Mon, 26 Nov
Norman Solomon
A SWEET MESSAGE FOR AMERICANS -- "WE ARE FAMILY"
By Norman Solomon / Creators Syndicate
On the magazine cover, the big headline next to Oprah's shoulder
is as warm and cuddly as the pair of cocker spaniels in her lap. "WE ARE
FAMILY," it says. "Now more than ever: the power and pleasure of feeling
connected."
Inside this new issue of O -- "The Oprah Magazine" -- the
editorial director's lead-off article offers a profound explanation. "Our
vision of family has been expanded," writes Oprah Winfrey. "From the ashes
of the World Trade Center, the Pentagon, and that field in Pennsylvania
arose a new spirit of unity. We realize that we are all part of the family
of America."
It's an appealing concept, especially during these uncertain
times. Ever since Sept. 11, countless media outlets have provided similar
themes. The December issue of O deftly hits the now-familiar high notes.
Three-quarters of the way through the thick, glossy, ad-filled magazine,
"We Are Family" reappears in large type, under an American flag and over
another message from Oprah. "America is a vast and complicated family," she
declares, "but -- as the smoke clears and the dust settles -- a family
nonetheless."
Such sentiments are lovely. But what do they really mean? They're
certainly not meant to be taken literally. Oprah isn't inviting you or me
over to her place for the holidays, and we wouldn't even think of asking
her to add us to her family's topnotch medical coverage.
Likewise, no amount of uplifting rhetoric about the national
family can cut much ice when it comes to the cold hard realities of
dividing up the national pie. Within a family, it would be unusual for some
at the dining room table to feast on one sumptuous meal after another while
others can't put enough food on a plate to meet their minimal caloric
needs. It would be odd if some family members got top-of-the-line health
care while others got none.
If the United States is one big family, then it's a remarkably
cruel one, with extremes of privilege and deprivation. The recent book
"Economic Apartheid in America," by Chuck Collins and Felice Yeskel,
presents sobering statistics. For instance: "In the last 20 years, the
overall wealth pie has grown, but virtually all the new growth in wealth
has gone to the richest 1 percent of the population." In the United States,
"the top 1 percent of households now has more wealth than the entire bottom
95 percent."
"We are family"?
The latest O has some macabre twists. Turn the page after reading
Oprah's little "We Are Family" essay, and a headline appears above a large
photo of the first female secretary of state: "Making Sense of the
Unimaginable. Oprah talks to Madeleine Albright."
When Albright was running the State Department, she worked avidly
in support of numerous regimes -- such as Egypt, Saudi Arabia, Israel,
Turkey and Indonesia -- routinely guilty of horrendous human rights abuses.
But in the current edition of O, when she discusses Sept. 11, Albright
depicts the U.S. government as a heroic defender of decency.
Winfrey: "Is there any way to make sense of this calamity?"
Albright: "The only way to make sense of why this happened is that
we are a country that stands up for freedom, democracy and human rights."
But the magazine's next spread includes a few paragraphs from
novelist Isabel Allende, who recalls the calamity that befell her native
land: "I lived in Chile, a country that had one of the oldest democracies
in Latin America. We never thought that anything like a military coup could
happen to us -- those only happened in banana republics! Until one day it
did happen -- and the brutality lasted for 17 years. The eerie coincidence
is that it happened on Tuesday, Sept. 11, 1973. This was a military coup
orchestrated by the CIA -- a terrorist attack against democracy."
Speaking as someone who has made her home in the United States for
the last 14 years, Allende adds: "We are a society that expects to be happy
and entertained all the time. We are also a spoiled society that hasn't had
war in its territory in more than a century. But we contribute to war in
other countries all the time. We invaded Grenada and support the worst
dictatorships all over the world. And it is we who helped create the Taliban."
Spinning the USA as a big family is not only deceptive. It also
reinforces the notion that Americans are in a superlative class by
themselves, distinct from the rest of humanity. In contrast, Allende evokes
a global vision: "More than 800 million people in the world are hungry. The
distribution of wealth is completely unfair and helps to create conditions
for hatred and violence. This can't continue forever without paying the
consequences."
Touting our country as a family can produce fog that obscures
actual national priorities and vast economic inequities. To float off on a
comforting media cloud, all we need to do is ignore the real world.
____________________________________________________
Norman Solomon's weekly syndicated column -- archived at
www.fair.org/media-beat/ -- focuses on media and politics. His latest book
is "The Habits of Highly Deceptive Media."
____________________________________________________
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