Mr. Rogers,
The Freedom Caucus
-A-
United States Senator
-And-
“The Flying Fickle Finger of Fate”
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‘Where have you gone J. O. Pastore?’
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It might have been fifty years before this writing. It might have been during some rough season of forced-maturity for a nation theretofore struggling with a Viet Nam war-torn image of itself.
No matter. Times were decidedly different. Then, and; times are certainly different. Now.
It would seem caution was had in abundance in 1968. Even though by today’s standards, then, something should have been so cautiously presented. That: a child’s viewing wouldn’t be discouraged.
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The Freedom Caucus
-And-
First Amendment
‘Freedom of Squeak’
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The “Freedom Caucus” is but a wee small, clamoring, timorous, 66-member, political “beastie”. Squeaking within the rising, more full-throated, swell of voices of 535 Congressional members who, only together, speak for the American people, which themselves are this country’s largest amalgam: 330 million strong.
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Congressman Jordan’s ‘finger’
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“We’re tired of the Justice Department giving us the finger.” Jordan added.
“The American people are sick of it.”
Ohio GOP Representative Jim Jordan
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After all, who are you to presume? To speak for: ‘We the People’, all the people?
So. Who are these mice among men who propose to vocally promote insinuated vulgarity on behalf of hundreds of millions of citizens that they don’t even speak for?
Yet. They squeak forth vulgarity on our behalf.
“…The finger…” Says young, James Daniel Jordan. Squeaks he. For: ‘We the People…’ Why?
That. The American people are somehow “sick” of an administrative department of government, which is cumulatively “giving [us] the finger”. How?
Well. Americans, as a people, aren’t “sick” and; a government agency doesn’t gesticulate…
Absurdity or obscenity: that is the question. Whether: to suffer a sea of squeaks by a smidgeon-ous minority of the People’s representatives.
Or. Stand firm…against a fickle tide of circumstance and against an even more fickle, self-originated, confected out of politico-existential necessity: Congressional Freedom Caucus.
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U.S. Senator John O. Pastore
-A Giant Among Congressmen-
-And-
The Creation of Public Broadcasting
(In a Kinder, Gentler Time)
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John Orlando Pastore, no mouse was he. Nor did he clamor and squeak in the halls of Congress. Pastore was an orator…par excellence.
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John O. Pastore
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‘I would not dignify that comment with a response.’
-John O. Pastore, United States Senator
(Circa 1976)
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John O. Pastore was a venerable United States Senator whose service in the nation’s capitol began in 1950. His tenure ended in 1976 with retirement from public life.
Pastore is still widely considered to be the “Father of Public Television”. The main objective of Pastore and the Senate subcommittee that he chaired in 1969 was to create a counterforce to commercial television that would provide alternative content. To that heralded by the big networks whose fare consistently tended toward more and more violence. The birth of what we know today, as “Public Television” was the result.
It seemed that the Senator’s penchant was to clean up the on-air violence and attendant language, which to that time began to infiltrate the medium. To the vast panoply of untoward and violent circumstance and tawdry speech energetically depicted so widely today via broadcast, movie and Internet means, however: the objective and effort of the “Father of Public Television” seems quaint in comparison. Yet the half-century old initiative of this long-gone public servant echoes softly as the mass of visual content and audible message assaults the eyes and ears of all Americans this day.
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The Decline and Fall of Quiet
Articulation
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Over a generation has passed since the good Senator held sway “Inside the Beltway”. The turn of the millennium saw his earthly departure.
In, the ‘theater’ of today’s modern public debate an influx of information and visuals, which would be perfectly indescribable to the intellect of the ancient Senator, were he still alive, has flooded the wider media. As a result, the personal mindset of most every citizen in the country today is so adjusted. Adjusted, often, for the worse.
In the staggering progress that was the Presidential Election of 2016 the impact is no different. A new standard was created.
In fact, the aggressive benignity of the time-honored Constitutional proviso of Congressional “speech or debate” has exploded into a vast conspiracy in wider venues. On the part of both the incorrigible candidate and the incorrigible media. A conspiracy to assault the viewing and listening public has resulted.
The questionable beneficiaries are that, oft salivating, general public and her voters. There is, however, a quadrant of civilized America that is more attuned to the quaint precepts of another era as espoused by the good Senator Pastore. Much of that America must quietly revile the display of: each of the candidates, elected officials, the media and their salivating citizen brethren.
Yet another part of America has grown up since the tenure of Senator Pastore. Grown up in a way that somehow perversely justifies and even encourages the absorption of ever-harsher, more obscene colloquialism. Can, any good result?
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Mr. Rogers and Mr. Pastore
Uncommon Contrast But Common Denominator
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“I think it’s wonderful. Looks like you just earned the $20 million.”
United States Senator John O. Pastore, Chairman
U.S. Senate Subcommittee on Communications
To
Fred Rogers
1969
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They are both long gone from the scene. Yet each has an unnamed and lingering presence in modern media life.
In a classic 1969 scene in Congress, Pastore, Chair of the Senate Subcommittee on Communications, famously advised the budding PBS personality: “I think it’s wonderful. Looks like you just earned the $20 million.” The powerful Senator was so impressed and convinced by the actor that Pastore awarded a princely sum to begin an era of public broadcasting that revolutionized PBS and the Corporation for Public Broadcasting.
Pastore had championed the cleansing of the airways of vulgar language as well as harmful content. The interchange between the two, seeming opposite, cultural characters signaled a new and improved beginning for Pastore’s crusade and for Rogers’ career.
A happy marriage was made in the name of public support for on-air content, critical attention. Pastore, the adult, had struck a blow for the future of civilized discourse in the public media arena. Rogers had initiated a life’s work in molding the character of millions upon millions of youngster citizens-to-be…
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Nominee for the 2018 Flying Fickle Finger of Fate Award
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The Flying Fickle Finger of Fate Award: was granted by the hosts of the 1967 NBC television program Rowan and Martin’s Laugh-In. The eponymous hosts presented the award to someone, usually in absentia, who had been distinguished by the media as having accomplished something of dubious note during the days next prior to the airing of the weekly show. The award was granted tongue-in-cheek to either a government figure or celebrity that had so “distinguished” herself or, himself.
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‘We the People’…on behalf of ourselves would do well to nominate: James Daniel Jordan. Sitting member of the United States Congress representing the constituency of Ohio’s 4th Congressional District. For: the 2018 Flying Fickle Finger of Fate Award.
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Posted 7 minutes ago by DILULIUS, King of Troy
