By Saswat Pattanayak
Once again, let’s stop making the
individual an issue. Let’s not become patrons of
decency by crying foul at one old politician.
Maryland Comptroller 84-year old William Donald
Schaefer did ogle at a 24-yr old female aide to
Governor Ehrlich. He even called her back at
Wednesday’s Board of Public Works Meeting and asked
her to walk again in front of everyone so that he
could watch her. And the entire country now is being
fed with the video for endless times.
Going by the way the video is playing into the
headlines of television channels, it appears that the
whole of America is shocked. Clearly highlighting the
moral standards of a capitalistic hypocritical fiber,
Schaefer has become the safest bet. He is eliciting
reactions like “what a shame!” to “how can this be?”
A channel like Fox has gone on exhibiting the video
to public on the streets and telecasting their
responses. No one is feeling any sense of déjà vu.
The entire country is shown to be appalled. All the
while, making Elizabeth Krum a familiar face for
everyone, producing a mordant series of reproduction
of the scene where a bunch of old white men are
making lewd gesture in a public meeting that’s funded
with money that we taxpayers pay every fortnight, the
media are turning into a derisive leaf of being loath
accomplice in the crime. The media say, “we are
shocked beyond belief: Let’s watch it one more time”.
When I was watching this clip being discussed as the
main headline everywhere in the country, even as the
seasoned journalists were scratching their beards to
wonder how did this happen, even as the seasoned
legislators were saying it was most unfortunate, as
the seasoned feminists were saying actions must be
taken against Schaefer and the general beat of the
moment was that his romance with the voters may now
be over, I was wondering where is the news.
Just like the media being necrophilous is not
something new, rich, powerful capitalists at higher
seats of privilege transforming the alive into the
unalive is no news. William Donald Schaefer, who is
one of the most seasoned politicians in the national
capital territory of Washington DC-Maryland-Virginia
area has served in public office since 1955 including
as a mayor, councilman and finally as Governor of
Maryland. As twice elected to the office of
Comptroller of the state, Schaefer has won peoples’
trust in this country in rejuvenated manner.
Despite being what he has been all the times. Indeed
he was in news for his attitudes which are of
supposedly bigger repercussions. In May 2004, after
his interaction with a McDonald employee, he opined
that the immigrants are liabilities.
“I don't want to adjust to another language. This is
the United States. I think they ought to adjust to
us.”
It is the same man who since years now has been
ignorant of the federal privacy laws which prohibit
an individual’s medical records. Being at the helm of
affairs of fiscal sector, being in charge of
collecting more than $13 billion dollars per year as
state and local tax revenues, which also covers
health sector, here is a man who has said people with
HIV/AIDS are “bad people”. Two years back, at yet
another Board of Public Works meeting he called for a
public registry listing HIV-positive individuals!
Schaefer said, “As far as I'm concerned, people who
have AIDS are a danger. They're a danger to spread
AIDS. People should be able to know who has AIDS. It
costs an awful lot of money to treat them.” And this
reelected representative of our people gave us a
slice of his wisdom:
“They bring it on themselves, they don't get it by
sitting on the toilet seat. ... A person who gives
AIDS, who spreads AIDS, they're bad people.”
Wow! Again, this should not surprise us. I mean, if
there needed to have been an authentic demand for
this man to withdraw, this need not be on the ground
that he was ogling at a young female. He should have
been culled with more serious charges.
We know that a system exists in our democracy that
allows people like this to get away with anything
they have to say. Come on, without any pretensions,
we know the human rights issues in the US are in
shambles. Domestic violences against women are on
increase. Sensitivity towards the LGBT community is
abysmal. Respect for women and concern for children
can be reflected through the unabashed show of
commodified women and violent video games. One that
does not let women rule the country nor children to
organize as communities.
The question is, do we have a system in place which
can effectively challenge these? A system that can
challenge the status quo. As to why since 1851, the
year the comptroller’s office was founded, all of the
comptrollers have been old white men? We know well
that the people who control the finances are the most
powerful. The question is why
all of them have to be men.
The question is under the circumstances, what happens
to the governor of the state? Robert L. Ehrlich,
Jr.’s aide was clearly harassed as we all noticed on
the television screen. Will he bear responsibility
and condemn Schaefer? Ha! Did he do it when Schaefer
bad-mouthed immigrants who were not well versed with
English? Well here is what Ehrlich said: “Once you
get into this multicultural crap, this bunk, that
some folks are teaching in our college campuses and
other places, you run into a problem….
There
is no such thing as a multicultural society that can
sustain itself, in my view, and I think history
teaches us this lesson.”
Sure, his history teaches him different lessons!
Publicly advocating supremacist societies which does
not tolerate ethnic identities of diverse population,
here is a governor, alright.
Baltimore Sun quotes Steven L. Kreseski, Ehrlich’s
chief of staff, saying that the governor has spent
time thinking about the concept as a congressman.
'Ehrlich believes that
different ethnic groups should embrace American
values such as capitalism and the celebration of
Thanksgiving.'
Sure, why is it that I am not surprised? How fast,
how effortlessly we have moved from issues of
Schaefer to issues concerning Ehrlich. Because the
issues concern them similarly, because they share the
common platform, power and agenda. This is the only
truth. There is no news value in this. People deserve
the kind of government they elect. And in a
god-fearing America, this may be the fate and we are
all destiny’s children.
There have been strong critics of the current
comptroller. Just like there were critics of
McCarthy. Just like there were critics of Clinton. Or
there are today critics of Bush. The pressing issue
however is not to recognize that there are some odd
ones out there who we need to recognize as bad when
they target “our own” people. Remember as long as
McCarthy was blaming the Soviets for everything, he
was a darling. After he harassed a few good men of
America, he had to become a ghost. Remember that as
long as
Clinton was bombing Kosovo and killing civilians
in the process, it was fine. When we got the moral
yardstick of one white female, the world went upside
down.
Regarding our current president, the lesser said the
better. War on Iraq is a good thing, American troops
dying is a bad thing.
Not that President Bush ever said anything different
from President Clinton.
It’s just that he has not yet found time from dealing
with issues of same-sex marriages, right to abortions
and mothers against war. And guess what, he has been
reelected too! With all the moral stories and
preachings of good over the evil, our good better
than theirs, he better be.
Well meaning critics of the comptroller have opposed
the way the media have projected Schaefer as acting
like his own. Intellectuals have condemned (
they
said the same thing in 2004 too in this brilliant
article) this boys-will-be-boys excuse. The
mainline argument is that he has to pay for his
attitude. No one wants to buy the cliché that
‘Schaefer will be Schaefer’. After all, we are
supposed to be God’s Blessed Land. We are to be
upholders of moral standards.
But guess what, I think clichés are words of wisdom
at times. And yes, the boys will be boys. Especially,
the rich capitalist powerful men will behave like
rich capitalist powerful men. Because its not they
who are at fault. It’s their system they have
carefully structured that’s capable of retaining them
no matter what and changing the headlines every
flickering moment so that people forget the crimes in
the annals of reality TV shows, standardized female
bodies, and hopeless comedies of modern times.
Tags: Saswat, Racism, USA, Economics, Capitalism