Another vacation missive from way after dark
How I'm spending my summer vacation
It’s about 10 pm Saturday evening, and the kids are all finally in bed and asleep. Today was the hardest day yet in our new fostering journey of a bit over two weeks. It’s a bourbon night.
Our new kiddos are with us for very good reasons. A few days ago, we arranged a Zoom call for one of them with their biological father, who was way late and spoke to his child for a grand total of 10 minutes while in the drive-through at a Taco Bell. His child has been looking forward to the call for days, and it was a complete disappointment. There isn’t enough opprobrium in the world to describe my feelings about this.
The other child presents seriously detrimental and self-destructive behaviors that no preschooler develops without a lot of adult help. Both of these children are the product of parenting that occupies whatever level is below abysmal. Right now, I really want to break off a foot in some fannies.
On this topic, a subscriber wrote to me last week, after reading The worst place in the world the following:
Way back in 1991, I had freshly embarked on my journey through the UofOr J-school. In early assignment required us to interview a Communications professional. I was already working in the school district, so it was fairly easy for me to connect with the PIO.
One of the required questions related to the greatest challenges the professional expects to face in the coming decade. She instantly responded, "Dealing with the consequences of people who have effectively abandoned the children they brought into this world."
Good on you for efforts to plug one small hole in the dam.
That boldface stuff is me right now. And I’m on a bender on account of it. You do not want to be on my wrong side when it comes to fulfilling your responsibilities to your children. Watching the suffering of my kiddos has put me in a foul mood. I’m a race car in the red.
Many of you kindly wrote with words of personal support and encouragement after last week’s treatise. I appreciate all of you, honest and no lie, but I do want to make one thing clear: I’m no hero. Far from it. I'm a pissed-off old guy who’s spent a lifetime calling out things that were false, wrong, or stupid and who’s now obligated to do something other than rant and rave. I can’t fix the world with just my own hands, but I can use every finger that I have to plug a few holes in the dike. As a last act, it’s one that I can certainly live with.
More on all of this as things develop. But for the time being, don’t let me catch you buying meth with your kids a few feet away in the car. I’ll go Old Testament on your sorry ass. And I don’t even believe in the Old Testament.
Another reader wrote a note that they enjoyed The worst place in the world more than my political writing and hoped for more. I completely agree. I like the other stuff better too, which is why I write a lot of it (here, here, here, here, and here for just a glimpse). Perhaps I should organize the site a bit more to make these easier to find. I’ll get on it if enough of you are interested.
But I digress. I write political stuff not because I love doing it but because it’s necessary.
We here in the USA live in the greatest country on Earth. But several generations of Americans (starting with mine, the boomers) failed to stand tall on the strong shoulders of those who came before to reach new heights. As a society, we don’t even understand the concept of strong shoulders anymore, and help is not on the way.
In the 1950s, Kelly Johnson designed the U2 and SR-71 spy planes with slide rules and competence. We sent men to the moon and back many times with elbow grease and analog computers. These days, six plus decades later, we are too lazy and clueless to even craft a mindless, bland pop song without AI and Autotune. Our tools may be way better, but we suck at using them.
Worse, we seem way closer than I’d like to trading our great experiment in democracy for a series of winner-take-all hegemonies that swing like a pendulum back and forth between the totalitarianism and fascism that define our ideological extremes. The left and right in America share only a few things anymore: the desire to die with their hands around each other’s throats and a disdain for freedom of action, speech, and even thought.
I keep telling you to forget about the Nazi comparos to describe contemporary America. The Nazi takeover of Germany was extraordinary and hopefully a one-off. Though antisemitism is definitely on the rise, its current incarnation reminds me more of the Middle Ages than of Germany in the early 20th century. Get past the Nazis; it’s the Bolsheviks and Mensheviks that you should now learn about. Look ‘em up. Look up the father of DEI, Karl Marx. Look up the totalitarian and fascist regimes of the 20th century. Then look up auto-da-fé. Process all of that, and if you still aren’t worried, you can come and talk me down.
So that’s why I write the political stuff. You cannot possibly pile on enough to combat the crazy, dishonest, immoral, anti-democratic stupidity sweeping the world.
On a happier note, I got to spend some time with Substacker and bard Christopher Messina via Zoom this week, and I think that this confab will lead to a podcast soon. It’s great to converse with people who are smart and yet still maintain the humility to know what the hell they actually know and don’t know. That’s a lot of you as well. Stay tuned.
Off to bed. Screaming kids in 8 hours, tops. Thanks to all of you for your words of kindness and support.
Associated Press and Idaho Press Club-winning columnist Martin Hackworth of Pocatello is a physicist, writer, and retired Idaho State University faculty member who now spends his time with family, riding bicycles and motorcycles, and arranging and playing music. Follow him on Twitter @MartinHackworth, on Facebook at facebook.com/martin.hackworth, and on Substack at martinhackworthsubstack.com
Many years ago, I had an associate attorney from La Follette, Tennessee (a small former coal mining town). He had escaped La Follette and graduated from Harvard, followed by Yale Law School. He was one of the smartest people I ever met. He had a knack for getting to the heart of any problem in just a few words.
I was asking him something about his thoughts about how we could best contribute to improving the world. (That is a gross over- simplification, but you get the idea.)
I don’t remember the exact question or even the context, but I remember his answer: “Just do something good every day.”
He didn’t talk about setting up any programs, organizing a do-good charity, or anything else like that. Just, ‘Do good in your own life every day.’ The unspoken premise was that if enough people did that, the world will be a better place.
I have always remembered that, although I have fallen short most days. Some will say that is naïve, but it is good personal advice for everyone trying to live their daily life.
Martin, as tough as it is, you are living that, doing good every day. As the French say, “Chapeau” (hat tip to you).
And remember what John Paul Jones said! 😋
❤️ keep it up in all you do. Kick ass Martin!