January 6 Afterthought: Dan and "American Patriots"

Vahe H. Apelian

Yesterday, our younger son’s friend posted the quote below. I knew Dan from his early youth. Many a time I escorted both of them to one of their favorite pastimes, fishing in the lakes of Cincinnati Ohio, not very far from where we lived.  Dan wrote the following on his Facebook page: “I’ve kept my feelings about politics off of social media pretty much this whole time. But I’m pretty tired of seeing all the Biden supporters blasting Trump supporters all day. If you even remotely compare what’s going on at the capitol right now to any of the riots in 2020 please unfriend me, we’re not the same. The true American patriots have had enough.”  And attached the poster above.

 What made the handsome young boy I knew, our son David’s good friend, to be so emotionally charged to find comfort in a higher calling for being a genuine “American Patriot” in juxtaposition against those whom he considers not patriotic enough.  

Dan gave way to his heart’s calling early on and got married to his sweat heart very early on and interrupted his high school education to tend to the family he formed. He is a doting father, a true friend to our younger son. It is not hard for me to envision that Dan does indeed have grounds to have harbored such feelings, seeing the intolerance he sees around and the lack of empathy of those who were elected to assume the responsibility of addressing the ever changing challenges the society faces and prepare the upcoming generation come to grips and be better prepared coping with these rapid changes. In the words of Kahlil Gibran: life “..goes not backward nor tarries with yesterday.”

Yesterday, a friend also posted on his Facebook the following, which in a way falsely characterized Dan and the American patriotism he espoused. My friend's post read: “In 2016 presidential election period Sen. Hillary Clinton called them, these Trump followers “Bunch of deplorable people”. She was right then and she is right today, as today’s events at the Capital, proved it to be.” I have to admit what he said reflects the prevailing mood of heightened polarization but  remains far short in addressing the woes lurking below.

I want to clarify that I too do not condone at all what transpired yesterday in D.C., our capital city. The symbols of its institutions were violated in way they were not before. Surely these rioters brought the Republic on the verge of collapse. With all its faults, and as Winston Churchill is attributed to have said that democracy is the worst form of governance but there is no better.  I quote what I wrote to a friend “The thing that gives me some hope is the foundation of the republic. No republic I know of, would have withstood with its first denizen undermining the very institutions of the republic he was meant to uphold and finally resorting to assaulting it. There is a very long road ahead of us.”

But what are the issues lurking below?

Let us take a look at our everyday life nowadays. If employed, we are way overburdened, overworked and deprived of service. But also many and many are losing to the onslaught of machines. In the grocery stores not only we pay what we purchased but also bag what we purchased. There was a time an attendant did it for us. The same is true when we purchase gas from a gas station. More and more I see machines replacing employees sweeping the floor. And when I go to a medical appointment there are no more attendants who welcome me to the parking lot but there is a machine that spits a card for me which I then take to a kiosk, pay another machine, pick the validated card and insert it in the machine at the exit station to have the gate open for me to exit. There were attendants that did that at one time. I can cite numerous such other instances. I am reminded of the bus I used to take from LAX to its station in Van Nuys. The bus driver also acted as its porter loading the bags underneath the bus when all those year in Lebanon, even then, I never was on a bus that did not have an attendant along with the driver, we called “Maghaouin”. Even McDonalds is on the verge of machination and is replacing its legendary service with a simile behind the counter the patrons got. In many franchises ordering in a McDonal is done at a kiosk. Even higher skills that needed trained persons are being replaced on a large scale, such as the vital medical tastings that are now  overwhelmingly done by machines.

The regulations are relentlessly rewarding companies that modernize their machinery and make it more efficient at the cost of employing many of Dan's generations. If they happen to find a job, the hours of their jobs are so tailored that legally it does not constitute a “full time” employment - a term long antiquated given the reality of modern employment - to qualify them for medical benefits..

I do not have simple answers to counter the few examples I cited. But something needs to be done, especially towards to and for small businesses that are bread and butter of many and support many by employing them. President Trump brought to the surface fissures in our society, although he did not constructively address to remedy them. We the public are also at fault in  expecting way too much from government, or should I say what the country can do for us.