Commentary:
How does a columnist get out of his or her own way long enough to write a newspaper column?
This moment, I’m not sure. On radio this morning Walt and I were thanking all the people who run for office, especially folks who are highly unlikely to win. Although everyone dismisses politicians as greedy egotists, each candidate – like everyone who writes a poem or publicly sings a song – puts himself or herself out there and suffers a very public judgment. It hurts to lose. It hurts to expose yourself to public opinion and be found wanting. Walt pointed out that we newspaper columnists do that weekly. I said I’d forgotten that, because I’ve done it so long.
Yet sometimes it’s humbling. This morning We just interviewed eleven people running for county sheriff. I’ll also talk further with them and eventually write columns containing opinions and research. As we talked, I was mostly aware of the sincerity and basic decency of most of these people. Sitting with the four running in the Republican primary, I mused on the irony that thee four very decent people were running under a banner currently controlled by an emotionally needy wretch whose inner resentment of the world leaves no real room for compassion. I loathe what that fellow does, but one thought that helps me steer clear of hating him is my intense awareness that I would not want to be him. His upbringing created such inner misery that we should pity the man even while we mourn the lives lost or broken by his public actions.
But who am I to write that? One more weak, pathetic human being, intensely fallible and inadequate.
It’s easy to write of Donald Trump. Him being such a comic-strip sort makes it easy. Forcing the Justice Department to prosecute someone for photographing stones arranged in an “86-47” pattern, when “86 is defined by the dictionary as the ordinal number, then “Slang. a customer considered undesirable or unwelcome and refused service at a bar or restaurant.” Wasting a bundle of public money trying to persuade a jury of common-sensical human beings that the stones threatened the life of the President. Won’t most jurors respond like Bernie, a former bar bouncer, that he 86ed a lots of people without supposing his employers wanted him to kill those patrons?
But while we decry the waste, let’s also – even if it undermines our speed and efficiency – try for a moment to imagine the inner neediness that requires a fellow to imprison people merely for doing their jobs or following the law, if that happened to inconvenience him?
It’s also easier to write about Trump because of the distance between us. It’s more painful to you face live human beings who are friendly, even friends, about whom you’ve had to write hard truths, because they’re public figures, too. I know some folks take some kind of joy in it; but for me, aware that pretty much everyone feels s/he is trying to do right, but whose faults loom awkwardly large in others’ eyes, it’s kind of painful, after a while, to do what I do: be a sort of journalistic umpire, calling ‘em as I see ‘em, as honestly and fairly as I can, knowing I’m imperfect –-- and that the folks I write about live right down the block or will sit next to me at the next public meeting.
Peter Goodman's opinions are his own and do not necessarily reflect the views of KRWG Public Media or NMSU.