What Moral Standard Should We Hold Our Leaders To?

I have a legitimate question after watching the three presidential debates: What moral standard should we hold our presidential candidates to? Governor Mitt Romney seems not to believe in the Ten Commandments of the Old Testament because he sure breaks the ninth commandment (Thou Shalt Not Bear False Witness) a lot.

Now I am sure everyone in the world has broken that commandment at some point in their life and people have come to expect it of politicians and used cars salesmen but Mitt Romney seems to distort the truth daily. His campaign staff has to continually retract or reword his statements after the fact.

And I am sure some will say that President Obama has lied in not keeping all of his campaign promises of 2008. But in the third presidential debate, Politifact.com gave Romney two "Pants on Fire" for tall tales that he told about Obama's so-called "apology tour" and stating that the US Military is losing its superiority.

The candidates themselves would rather say "malarkey, untrue, not factual, big whopper". I guess it is the ultimate insult to use the "L" word, but I am a blogger, not a politician so I can say it: Romney is a liar.

I'm not talking about candidate Romney from the 1990s or even the 2000s. I don't have to go back that far to see contradictions in his positions. What is disturbing is that he talks from two sides of his mouth in the same debate. For example, Romney 103 (from debate number three) accused the President of hurting our nation's good standing in the world by "leading from behind" and then said he agreed with President Obama's policies on Syria, Afghanistan, Iraq, Iran, and Libya. So in other words, his cynical talking points don't match his newly stated support for the current administration's foreign affairs actions.

Romney also said in the debate last night that he would create 12 millions jobs (never explaining how) and later said that government does not create jobs. Well, which is it?

When the Governor talked about Iran and Syria being allies and Syria relying on Iran geographically as a means to get to the sea, I was impressed because it really sounded like he knew what he was taking about. After the debate I found out on Facebook via someone showing a map that what he said was factually incorrect. Was it a lie or an embellishment? I don't know anymore.

Romney 101, you know the impressive winner of debate number one, said his tax plan would not cut taxes for the wealthy yet he has called for a 20% across the board reduction in revenues. He has said he will close loopholes to balance the math, yet will not tell us which ones. He also claimed he did not get a tax break for moving factories overseas via Bain Capital and that maybe he should fire his accountant. Maybe he should because he either lied about that or is misinformed.

Romney 102 claimed he balanced the budget as governor in Massachusetts. Also untrue. He actually had a huge debt when he left office. Debate number two was very interesting in that it was the first time I remember seeing a candidate get caught in a lie trying to catch another candidate in a lie. I guess Romney assumes Obama is as dishonest as he is or otherwise he would not have questioned his statement about saying "acts of terror" in the Rose Garden the day after the 9/11/12 attack of the US Consulate in Benghazi, Libya.

I believe that Libya exchange so rattled Romney that he dropped the issue in the next debate, I am sure causing great consternation to the neo-cons.

The thing that bothered me most about Romney 103 was that his demeanor seemed to change from the first two debates. Romney 101 and 102 was like a tiger stalking and attacking President Obama on his weakest issue: the economy. Debate two ended with Romney limping out of the hall after being exposed as uninformed after the exchange in which moderator Candy Crowley backed up President Obama's Rose Garden statement on Libya. He also left himself wide open in his closing remarks about serving the 100% to allow President Obama to bring up Mr. Romney's statements about the 47% of the population he insulted at a private fundraiser in May, 2012.

Debate three showed a more docile Mitt Romney. The tiger became the "cowardly lion" as he refused to confront the President's foreign policies and in fact agreed with many of Obama's principles. I'm not sure what Romney's strategy was: maybe not to screw up, maybe to appeal to women, maybe to not look like a bully. Whatever it was, it seemed similar to Obama's non-strategy in the first debate that clearly did not work. It made Romney look weak and perhaps made viewers wonder what happened to Romney 101. It just seemed like another incarnation or chameleon at work.

Many have said Romney acted like at bully in the first two debates. Well, that makes sense because he was accused of bullying in prep school when he and a mob held down a gay kid and cut his hair. And remember, the cowardly lion was a bully before he found his courage. Bullies go after the weak (the economy issue in debate number 1) and run away from the strong (Obama's foreign policies wins).

What bothers me the most is that a major American political party would nominate a serial liar like Romney. Politicians in the past have lied and got caught, even impeached for it (think Bill Clinton.) But Romney is the first politician that I have seen that lies routinely and never apologizes or even acknowledges that he has done it. In fact, he accused his opponent of lying or distorting his record. He lies about his lies. I'm not sure how dumb and misinformed Romney thinks the American electorate is, but I find it insulting. Doesn't he know about video tapes and instant fact checking?

