Larry Mantle
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Where does Occupy go from here?
At least for now, there won’t be any tents at the park where Occupy Wall Street has been protesting for two months. Other sites are being considered, but it’s not clear what form the protests will now take.
Meanwhile, in Los Angeles, LAPD Chief Charlie Beck says he’s moving toward shutting down the City Hall camp. The future of local protests will, similarly, be in doubt.
For me, the bigger question is whether this movement can connect with the larger portion of the “99-percent,” who don’t find the Occupy movement culturally familiar or attractive. A huge portion of the country shares the anger, frustration, and critique provided by Occupy, but sees it as a liberal, not populist, movement. If Occupy is going to catch fire, I think it needs to tap into that populist sensibility.
However, it’s not clear to me that participants in Occupy have a cultural affinity for, or knowledge of, working class residents in the heartland. Those are the voters who decided the elections in favor of both Bush and Obama. They weren’t comfortable with John Kerry, but responded to Barack Obama’s message of hope. They’re angry with Washington, don’t feel they have a voice, and will most likely again decide next year’s election. Once we better know the demands of the Occupy movement, we’ll also have an idea whether they coincide with fixes that significant numbers of Americans will support.
Though Republican leaders claimed that the Tea Party’s election victories last year were a national referendum on the size and power of government, they were, instead, targeted localized victories that added up a Congressional surge. The Tea Party doesn’t represent most Americans, but has still become influential. However, we’re seeing its limits in the Republican Presidential race, where a non-Tea Party Mitt Romney is the frontrunner.
For now, Occupy has garnered considerable attention and support. Whether it will translate into a political movement remains to be seen.
The power of mental images
Monday morning on “AirTalk,” we opened with the non-detailed allegations by three unidentified women that GOP presidential candidate Herman Cain had sexually harassed them during the time he headed the National Restaurant Association trade and lobbying group.
Our focus was on how, despite the reports and Cain’s initially poorly prepared response, he was still getting significant support in polls of GOP voters. This didn’t seem surprising to me, given the vagueness of the allegations and the range in seriousness the claims could represent, even if they were true.
However, this morning’s news conference with Los Angeles attorney Gloria Allred and her client, Sharon Bialek of Chicago, significantly raises the challenge for Cain. Regardless of the truth of her claim, her specific recounting of his alleged effort to grope her and push her head onto his lap now creates a mental picture that the other allegations didn’t.
To combat this image, if it’s fabricated, means Cain’s team has to find a way to create a competing visual image of what the job-seeking interaction truly was between the two. If they can’t do that, either because the account is correct or Cain doesn’t remember his interaction with her, I don’t see how he can overcome this hit.
Internet dependency
If you’re like me, you’ve asked yourself many times how we functioned before the Internet. It’s true that some things were better before we became tethered to the online world. Nevertheless, most of our jobs are constructed in a way that now requires digital contact at all times.
I was reminded of this Wednesday morning when KPCC’s Internet connection was lost just minutes before “AirTalk” began. Not only did we lose our ability to gather important last-minute information on our guests and topics, but we also lost the ability to create our daily “AirTalk” page that features each of our segments. Without the updated page, we had no ability to take listener comments or questions, apart from phone calls.
Though our online component for listeners started just a couple of years ago, I felt as though I’d lost an important way of connecting with listeners. It is funny how quickly we not only adapt to a new normal, but how that loss hits us.
Fortunately, our Internet connection resumed after about fifteen minutes. All was back to normal and we were able to take online listener comments. However, it forced us to consider what we would do with a longer outage. Now that we’re so Internet dependent, it would be significant challenge.
What social safety net would Jesus construct?
That’s the gist of a conversation we’re planning for Tuesday morning’s "AirTalk." As a former Biblical Studies major in college (before getting my degree in psychology), I’m particularly interested in this topic. I’ve encountered many guests over the years who are convinced that their interpretation of the Bible is correct. I’m looking forward to hearing what our upcoming guests have to say about how they discern a Christian position on aid to the poor.
Speaking of aid to the needy, I appreciated hearing the voices of numerous patients and health workers at the just-concluded free clinic at the L. A. Sports Arena. It was impressive to see all the volunteers who provided expertise and time to this worthy cause.
Jerry West opens up on "AirTalk"
I wasn’t a child who actively looked for heroes. I was enamored enough with my parents and friends that I didn’t feel the need to put my hopes and dreams onto a public figure. However, that didn’t keep me from putting Jerry West on a very high level.
In reading West’s first autobiography from 1969, “Mr. Clutch,” I was riveted by his descriptions of life in West Virginia and his total dedication to basketball. As an eleven-year-old enjoying a balmy Southern California life, West’s story was a world away from my experience.
However, I related to his work ethic and desire to master a skill as thoroughly as possible. It impressed me and allowed me to further appreciate what he did on the court.
In his new autobiography, “West by West: My Charmed and Tormented Life,” the reasons for his obsessive escape into basketball become clear. Reading it over this past weekend, I felt like that boy again reading “Mr. Clutch.”
West’s openness about his chronic depression and barriers to relational intimacy hit me just as his earlier book did. Though I’ve not struggled with emotional pain like West frequently experiences, all of us have been affected by loved ones dealing with challenges much like his.
“West by West” just adds to my appreciation of Jerry West. He may be “weird,” as his son Ryan describes him, but West is certainly a man of substance and great inspiration – whether he’s comfortable with that or not.
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