Up and Coming Weekly is a weekly publication in Fayetteville, NC and Fort Bragg, NC area offering local news, views, arts, entertainment and community event and business information.
Issue link: https://www.epageflip.net/i/331331
6 JUNE 18-24, 2014 WWW.UPANDCOMINGWEEKLY.COM PITT DICKEY, Attorney, Contribut- ing Writer. COMMENTS? Editor@ upandcomingweekly.com. Ugly Is In the Eye of the Beholder by PITT DICKEY Today we shall ponder perception and the strange case of former POW Bowe Bergdahl. As Shakespeare wrote in The Tempest: "O brave new world that has such people in it." Now we know everything before we know anything. Watching the Rose Garden announcement with President Obama and Bowe's parents with its resulting uproar, I was reminded of another Rose Garden ceremony that took place in Lewis Carroll's Alice in Wonderland. People see their own version of reality and then proclaim their version is the only correct one. Bergdahl's case has something ugly in it for everyone. Unless you have been living under a large rock, you know that Bowe Bergdahl spent five years living under the tender mercies of the Taliban. The circumstances and motivation of how he got to be a guest of the Taliban are murky and may turn out to be less than honorable. The murk of war has not prevented politicians and the media on both ends of the political spectrum from taking up sides before the facts come out. As Ronald Regan said at the 1988 Republican Convention, "Facts are stupid things." Facts that interfere with our political views need to be brushed aside to score political points. Truthiness is next to godliness. We all want and watch our own version of the facts — the Right has Fox and the Wall Street Journal and the Left has MSNBC and the New York Times. Each side believes the other side is full of bovine byproducts that we don't discuss in polite society. We see what we want. We are mesmerized by our reflections in our media of choice. Brush off your Greek mythology and recall the story of Narcissus. Narcissus was one good-looking dude. He was so handsome that he broke the heart of Echo, a mountain nymph who fell in love with him. Narcissus rejected her advances and she faded away into an echo. His rejection of Echo enraged the goddess Nemesis who came up with a plan for revenge. Nemesis got Narcissus to look at himself in a pool of water. Narcissus fell in love with his own reflection and couldn't leave the pool. He eventually committed suicide when he realized he couldn't possess his reflection. Narcissus would approve our watching our political reflections in our media pool of choice. The Right wing, led by Fox talking heads, have declared Bergdahl a traitor who should be shot for desertion. The Left wing seems to be glad that Bowe is no longer a POW and feels that his return should be something to happy about. The circumstances of how he became a POW might be better determined by a court martial than by the howling of the Fox Talking Heads or by the happy talk from the Obama administration. At this point, we don't know what happened. The calls for Bergdahl's execution as a traitor seem a bit premature. We used to have charges filed, then a trial before a sentence, or even a verdict was announced. Not so much now if you believe Fox. The Angry Blondes of Fox daily announce " Off with his head." The Queen of Hearts in Alice in Wonderland would certainly be a Fox fan. "Sentence first — verdict afterwards!" Remember the procedure preferred by the Queen of Hearts in the trial of the Knave of Hearts. Think of Bergdahl as the Knave of Hearts. The Knave is charged with stealing pastry. That case was summarized by the White Rabbit as follows: "The Queen of Hearts, she made some tarts/All on a summer's day/The Knave of Hearts, he stole those tarts/And took them quite away." After the reading of the charges, the Red Queen promptly announces the Knave's sentence, "Off with his head!" There is a bit of symmetry between Angry Blondes of Fox, the Queen of Hearts, the Knave and Bowe. Bowe's trip to Taliban central may have led to the deaths of our soldiers who went looking for him. His squad members think it did. Perhaps we should consider having a trial first to determine the facts before deciding his sentence. Whether having a trial before a verdict sounds like a good idea depends on which media pool you are peering into. Beauty, like ugly, is in the eye of the beholder. The only thing missing is You! Whether you are a golfer, swimmer, tennis player, or enjoy dining. Gates Four Golf and Country Club has a membership for you and your family. For more information call 910.425.6667 or visit us at www.gatesfour.com "I feel confident that the nurses will always be there with Jack at school, making sure he is safe." – Al F., Jack's dad With BAYADA Pediatrics… Call 910-486-5001 | www.bayada.com Compassion. Excellence. Reliability. Jack F. and his BAYADA School Nurse Katie Mitros, RN BAYADA Pediatrics provides IEP driven nursing services in public and private schools from early childhood through high school. • Daily, one-to-one care during school hours, transportation, and field trips • Training and assistance for school staff and IEP teams • Trained and fully insured pediatric nursing specialists