Whatever, the reason for Romney's lies, be it compartmentalizing, believing the ends justifies the means, doing whatever it takes to get elected, it goes against everything I was taught growing up and seems immoral to me. Have we as a nation become so cynical that we don't care about nominating a serial liar to run for President? That's not the America I know.

If the Ten Commandments came from God, the ninth one could be interpreted to mean to lie is a sin. And if it is a sin, there is also a Bible verse that says: "Be sure your sin shall find you out."

Character does count. George W. Bush's policies did, in my eyes, a lot of damage to our country. But at least you knew where he stood on the issues. He had convictions. Governor Mitt Romney is an enigma, changing every day like a leaf blowing in the wind. To me, it makes him untrustworthy and not deserving of the highest office of our great land. Let's hope Romney's sins find him out before the election and not after it.

Judy Was Too Pure For This World

Some people are just too pure for this world.  By that I mean, they are never truly understood because they are too kind, too nice, too sweet, too genuine, too giving, and just too good to really be appreciated.

They are called pollyannas, goody-two-shoes, and the girl next door.  They are called easy, wimpy, and their good natures are often taken advantage of.  My belief is that those who don’t understand these kind souls choose not to because they are jealous or not spiritually mature enough themselves to get the gift of purity these folks are offering.

One such well known pure one is Judy Garland.  That may sound strange considering her reputation for having a turbulent private life that included addictions, divorces, money issues, and suicide attempts in her later adult years.

But if you follow her life as I have done and get glimpses of her as a child, teen, then adult star, you begin to see the essence of Garland.  Sometimes it’s hard to know where the screen persona ends and the private person begins.

Judy was typecast her whole life.  But the characters she played were actually an extension of herself.  MGM never allowed her to be seen smoking or drinking on screen, which is quite extraordinary because everyone was doing it back then.  The studio knew it would hurt her image.

But the truth is she was her image.  She was a great actress because she made every character she played real.  She made us believe she was a twelve year old in “The Wizard of Oz” although she was sixteen when she filmed the movie.  The irony is that in the films leading up to that she played young girls yearning to be older. (Think the song “In Between” from “Love Finds Andy Hardy.” )

She grew up fast.  Her films with Mickey Rooney defined a new generation of teenage ideals.  Every role she played opposite Mickey was a young teen with good morals, values, talent and forgiveness (for Mickey was constantly giving her the runaround.)

In fact, out of all the Garland movies I have seen, she has never played a bad person.  I don’t think it is in her nature.  And that nature is what allowed MGM and her mother to abuse her by giving her amphetamines and barbiturates to keep her stamina up to make all those films.  Judy, I am sure, had a lot of natural energy and loved to sing, dance, and act.  She was born with such talent.  However, taking pills that speed up your metabolism eventually catches up with you as it did for Judy at the ripe old age of nineteen.

She collapsed while making “Girl Crazy.”  Instead of taking her off the pills they gave her more and had her rest for three weeks.  I have read that Judy’s mother actually started her on the pills when she was only eight years old.

Many can fault Judy for her pill addiction but at the time she trusted her mother and the studio and no one seemed to think it was a bad thing.  In fact, all the stars were doing it.

Could be that she began to not only have a physical addiction but a psychological one as well, thinking she needed the pills to provide her the energy to perform.

In addition, Judy never had a normal childhood or adolesence.  Her life was consumed with making pictures.  She never had a chance to process any of the terrible emotional experiences that happened to her in her young teens.

She was in a car accident where she broke several ribs and punctured a lung at the age of 14.  Her father died of meningitis in 1935 when Judy was 13.  She was slated to sing a radio broadcast the night he took a turn for the worse and the Studio insisted on her staying so she sang “Zing! Went the Strings Of My Heart” for him as he listened from his hospital room.  He died the next morning before she got to see him.  This left Judy devastated as she was very close to him.

She was attracted to Arte Shaw but MGM and her mother felt she was too young for romance and Shaw eventually eloped with Lana Turner.  This broke young Judy’s heart.  While married to her first husband, composer David Rose in 1941, Judy was forced to have an abortion by her mother and MGM because they felt being pregnant would be bad for her career.

Louis B. Mayer and the MGM studio at first had a hard time finding an image for Judy.  She was too old at 13 to be a child star and too young for adult roles.  They changed her appearance by inserting nose discs in her nostrils and caps on her teeth.  They called her an “ugly duckling” and “hunchback” and chubby.  This caused her to have great insecurity about her appearance throughout her life.  Even though, she transformed overnight from an awkward ugly duckling tween to a ravishing beautiful swan in “Meet Me In St. Louis” in 1944, she never considered herself glamorous.

