The King and I

 

The King and I

The Diplomat is back. Season three has been released by Netflix and I feel confident in once again recommending this outstanding on-going drama…one of the best I have seen in a long while.

The political intrigue and duplicity that is so much a part of this show comes to us in the middle of a real-life shutdown of the US government, armed troops in the streets of American cities, the prosecution of perceived enemies of the state, and the destruction of the White House at the whim of a single individual who says he is not a King, but… I dunno, what would he do so different if he were… demand reimbursement in the hundreds of millions for legal action taken against him when he was a civilian, take in even more … maybe billions worth of gifts creating a situation where an apology is due President Warren Harding and Edward L. Doheny for making such a fuss about the Teapot Dome scandal, issue pardons to the guilty in exchange for their fealty? Oops. Trump has done all that. And more.

Wondering why I have not seen more of what else is on television and the streaming channels? There is, of course… in my particular case… the depressive aspects of being a USC football fan, but as I mature, that malaise rarely goes beyond a weekend. There, too, is the inordinate amount of time to get my office back in working order from the water damage that occurred during my recent trek to the Berkshires, but… in reality… the fact is that it is simply very hard to break away from the news of the day for any work of fiction.

Gilmore Girls supplied an easy, relaxing escape from all that is currently going on, but I have now seen all 153 episodes (HULU and Netflix) and though I continually and wholeheartedly recommend this outstanding series to you all… I have been there and done that.

Difficult though it can be, let me strongly urge a lesson in citizenship, if not important television. Watch the news. Ideally a bit of Fox, a bit of MSNBC and maybe something in between like network news coverage… any network. Try to keep informed. Write a congressman, try to communicate your views to those in power, to your friends, your neighbors. These are interesting, if not spectacular, times. I know it can be exhausting, but someday, someone is going to ask you… as they do my generation… where were you when Joseph McCarthy demagogically commanded the attention of a nation? What did you think when President John F. Kennedy, Martin Luther King, and Bobby Kennedy were all assassinated within a few years of each other? What was your reaction to Watergate?

It is our generation’s version of “What did you do in the war, Daddy?”

Think about that. Think about what you might say to your grandchildren, who by then may no longer live in a democracy, when they come to you with such a question.

What did you do? What have you done?

 

Barney Rosenzweig