Tex-s

I occasionally relive my college years, not by drinking too much, playing pool or playing bridge, tho I truly did do all three in excess. No, a really large section of my formative college experience was my introduction to headier sci-fi writers and novels. Spider Robinson in particular forever changed my views on what the future 'has' to be, but this post is spurred by a re-reading of a somewhat lighter series. Joel Rosenberg wrote a series nicknamed 'The Guardians of the Flame' with the flame being freedom. Within the series, the author prefaced chapters with quotes or anecdotes that somehow prefaced the evolution of the story. Some of these were highly profound, some less so, some flippant and some pseudo-vulgar. Today I reread the following and could not avoid thinking of the US in these times, the election, and more

It is not the critic who counts; not the man who points out how the strong man stumbles, or where the doer of deed could have done them better. The credit belongs to the man who is actually in the arena, whose face is marred by dust and sweat and blood. T. Roosevelt

President Trump clearly could have chosen a different track in terms of how he spoke and of how he did and did not pressure state leaders as the Covid crisis evolved. I won't delve into the specifics of his errors nor the exaggerations and lies of media here. The quote got me to wondering if the US could have been well served by Trump making all of the decisions perfectly? As it stands, the polarization is such that is Trump says it, the media oppose it, regardless of efficacy, truth, intent, or result. President Trump, despite a 3 year onslaught of negative press achieved a LOT of good results that the media simply ignored (like one Biden laptop, but I digress). Trump's incentives and removal of roadblocking red tape has allowed not one, but two vaccines to be tested 'ready' a full 6-9 months faster than 'experts' told us could happen, but to hear media, Trump has done nothing..... But to the real point....

I wonder if the media had been truthfully negative only when appropriate and had managed fair 'good' coverage when warranted, the outright hatred between political camps might be a substantial bit more civil. After all, 'racist' Trump got historically black colleges funded at higher rates and for longer terms than any President before. Just that tidbit being accurately portrayed might have saved us a couple of city riots. I'm out of time here, but maybe, just maybe, our media critics might consider contribution to a solution rather than a contribution of fuel to the fire? As a close friend says, we need problem solvers, not problem identifiers (and certainly not problem creators, media)