By: Shauna Kayleen Brock
May 2006
I also live in a world where the U.S. government ordered and then covered up the assignation of a foreign official, where crimes against humanity are ignored in allied countries, and where the White House hands only token victories to the gay rights movement. But, in this world, the President understands the gravity of every decision he makes.
I live in a world, far far away, where Dr. Josiah Bartlet is President.
I know, it’s not the smartest thing to do, to admit that I choose to live in a world of fantasy. But hey, last I heard a plane has crashed on a remote island, a sexy CIA agent has uncovered secrets that put the DaVinci Code to shame, there’s something desperate happening on Wisteria lane, and a woman has even risen to the Presidency. If people can live in those worlds, why can’t I live where I want to live?
Television is this generation’s storyteller. Kids sit down in front of a glowing box and are taught that dragons exist, that there’s a grouch who lives in a trash can, and that dinosaurs can sing. All the while, we’re watching CNN and Fox News in the other room, caring about what the reporters tell us to care about. While we’re letting the TV teach our kids basic skills of math and reading, we’re being taught that going to an Ivy league school is a bad thing, that only liberals do it (where did the president get his business degree?); we’re being told that the war in Iraq is a success (um?); we’re even being told (and believing!) that there’s a war on Christmas because businesses choose to say “Happy Holidays” (make a note that holiday means “holy day” and Christmas comes at the end of December, a holy month for most religions). We’re eating it up, and not bothering to look deeper. So, if the public is being sold those “real” stories, then I’m going to believe that somewhere a world exists where a good man was elected president, and that he has a staff full of smart, devoted people who dare to disagree with him.
It’s only television, I know, but I’d rather lose myself in a world where the Republicans and the Democrats actually sat in the same room to fix social security. What’s even better was that when partisan bickering over who would get credit threatened to end the negations, the President backed out and gave Congress the credit. Yes, he backed out and gave Congress the credit. I’ll take that world because the people there don’t need to worry about their social security checks. I’ll dream about that world because in this one, social security is falling apart and my representatives use it as an election issue rather than a chance to serve constituents.
It’s only television, I know, but I think I could thrive in a world where the press is not a propaganda machine of the administration. I could be proud of a world where the federal government responds to natural disasters rather than passing the buck and laying blame. I dream of a world where the administration truly believes in education for everyone. I know I could stand tall in a world where questioning leaders is considered the responsibility of the American people, not where it is touted as treason. I pray for a world where the administration puts the people above everything else.
I could live there; I wish I could live there. It’s a world that the founding fathers envisioned. I can only hope that since we seem, as a culture, to take our cues from television, that we can learn from the lessons of this soon to be past administration. The West Wing is set to jump off the cliffs into television oblivion, so we must set ourselves on a path forward, toward the ideal of Aaron Sorkin, John Wells, and Josiah Bartlet – and hope, as CJ Cregg once said, that the fall does not kill us.