Someone on my Facebook page sent me this link to the opening of an episode of the new HBO show The Newsroom.

Jeff Bridges gave an insightful speech, filled with the passion and emotions Sorkin can bring to his characters. On this Fourth of July week I heard many speeches, read many articles and saw many pundits talk like the two panelist in the scene. In answering the college student’s question about what makes America great, the two panelist pandered. The pundits and commentators in real life gave the words they think we want to hear. They rattled off about life, liberty, the pursuit of happiness, God and country, all the while images of raised flags and Americana images from a Frank Capra movie flash before our eyes. We are suppose to stand to our feet, a tear running down our cheek and feel moved we live in such a free and prosperous nation.

A few days ago I wrote about how, when Chris Rock dared to remind some in a tweet that America has problems, the response he got only confirmed we have a long way to go in fixing the ills Americans are unwilling to face. He was condemned for not being grateful for living in the United States. He was chastised for talking about slavery and in many cases was told slavery was something in the past and since he was rich he didn’t have anything to complain about. Hours before I got the link, it was ironic to read that Ted Nugent commented with a straight face that he felt bad that the South had lost the war. He said this because he was upset about Obamacare being upheld by the Supreme Court. I guess that is a real good illustration of the lack of progress we have made.

In the HBO clip, as Bridges is talking from the heart, the faces of some of the students showed confusion. Others broke out cell phone cameras to capture the moment. While I would like to think they were doing so to remember and take to heart what they were being told, I suspect if the story were to focus on some of those students you would find they were eager to post the speech up so they could get a lot of hits on their YouTube page. The message Sorkin was trying to say through Bridges would be missed by them. I dare say the message will be lost on us also.

I know I sound like a broken record on this subject, but when I saw those students in the scene I thought about the Occupy movement. So much potential in people really doing good and helping people and the movement ended up with nothing. Just like the two speakers on the stage with Bridges, I’m sure there will be some who will paint a rosy picture of the Occupy movement. They will try to talk about all the good they did at the time, but I was there, I had my camera and recorded some of the action at local Occupy rallies. I was there for the big, impressive displays, such as when Jesse Jackson arrived locally and I was there when news reporters and camera crews weren't around. While Sorkin rightly criticized politics and the media in his speech, he didn’t talk about the people; citizens like myself who should have been motivated and stood up to fight the system but did nothing. We are as much at fault for watching America become the land it is today; a fading star living off of dreams and citizens that still bask in the heyday of this nation and ignoring what neglect this nation has gone through.

Sorkin wrote his heartfelt feelings down, put them into a TV show, and one person seeing that felt so moved by his words they posted them on YouTube. Someone else saw the clip and passed it along to a group of friends on Facebook. One of their friends felt so moved it was passed along to their group and that’s when I got it. If past experience is any indication, almost all of the people who see it will watch some of it, nod their heads in agreement, click a button to pass it on and that will be that. That’s what passes for activism today. Very few people are willing to get dirty for freedom. They pass along a link, text in a number to donate to charity and they feel they have done a great thing for God and country. They see a YouTube tape of an elderly woman being harassed by middle school children and the best reaction most people have is to click a link to donate a few dollars to the woman. Yes, that is a very good gesture, but what about all the kids harassing their peers and older people you don't see on video? Isn't the bigger issue, the more pressing issue, is the fact that youth feel so numb by the words they say that by posting a 12 minute harassment of an elderly woman puts no shame in their hearts? Forget about the oft used retort about where were the parents, what about where were the students? There were other students on the bus and they said nothing. The kid who filmed the encounter said he was forced to do so. So why, when he shot the film, did he not contact someone in authority? Why didn't any of the other students, who saw but were not a part of the incident, didn't contact someone in authority?

It chills me when I remember the interview the bus monitor gave when asked why she didn't report the kids. She said she didn't think anything would happen to them. A grown woman, who has seen a lot of years, sat and took the abuse, then didn't say anything afterwards because she didn't feel anything would be done to the students. No wonder the kids had no fear; adults have given them the signal they won't do anything to punish them. We have thrown in the towel as adults and we are showing our kids we are unwilling to stand up for what it right.

That's what gets me so upset when I see things like the Occupy movement, or the Wisconsin recall election or the various states that are passing anti-voting bills, anti-women bills and anti-poor bills. Like the harassing kids on the bus, many politicians know they can get away with a lot of things and no one will call them on it. Some in the public may protest but a vast majority of people are going to be like the kids that observed the harassment on the bus. They will remain silent. The press, who should be a voice for truth, won't call out politicians when they speak mis-truths, because they fear not getting a story from them in the next week or month. Politicians learn they can give a bold face lie, get caught on video contradicting themselves and if they are confronted by this, they can come up with a weak excuse, twist definitions of what is a tax or a mandate and people who support them will nod their heads in agreement, the press will silently let them get away with it, and those who try to point out their hypocrisy are drown out by dancing stars, divorcing wives and karaoke idols in the eyes and ears of most of the public.

I know I should be grateful that even the small gesture of the Sorkin speech being posted should give me some hope, but my problem is the fact it is very little hope. The same people who click on a link about the Sorkin speech will send out a funny picture from George Takai, or will send out an affirmation, or will send a link about how Jessica Simpson can't lose her baby fat. The earnest pleas for hope and change will get lost in a sea of inane self help slogans and gossip about celebrities who have no impact in our lives. Doing that is easier that rolling up our collective sleeves and working for the long haul to make a change in our country. Doing that isn't just occupying a plot of land. It means we have to take action. It means, in the words of the Tea Party movement, that we have to take our country back. We have to organize, we have to vote, we have to stop thinking it's cool to be the cynical outsider standing against the brick building in black leather. We have to dig in and work.

For almost twenty years Chaotic Fringe has been my humble attempt to add my voice to the conversation. I don't just retweet, I just don't click on a button to pass things along. I don't just take news articles at face value. While I don't believe everything being told to me is a lie, I do look at things with a skeptical eye and if something doesn't seem right, I check on the validity of it. I don't take an article sent to me and assume it's the truth, even if I may agree with what the person is trying to say. I would hope citizens of the United States would start to think again, to reason again and to question again. If we continue along the mindless, partisan path and if some refuse to engage in fighting for freedom because they don't want to get physically and emotionally dirt from the experience, then we have hit the decline many have predicted for our society.