Out of Left Field: 2017’s positive global and local legacies

Michael Dinnocenzo

 

2017 was a demoralizing year for many Americans, as polls continued to show (particularly pegging Donald Trump at the all-time low for a first year president).
However, globally, and on L/I., there were myriad positive developments that lifted my spirits and gave me hope.*
• The Nobel Peace Prize was awarded to ICAN, International Campaign to Abolish Nuclear Weapons, a stirring affirmation that we have not lost focus on what the late Jonathan Schell described as “the fate of the earth.”
• At the end of the year, Daniel Ellsberg’s book, “The Doomsday Machine,” was a clarion call for peace initiatives from a man who had been a “hawk” during the early years of the Vietnam War.
• The Ellsberg connection was also dramatized in the December release of “The Post,” a film showing how newspapers challenged the efforts of Richard Nixon to limit the First Amendment and the right of citizens to have reliable data.

Ellsberg’s release of the Pentagon Papers documented the excesses, lying, and errors of government leaders who preceded Nixon.
• Peace Action New York State celebrated its 60th anniversary at Riverside Church in October and named the Hofstra Peace Action Club as the outstanding student group in the state. [At a time when 12,000 Americans turn 18 each day for every 10,000 who turn 65, this may be an auspicious sign of a rising generation in harmony with the first 3 items celebrated for the past year.]
• You may have noticed the growing number of life-long Conservatives and Republicans who have become regular commentators on CNN and the more “liberal” MSNBC. T

hey have not given up their political values, but they have become part of the rising chorus of Trump critics.

In all of American history, there has never been such a countering to the leader of a party (there is no such liberal migration to FOX programs).

When long-time analysts speak so forcefully about actions by the Executive branch that they once supported, more citizens will be heeding George Will, Steven Schmidt, David Frum, Jennifer Rubin, Bret Stephens, Max Boot, Bruce Bartlett, and Nicole Wallace.
• All credit to Rabbi Bob Widom, who continues to make Great Neck’s Temple Emanuel “the 92nd Street Y” of Long Island, with cultural and citizenship programs (this fall pairing Watergate journalist Carl Bernstein with former GOP chair, Michael Steele, himself, now a regular MSNBC commentator).
• On the cultural scene, Ron Chernow’s “Grant” (a 1,000-page book) gives sustained pleasure in learning about a neglected Presidential role model, who is getting deserved, belated attention for leadership in racial justice and civil rights.
• Plainview-reared Daniel Mendelsohn published the emotionally engaging and highly acclaimed story, “An Odyssey: A Father, a Son and an Epic” (a stirring example of deepening family ties no matter at what ages).
• 2017 offered surrealistic views that spur the imagination: George Saunders’ Lincoln in the Bardo (recipient of England’s top Man Booker prize), and the play Discord, which powerfully explored Jefferson, Dickens, and Tolstoy’s views on morality, values, and religion (when they meet in a kind of purgatory).

Perhaps it’s never too early to consider how you’d like your obituary to read.
• L.I. activists to whom we are beholden include Jim Smith (Hofstra alumnus, long-time Newsday writer), who draws on his own service in Vietnam to highlight continuing issues of significance for veterans and our nation.
• Laura Curran (the first female Nassau County executive) and Laura Millen (the first Democrat in 100 years to be supervisor of the Township of Hempstead) now join Judi Bosworth (who leads North Hempstead), placing females in three of the four top government spots in Nassau County. Can Oyster Bay be far behind?
• Nassau legislator Delia DeRiggi-Whitton has played a sparkling role in leading the call for a county Inspector General (a position to monitor money and actions in government).
• At the end of 2016, the Wall Street Journal poll showed Democrats with an 11-point advantage to win Congress in 2018. CNN’s poll gave Democrats a 16-point edge.

If Democrats can take back the House (the Senate is a longer shot), “Trumpism” will be on its way to oblivion.
• For more than a decade, Maryann Sinclair Slutsky of Old Westbury has dedicated sustained leadership to help immigrants and Long Island residents develop a sense of community, enhancing a better future for America’s first, and most diverse, suburb.

Holly and Steve Blank are to be commended for their leadership in weekly papers.

The scope of incisive editorials, of readers’ views, and the range of reporting and writing make the Blank papers of our North Shore must-reads. They assist in serving democracy by fostering informed citizens.

*What gives you hope as we move into 2018? Send me an email: (michael.dinnocenzo@hofstra.edu)

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