I was thinking how appropriate the widely used term "toxic assets" is when applied to the billions of dollars of financial instruments the nation's big banks are holding. Trouble is, of course, is those assets are toxic because the collateral that the bankers accepted are hundreds of thousands of loans now in foreclosure.
But I wasn't driven to think of toxic assets because of this nation's financial gangsters who were supposed to know a good credit risk from a bad one. What prompted this post was the sad example of just how toxic our interpersonal political dialogue has become in this country.
This past week, news broke from Wasilla, Alaska, that the engagement of Bristol Palin and Levi Johnston, her boyfriend and father of their son, has ended. For anybody who has been on another planet, Bristol is the daughter of Governor Sarah Palin of Alaska. The Palins, and to a certain extent, the Johnstons, were thrust into an exceptionally bright international political spotlight last summer when the Alaska Governor was selected by Sen. John McCain to be his vice presidential running-mate on the Republican ticket last November.
Shortly after her selection, Gov. Palin was put in the position of having to make known to the entire world that her unmarried 17-year-old daughter was pregnant with Johnston's child, which they were going to keep the baby and planned to be married in the future. The baby, a boy named Tripp, was born in December, and, thankfully, is said to be a healthy child.
Those are the facts. The reaction from anonymous online newspaper readers, including startribune.com and others throughout the country, and in thousands of public comments everywhere on the internet, has been loathsome. These comments demand that I seek a word that will convey "toxic" in stronger terms to communicate my outrage, disappointment, and disillusionment. How about "pernicious," or perhaps "septic," or better yet "venomous."
I am truly aghast to see how we have dishonored ourselves as a society when it comes to the public discourse between people of contradictory opinions on politics and public issues. I've never cautioned anybody about holding anything back in his or her communication with a person actually engaged in the public arena. After all, when you put yourself out there, you knowingly wear a huge sign labeling yourself as a target for public abuse. It comes with the territory and I've always thought of it as one of the strengths of our democracy. If people like me feel our opinions are so god-awfully important that we're willing to force them on the general public by publishing and circulating them, then we have no right to expect a social barrier that would silence opposing opinion.
Almost 50 years ago, I started in broadcasting by voicing sports opinions that were not widely acceptable. The hate mail and phone calls were a bit startling at first, but nothing that violated the law or promised to deliver the physical discomfort they all said I deserved.
However, that's different than the response to this young couple's breakup. These are two high school teenagers who, like countless others, found themselves with one of the partners pregnant. In addition, they are among the thousands who would say they wanted to marry, but later found out that marriage wasn't a good idea for a wide range of reasons. These teenagers don't deserve the thrashing they are getting from a public abusing the shelter of anonymity. Labeling them as everything from "white trailer trash" to "twit," "dirtbag" and a seemingly endless barrage of other invectives is mean, uncalled for, underserved and unprincipled.
Our nation's founders embraced the idea of the Town Hall for the exchange of ideas and opinions, an opportunity to openly debate opposing positions on public issues. Shamefully, this sad episode suggests that we have allowed it to become an open forum of personal attacks where name-calling has replaced disagreement. These two teenagers, and their offspring, are not in the political arena and their public hanging is contemptible.