teachers reflect the same biases, except the age of perceived guilt among black and brown boys drops to preschool level.

See, being privileged in America has many meanings. Being allowed to be a “kid” who “made a mistake” is one. 

Trump climate rejection condemns America, poor, to post-apocalyptic future

The slavish submission to Luddite-like actions of the current occupant of the White House are more than disconcerting as we head toward a certain global isolation, now having shunned the Paris Climate Accord.

He’s been blathering and blurting about “Making America Great Again,” that he’s standing by his voters and means well by this country, in an “I did-it-for-the-kids” fashion.

By “kids,” in this instance, we’d be referring to those still clinging to the faltering notion that coal-based industries will come roaring back thanks to the current American president basically screaming “Screw you!” to leaders throughout the world, from CEOs to European presidents and prime ministers to environmental advocates to American governors and mayors.  

Those “kids” would be Trump voters desperate in the notion that no one cares about their concerns as a fading worker fighting to retain a place and dignity amid an industry that suffered massive disruption, faces certain change and is rapidly winding down. Their concerns are legitimate and deserve real answers, not faux policy, particularly in light of the fact that natural gas, more so than liberal-loved windmills, is on deck to replace coal permanently.

Shirking a comprehensive and elegant solution such as meaningful job retraining, where innovative pilots like shifting miners to computer coders are proving successful, this POTUS opts for antics. We get proclamations about job loss across sectors and he dragged out his decision for days, though nearly everyone knew this would be his big play, despite the cajoling and convincing campaign of movers and shakers worldwide. Perhaps another ratings ploy.

It’s even more disheartening that this man who claims to so love his family has no compunction about sentencing his grandchildren – hell, his own young son, Barron – to a world of diminished health, increased disease and amplified human misery. That’s what you get when you have rising sea waters, pollution-choked skies and disappearing ocean life. We’re already witnessing increasing climate refugees as nation-states are slowly being consumed by water. American ones are following, as are cities facing mounting costs to combat the tides that cometh. New Orleans? Miami? New York? Anyone?

With all the conspiracy chatter in the air, it’d be easy to lump this move into another instance of alleged collusion by this president with Russian leaders and their anti-environmentalism stances. After all, Russia loves big pipelines with all the power and dollars they deliver. But even the Kremlin got aboard the Progress Train from Paris. Not our current POTUS, though.

The man who screams about America’s leadership in the world chose to turn tail and join the ranks of such visionary thinkers as Syria and Nicaragua – the only other two nations that snubbed the accords. Even kooky and calamitous Kim Jung-Un signed up North Korea for the landmark global pact for humanity.

Accord signatories recognize “the need for an effective and progressive response to the urgent threat of climate change on the basis of the best available scientific knowledge.”

President Obama was one of those signatories. Therein lies the ultimate cherry on top of Trump’s latest disruptive drama.

His constant gasps for greatness seem to always circle back to a White House whiteboard edict: reverse anything Obama was for. It’s sadly predictable, reflexive and compulsory, apparently. Reason be damned.

God help us all.