Shark Attack

It was a beautiful day on the beach. The children splashed and played as hundreds of families came out to enjoy the water and sea breezes. Then, out on the edge of the surf, someone spotted two fins approaching fast. One belonged to a dolphin, and one to a shark. Someone screamed “shark!” and soon the press arrived. In the service of fairness and unbiased reporting, the press examined the two creatures, and found that the shark had slightly longer fins than the dolphin, but a narrower tail. Meanwhile, the shark devoured two swimmers. To be fair to the shark, the press did an expose’ on the dolphin’s long history of eating small, innocent fish for dinner. When another swimmer was eaten, some people screamed, “Shark! Get out of the water!” Of course, these people were accused of being partisan toward the dolphin, conspiracy theorists, and possible terrorists. The FBI showed up and took down their information for further investigation.

A few more swimmers were gobbled up while all of this was happening, but the people on the beach were now becoming desensitized to bloodshed and increasingly interested in the colorful stories being told on the evening news about sharks and dolphins and their fascinating similarities and differences. T-shirts and bumper stickers were printed up for dolphinites and sharkophiles, and debates were held. Though the dolphin squeaked eloquently and the shark showed no verbal communication skills (and continually broke the rules of debate by leaping off its platform and trying to devour the dolphin,) the press found them to be well matched. The dolphin, though clearly more intelligent, was seen as aloof, overly intellectual, and of course people had a hard time understanding what he was saying. The shark, however, was admired for his emotional honesty, directness, and unwavering commitment to his goal of eating everything in sight…

So when in the course of human events does it become necessary to go beyond non-partisan, unbiased reporting and lecturing on the state of our union? Do we wait until American democracy is gone, until the have-nots are living in a state of real economic slavery to the haves, until the whole international community hates us for who we are, until this irresponsible administration has done generations of damage to our global ecosystem? I understood the importance of the press and our educators remaining non-partisan back when the Republican and Democratic parties were balancing forces in our government. I remember my Democrat father actually voting for a Republican or two when I was a kid in the sixties. But now this little group of radical right-wing extremists is taking over the Republican party and forcing the Democrats into the position of merely representing the sane middle ground. (Never mind the left - we don’t even have time for people who want to talk about peace and justice and environmental responsibility. We’re just trying to keep our ship of state from going under right now.)

When one “party” is clearly representing an agenda of fear, hatred, greed, separation, non-communication, lies, and injustice on a global scale, and the other is simply crying for some sanity and balance, I think we need to answer to a higher law than simply the need to be “fair and unbiased.” I believe, in the current political climate, that any institution that compels an educator or member of the press to speak mildly and safely from behind the veil of non-partisanship is biased against the whole human race. We need the truth. It’s your job.