I have to admit. There were years and years when I didn't watch television. I watch too much now, but that's a different subject. Since I've been watching a bit more television in the last 5 years I've begun to notice things I had somehow missed during the baby-raising part of my life.
Several years ago I was visiting family on the East Coast. We were having breakfast and listening to the news. A story came on about a local property owner in the Washington, D.C. area. The news was stating that American Values and liberty were under attack. Liberty to express patriotism was being undermined. A local renter had requested permission from the landlord of the building, the owner, to mount a bracket on the facade of the building in order to hang an American Flag. The news commentators were speaking in high, self-righteous volume about the undermining of American democracy. I sat listening because as it turns out, I'd recently had occasion to price the facade on my own brownstone in Brooklyn. The costs had averaged around $130,000 to do the front of the Brownstone. I thought that was a small fortune. So I had a personal interest in the story. We were seated at an antique table my mother had had in her kitchen. This home was familiar to me. I was happily eating, in my family comfort zone, while the morning proceeded.
One of my family members chimed in, 'Look at that, now. Will you look at that!' They were engaged in the broadcast. I listened more closely. Something didn't seem right to me. My family members, all two of them at the time, were getting up in arms about the subject. See, there's the evidence. One so-called American turning another away from Patriotism.
I was caught a bit off guard because I'm in the home of my family and wasn't expecting a vitriolic reaction to a news story as mundane as this was in my estimation. Then I realized something. "Steve," I said, "why the hell should the owner let anyone bang anything into their new facade?"
"Because it's America and we should be able to fly our flag!"
"Well, of course. But I'm telling you, I know from experience, I'd sure as hell say no to anyone banging anything into my new facade after I laid down $130,000 for it! The owner has rights!"
The discussion went on for several minutes at the table. I thought it was absolutely insane to even give the story credence. This is nutty stuff. Who the hell ever said a renter could demand something like that?! I've rented from and to people my entire life. It was absurd. They're allowed whatever is in the terms of their lease. Defacing the owner's property under any circumstances is usually one of the things that are routinely disallowed. No?
This is the point. The family discussion was a departure point for something that is rampant now. FOX NEWS is making a story out of hysteria. But they're missing the real story because they don't want us to think very long. If we're all worked up, defensive, fearful, under siege, we will all go into fight or flight mode. That's pretty much where America seems to be these days. Hysterical.
The fact is that in America people have a right to ask if they can hang a flag. And the other person has the right to say no if they own the property. These are fundamental democratic values. These are primary, first principles. In this particular story, the right to hang an American Flag was exaggerated. The right of the property owner to decide what someone does to their property was completely ignored. Now in the last 5 years I've seen FOX news do this over and over and over again. Distort the story to make a point. However, upon examination, most of their stories have hidden sides to them. Like this one.
Here I was, sitting in an American Family kitchen, with my American family, listening to the television talk about American rights being under attack. But I kept thinking, what about the other guy's rights? If the story were changed and the property owner wanted to hang a Gay Rights Flag on the facade of his house and the tenant objected, whose 'side' would FOX news be on? I suspect that in that instance, FOX news would be complaining about the undermining of American values again. The owner has no rights to hang the flag of his choosing nor to deny the tenant rights to hang a flag of the tenants choosing. Well, how do we make these determinations if we don't return to principles of primacy? The moral of this story that I drew was that only FOX news could determine American Values because as I saw it, they were either incredibly disingenuous or incredibly stupid and undereducated so that they have a hard time deconstructing text. A good education teaches one to think. Not to memorize. I can think. I'm a builder of things.
Anyone with a clear, discerning mind can see the conflict here.
In America we all have rights. Unless we want to change the constitution to say that only followers of FOX news have constitutional rights. Everyone else is subject to FOX NEWS CORPORATION determination of worth, value, and American pedigree.
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