Media at Work

You read, listen to, and watch the media. I’m sure not 30 seconds go by without you saying to yourself, “Boy, this is thoughtful and deep. How did these people get to be so smart?”

Here’s one of our secrets: smart publicists who anticipate our every need and who know our audiences inside out. This morning’s case in point: an email from an agency that will remain unnamed–though lord knows they ought to get all the plaudits they’re due.

Here’s how the email starts out:

EENY MEENY MINY MO: The latest Associated Press poll finds one in seven voters – or 14 percent – are still undecided or could be persuaded to change their minds.

On the eve of the election, our expert guests are available to take one last look into the issues in and surrounding this historic election:

1. Don’t Let Subconscious Prejudices Sway Your Vote At The Last Moment: What if you can’t bring yourself to vote for a black man or a white woman? Are your suddenly prejudice? Cultural Diversity Expert and Consultant for Harvard Business School, Martha Fields, shares how people can process their feelings of emerging racism, sexism or ageism that may have been triggered by this election so you can vote for who you feel is best, regardless of race, sex or age.

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Guest Observation: St. Matthew

Chapter 25

31 ¶ When the Son of man shall come in his glory, and all the holy angels with him, then shall he sit upon the throne of his glory:

32 and before him shall be gathered all nations: and he shall separate them one from another, as a shepherd divideth his sheep from the goats:

33 and he shall set the sheep on his right hand, but the goats on the left.

34 Then shall the King say unto them on his right hand, Come, ye blessed of my Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world:

35 for I was ahungered, and ye gave me meat: I was thirsty, and ye gave me drink: I was a stranger, and ye took me in:

36 naked, and ye clothed me: I was sick, and ye visited me: I was in prison, and ye came unto me.

37 Then shall the righteous answer him, saying, Lord, when saw we thee ahungered, and fed thee? or thirsty, and gave thee drink?

38 When saw we thee a stranger, and took thee in? or naked, and clothed thee?

39 Or when saw we thee sick, or in prison, and came unto thee?

40 And the King shall answer and say unto them, Verily I say unto you, Inasmuch as ye have done it unto one of the least of these my brethren, ye have done it unto me.

About This Election I Keep Hearing About

On my mind, as on all of our minds hereabouts to a greater or lesser degree, is this election we’re having the day after tomorrow. I could talk about poll numbers. Or about the masses of people already going to cast their ballots. Or about the Republican smear that popped up during the Sunday night football game. (OK–I’ll give in to that tempration. It was a spot that featured Obama’s image and the slogan “Hate he could believe in” superimposed on a clip of his former pastor, the Reverend Wright, inveighing in his mild way against racism. The ad takes Obama to task for not condemning Wright earlier than he did and concludes: “Barack Obama: Too Radical. Too Risky. “if nothing else, the ad just shows that it’s never too late to go out with a little class.)

Just now, I happened to see a bunch of pictures of kids at a school in Oakland. Kids doing stuff in the classroom. Kids having fun on Halloween. Kids jumping rope. All in all, a pretty happy-looking bunch–sheltered, at least in the pictured moments, from any concerns their families might be having about jobs or money, about crummy housing or living in the toughest neighborhood in town, about health care or immigration status, about what next week or next year might hold.

What you might see in these faces is just children being themselves. No calculation, no guile, no meanness–maybe they were all on their best behavior. They’re just there in the fun of the moment. But moments like that don’t last long enough, and looking at the faces you see something else, too. It’s tempting to call them our heirs, our future, the people who before long will going out to vote in their own elections. The truth is, I’m not sure what I see when I look at these kids, beyond this: Each and every one of them is worth whatever chance we can give them to become the people, the citizens, we would all like to be.

That’s what my vote comes down to.

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