And Then There was the Scopes Trial
And then There was the Scopes Trial
About what feels like a zillion years ago, I was honored to serve on New Jersey’s Anti-Bullying Task Force. The name tells you why this feels like it took place so long ago. In 2010 New Jersey enacted the “Anti-Bullying Bill of Rights” to address issues of harassment, intimidation bullying in the schools. The bill ultimately passed unanimously in the New Jersey State Senate and with one negative vote in the Assembly. Two state Senators, Kean and Van Drew, who are now Republican members of Congress and who voted to eliminate Medicaid coverage for millions of Americans, voted to support the NJ Anti-Bullying Bill of Rights. I’m not naïve enough to believe that laws shift behavior. Codifying expectations around behavior may even have the opposite effect. But the law, which is still in effect, spoke to the climate at that time, that harassment, bullying and intimidation are not acceptable forms of behavior. Today, that is no longer the case, and that I feel the need to articulate this explicitly is chilling.
Fast forward 15 years. We live in a society where harassment, bullying and intimidation at the highest level have become the norm. I watch one media outlet after another, one university after another, one law firm after another fall victim and capitulate. Too few are willing to stand up to the bullies. Too few elected officials and others stand up and say, NO! and it breaks my heart.
At the same time, I don’t know what I can do. I mean I know I can write letters and make phone calls, write checks and go to rallies, but none of that seems to be working, or not working fast enough. I count the days. This week marks the end of the first six month of the current administration. Conventional wisdom suggests that with midterms approaching it will be more difficult for more draconian measures to be adopted. So what? How much worse does it need to get? And it might get worse. I can imagine worse. I am sure you can too.
I look for distractions. As I write this, I am trying to get through on Ticketmaster for seats to see Paul McCartney at a location thousands of miles from my home. My chances of success are slim, but why not take comfort in the popular culture of my youth? And I’ve started to listen to a new, or new to me, podcast. Star Talkwith Neil deGrasse Tyson. The big questions like, how did the universe get created, that kind of stuff, have always interested me. I am nerdy in that way. de Grasse Tyson said something to the effect during an episode about quantum physics, that maybe, as humans, we don’t have the capacity to understand why quantum physics works, that we evolved to avoid other creatures trying to eat us, not to understand how things like gravity work in different dimensions. I am oversimplifying within the limits of my understanding. Could be.
In any case, that got me thinking, maybe we have not evolved enough as a species to be empathetic, to care about others, to not fear so many things. Maybe it’s always going to be, eat or be eaten. Maybe I need to give up. I’d rather not. But I could use some new ideas. Instead, I will give the Beatles, as I have some often in my life, the last word.
Ah thank you for this. Listening to Let it BE at the end I was in tears. They were so young! And so were we!
We've become a culture wherein bullying is totally acceptable. Whether in a national forum or simply a supermarket parking lot. I find it crushing.
And I continue to find listening to The Beatles kind of like slipping into a warm bath. Thanks for that reminder, Jessica.