By now, much of the dust from last week's first presidential debate (a misnomer, actually, since only one person was a president, but I digress) has settled. While some people gave Obama a thumbs-up on substance, most pundits gave Romney the win on his performance. This has naturally left Obama supporters sputtering about how the GOP candidate lied, prevaricated and flipflopped his way through the debate. At one point Romney even said he was proud of the Massachusetts health care law that he had been backing away from for the past year, and the camera got a reaction from Obama that seemed to express shock - shock - at the backpedalling.
Alas, we have been here before. All I could think of watching the whole thing was - Jimmy Carter. Carter, who did not have a lying bone in his entire body, losing to the glib, polished performance of Ronald Reagan. Reagan (a better actor than I ever gave him credit for) could say anything - and did - and made it sound sincere. His administration also routinely cut people off from social security and medicare in a kind of "rolling blackout" style (people would get legitimately re-enrolled, but it would take another month or two for the re-enrollment to take effect) in order to save money. He also said libraries were not important, because he never had access to one growing up and he got to be president of the US anyway. And, most importantly, he began I think (in modern times at least) the trend that said the civil rights era is over; it's okay to be a rich privileged white guy and stick it to everyone else. Ah.
The reason I am bringing this up is that this week, Obama is trying to come back from his lackluster, if honest, performance and respond to Romney's lies in a way that does not make him sound like a whiner, or a bitter person. To make a comeback while being also presidential. I sympathize with him greatly here, because I have been in a similar, though much less significant, situation, and I didn't do too well.
When I got kicked out of my old practice group, I later realized that the guy who took over had planned my exit for a very long time. It could be seen in an old video from the first teacher visit from Japan (which I had initiated and arranged). I was showing some techniques with the teacher, and the sempai's facial expression was very, very dark. He was not so much paying attention to the technique being shown as that I was the one demonstrating it with the visiting instructor. Things got worse from there - basically a whole campaign of lies and deceit (I say this stuff now somewhat philosophically, since I don't care much at this point - I am trying to make a larger point here). When the situation blew up finally, I knew my nemesis was lying through his teeth to everyone - to the remaining students, to the teacher in Japan - in order to solidify his position. I know some of the stories specifically, and I can guess the rest - I did know him pretty well, after all - and realized eventually that the lies probably started much further back in the past than I had realized, even before I had come to train, which was many, many years ago. But people believe him, owing to the time-worn (and generally true) idea that people don't lie in a dojo. The heck they don't, but Americans especially have bought into the idea that the "way place" has some kind of inherent integrity. A simple look around should convince people otherwise, but it does not.
The more I tried to alleviate the situation, the somehow worse it made me look. It is very hard to call out an injustice, and yes, it made me look whiney and bitter, even though I was right. It convinced no one, and made people uncomfortable. In the first place, no one could believe that I had been badly treated, or that they had been lied to (see above paragraph). And I was seriously no fun to be around, even for me. The final round took place - at last - only recently, with an email exchange with the teacher in Japan, who made it clear that his loyalties now lie with the old sempai, and, while I am welcome to still train, he made it pretty obvious that I will not be given the respect that is due me as the person who introduced him in the US and elsewhere and made all these things happen for him. And since one can't demand respect (or, you can demand it, it just won't do you any good), that is where things have been left.
Unlike Mr. Obama, though, the fate of the nation is not riding on my decision to walk away from this toxic situation at last. I can, and did walk away, because I needed to, and because I could.
For everyone's sake, including the people who don't like him, I hope Mr. Obama is reelected. Hang in there, Mr. President.
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