“Ask not what you country can do for you, but what you can do for your country.”
— John F. Kennedy
Were we ever so young and naïve? Those words were spoken in a time that bears no resemblance to current days — a time of aspiration, of community, of possibilities, a world in which we could not access anything at any time, where we had to wait, to be patient, to put in the work. A world in which our attention spans were longer than 10 seconds. Wait, I got bored there; what was I saying?
In a later speech, JFK famously promised the USA would put a man on the moon by the end of the decade. By God and Ryan Gosling if we didn’t do it.
Take a moment to consider that huge little pronoun — “we.”
We have all seen the inspiring power of #MeToo unfold over the past year, so I feel it is my duty to share with you the lesser known #MePhirst movement. Why the weird spelling? 1) The founder is quite spelling challenged, 2) I didn’t want to get sued.
The #MePhirst message comes straight from the orange top, with his jaw-dropping ability to put himself at the center of any perceived victory and miles away from any real defeat. The P.T. Barnum of our day (and not the Hugh Jackman version), he believes that if you repeat as many lies as possible as many times as possible, a great many people will believe you.
And he is correct, proving with every lying tweet, every childish insult, every baseless claim that you can indeed fool some of the people all the time. If he were Pinocchio, his nose would be long enough to build a suspension bridge across the Bering Straight.
#MePhirst is dedicated to putting the good of oneself over the good of everyone else. Evading taxes? That’s not criminal, it’s “smart.” Embracing the racist tinged label of nationalist? Hey, you can’t spell America without “me.” Denying you deny climate change and global warming? C’mon, who keeps track of trivial things like facts?
It is national news everyday, this astounding narcissism, and it trickles down just like Reaganomics (see how great that worked out). So, we the people are tacitly encouraged to embrace the trusty #MePhirst philosophy in our everyday lives.
Grocery store line? MePhirst.
Four way stop? MePhirst.
Carpool lane? MePhirst (and me only, if I don’t get caught)
This is not to be confused with the brilliant carpool karaoke with James Corden. Do yourself a favor and check out the long version of his visit with Paul McCartney.
But I digress.
The inspiring #MePhirst spirit is everywhere you look. Let’s repeal that gas tax, it’s costing me $20 a month to help rebuild and maintain bridges, streets and roads, and I don’t even use most of them. School bond? Hell no, I don’t have kids in school. Clean energy? Why? I’ll be dead before the earth shrivels into a burning ember, anyway.
We look to our leaders to set an example, yet we see only a gaping maw of pettiness. Nothing to which one can aspire. A person and a political party seemingly hell bent on destruction while rewriting the rules (or moving the goal posts, as they ridiculously say these days), suppressing and ridiculing anyone who feels, acts, or looks different.
A grumpy old white men caucus of reactionaries talking out of both sides of their mouths while saying absolutely nothing. Backbones jettisoned, moral compasses broken, common decency hijacked by personal profits and barely cloistered phobias. A group run by — and leading with — fear. Building nothing, tearing down everything.
But hey Steven, look at that sweet economy. A) Sorry but I care more about human beings, character, morality, responsibility, than I do about lining the bulging pockets of corporations and the 1 percent. B) While touting the economy the GOP conveniently neglects to point out how much our deficit is ballooning, whilst also threatening to ransack programs like Social Security and Medicare to pay for the deficit they caused. Remember when the Republicans were the party of fiscal responsibility? Apparently, that only happens during Democratic administrations.
Look, I can only do what I can do, and that will be to look out for my fellow man and woman as best I can. If that means a little sacrifice on my part, so be it. I would rather live life like I’m camping — leave the world better than I found it — than tunnel inward and look out only for number one.
I can guess what you’re thinking, “It must be a nice view from atop your soapbox.” Point taken. But I got here phirst.
Steven welcomes your comments. You can reach him at [email protected].