Yet I believe these insecurities are what made Garland so real to audiences.  They could relate to her.  She was not some untouchable, beautiful screen goddess.  She was down to earth, the girl next door, another mere mortal with problems and heartaches and emotional pains like the rest of us.

She had a self-deprecating sense of humor about herself that lasted her whole life.  Legends in the same field of entertainment would heap praises on her for her extraordinary talent.  She was called “the entertainer of the century” for her work in films, TV, recordings, and the concert stage.

Yet, she would make fun of herself as is evident in her comments during the Carnegie Hall concert in 1961 (called “the greatest night in show business history” by those that were there):  “If I’m known for anything at all, it’s tragic songs or holiday songs or marches.”  Known for anything at all?  Is she kidding?  Another time she said “I always wish I had something brilliant to say.  I have more stage waits than anyone.”  This after she shared three hilarious tales of a hairdresser expanding her hairdo in Paris only to have it fall as she sang, a London reporter kissing up to her by telling her how marvelous she looked only to write a scathing article the next day saying she was fat, and then a story about how a safety pin came loose and stuck into her derriere while she was singing causing her to sing so high and fast that she sounded like Vivian Della Chiesa.  If those aren’t funny and brilliant stories, I don’t know what are.

Another time she said that sometimes at parties she is asked to sing with a piano and “some people like it.”  Some people?  How about most people?  How about the whole planet?

Johnny Carson, when he had Judy as a guest on the Tonight Show kept marveling at the audience reactions Judy would get when she performed.  He asked why they loved her so.  She said because I love them first.

Maybe that is why her concerts seemed like revival meetings.  Many in the audience were fans that grew up with her.  They followed her career.  The loved the roles she played, the songs she sang, the dances she danced.

They appreciated the blood, sweat, and tears she put into each performance.  Because even though Judy went through so much personal turmoil it never showed in her professional work.  No one would know the backstage health problems she endured while filming “The Pirate” or the agony she was feeling when she sang for her father that night on the radio or the physical breakdown she experienced while doing a dance routine in “Girl Crazy” .  None of that shows up in her pictures or music.

No one knows the many hours of training, rehearsing, and memorizing lines she did in those 15 years for MGM.  In addition to her films, she was featured on the radio with Bob Hope, made recordings, and also sang for the troops during WWII.

But all of these accomplishments do not tell the whole story of why Judy Garland was and will forever be beloved by the public.  It gets back to my original premise.  She was pure of heart and she had an indomitable spirit that would never die.  It says something that her greatest successes came right after her greatest lows.  Just when people thought she was done, washed up, she would come roaring back, better and stronger than before.

After she was released from MGM and fired from “Annie Get Your Gun” in 1950, she began a new career singing on the stage and had critical acclaim to sold out crowds at the London Palladium and the Palace Theater in New York for which she won a Tony Award.

This lead to the greatest film of her career, “A Star is Born” in 1954 when she won an Oscar nomination and sang her heart out in what TIME magazine called “The greatest one woman show in history.”  The film turned out to be quite autobiographical, even mimicking the nose discs and changing of her hair color she endured at MGM.

Two years after doctors told her she may die and should never sing again, she gave the greatest concert of her life at Carnegie Hall in 1961.  This led to a critically praised TV show featuring some of Judy’s best musical moments captured on tape.

Judy threw herself into every film, every tour, every TV special, and every project she ever did.  At times, her health could not keep up with her spirit.  But she was the consummate professional.  She put her art first.

In some ways it may be a blessing that she had a hard time financially because otherwise she may not have done that TV series and we wouldn’t have her performing those classic renditions from “The Judy Garland Show” I was able to rent on Netflix or see on YouTube.

As a musician myself, it is hard to put into words how moving it is to hear and see Judy perform for a live audience.  I try to learn from her phrasing, her expression of the lyrics, the power of her voice, the range of her dynamics.

She may have had her personal insecurities and emotional problems, but when it came to performing, there was no one more confident, more totally engrossed in the music, more transcendent than Garland.

Maybe it is because that is where her purity of soul was expressed.  That purity that made her so loved but also so vulnerable.  That vulnerability also comes through her music.

I take comfort in that her last interview she seemed so happy.  She was madly in love with her new husband, Mickey Deans and said that she had at last found love and happiness.  You deserve it, Judy.  You suffered so for your art.  Your legacy and legend and music will live on forever.

As Lorna Luft, Judy’s daughter said in the CD “The Concert Years” while holding back tears:  “I think what Judy Garland loved most was that people wanted to hear her sing.  And they always will.”  I am one who always will and I am grateful that this pure, kindhearted soul graced us by sharing her amazing talent with us all.

The Lost Decade Spent In Oz

I was all set to write an article referencing "The Wizard of Oz" saying "Ding, Dong! The Wicked Witch is Dead" when Osama bin Laden was killed by our Navy Seals on May 1st, but HuffPost blogger Tom Engelhardt beat me to it ("Osama bin Laden's Legacy: It's Time to Stop Celebrating and Go Back to Kansas"). Unfortunately, as much as we would like to click our heels and return to Kansas and the land of "E Pluribus Unum" and the peace and prosperity of the 1990s, it is impossible to undo the last lost decade that began with the 9/11/01 al-Qaeda terrorist attacks on the United States masterminded by bin Laden.

It's as if we were sucked into a black hole of fear, hatred, debt, and greed. Instead of Communists being under every bed, it was Muslims. We waged two endless costly wars, sanctioned torture, and spied on average American citizens. We gave tax breaks to the rich; expanded corporate welfare; allowed Wall Street greed to run rampant; relaxed regulations on banks, mortgage lenders, and oil companies (leading to the BP oil disaster); eased environmental demands on corporations; and started a whole new, huge, expensive, bureaucratic department called Homeland Security. We turned a 2000 balanced budget with a $230 billion surplus into a $1.4 trillion deficit in 2010.

In the 1995 film "The American President", President Andrew Shepherd (played by Michael Douglas) makes a speech where he lays out his re-election platform. His two biggest themes are environmental protection and gun control. I know it is only a movie, but often art imitates life. These issues are not even on the radar for politicians today. Most Republicans are against both initiatives and most Democrats are too spineless to promote them because 9/11 changed all of that.

I believe these topics should be vital today. The issue of gun control came back with a vengeance after the 2007 Virginia Tech massacre and the recent 2011 Tucson (AZ) shootings where Representative Gabrielle Giffords was severely wounded. But even common sense solutions such as better background checks to prevent insane persons from obtaining hand guns of mass destruction and the banning of multiple magazine clips were thwarted by the NRA, hunters, and gun lovers. We worry about al Qadea but forget that we have domestic terrorists (like Timothy McVeigh of Oklahoma City infamy) that can very easily purchase weapons that can do massive damage. Until we bring some sanity back into this conversation, how really safe are we?

As for the environment, it is an issue that will never go away until we treat Mother Nature with the respect she deserves. When lawmakers debate the current budget they say everything is on the table. But they lie. Everything is but defense and entitlements. However, there is one agency that all agree should never be touched and that is FEMA (Federal Emergency Management Agency). Americans should be bailed out when nature strikes.

But did you know that in the last decade we have tripled FEMA spending from $3.4 billion in 2000 to $10.1 billion in 2011? We have experienced record hurricanes, tornadoes, mud slides, wildfires, flooding, blizzards and globally witnessed devastating earthquakes, volcanoes, and tsunamis in just this past year alone. Many scientists and climatologists have blamed climate change for these weather disasters, a phenomenon we have been conveniently ignoring for the past 10 years. I will never forget the statement Ted Turner made in 2002 regarding the 2000 election: "We could have had the best environmental president (Al Gore) we ever had. Now we've got an oil man. He (President Bush) is another Julius Ceasar ." We will never know how Gore may have handled 9/11, but I believe he would have done much more to move the country toward green energy and keep environmental protections in place. But I guess that is all water over the dam (literally.)

Whether the melting polar caps and rising seas are due to man- made CO2 emissions or not, wouldn't it be better for Mother Earth and for all of us if we cleaned up our act and worked globally to save ourselves from air and water pollution? Some in the GOP keep pointing out that we can't afford to go green because it is too expensive. I say we can't afford not to. How can these fiscal conservatives complain about leaving our grandchildren a mountain of debt without acknowledging the unhealthy environmental mess we are leaving behind?

OK, so we got bin Laden. Let's all celebrate and then move on or back to the pertinent problems that face us nationally and globally. Let's be good stewards of the Earth as well as fiscally responsible citizens. Let's allow what worked in the past to guide us in the future. Jobs, unemployment, a fair tax system, the deficit, guns, and the environment: these issues are all connected as are we Americans (after all, our national motto "E pluribus unum" means "out of many, one"). Maybe we can finally leave Oz and return to the land of liberty, equality, and justice for all. Otherwise, future generations will be paying for our sins for years to come.