We tried to stay up for the Speech last night. It was billed as being something historic, and the general sense in our wizened crowd was that it was something to which we had a civic duty to monitor. Due to the importance attached to the President’s remarks, we did not bother to identify what exactly was “prime time” for when it would appear, nor the cable outlet. We assumed it would be something like eight o’clock and on everything, so we didn’t bother to look it up.

You can understand a little confusion at Refuge Farm. We are in the season of adjustment from what we recall as “Summer,” in this holiday transition from warmth to the hint of chill that will usher us into other holidays and increasing darkness. Some of us had determined to ignore the panoply and rose from their rocks at the Fire Pit, climbed the stairs to the Bunk House and others waited to see how things would unfold. There was nothing evident, and the rest of us gave up, thinking we would catch the re-runs in the morning for matters of significance.

The President was supposed to be speaking from historic Independence Hall up in Philadelphia, but it apparently was only covered live on two cable outlets. We could be wrong on that, of course, since the first thing you hear on what used to be The News is wrong. Of course, that observation is incorrect since it is accurate. The outlets chosen to disseminate the President’s remarks were CNN and MSNBC. We have described how CNN was part of the transformation of information flow long ago, and actually embedded correspondents in Baghdad to report on events far away with a modicum of accuracy unavailable elsewhere.

The recent turmoil at that network has been entertaining. It is apparently attempting to transform itself into something more traditional has been noted. While confined in hospital care, the room-mate in cubical 21A had announced he was a GOP voter and preferred MSNBC on the monitor located on the wall in the space between the two single beds. I did not dispute his choice, being interested in the information bubble that emanates from an outlet none of us monitor with regularity. We tend to have Fox as a backdrop, not that we trust the content, but only because they cover a smidgeon of the material broadcast by the others before launching into their own polemic.

From what we can gather this morning, the historic venue was bathed in an eerie sort of crimson light. It was an odd sort of coloration, since that color is associated with those who oppose the Administration. “Bathed in Blue” might not have worked out with the polling group whose reaction was incorporated into the preparation for the presentation. Being military veterans, for the most part, we reacted to the two US Marines in full dress uniforms who were staged over the President’s shoulders. Of course, when we wore the uniform we were prohibited from using it as a symbolic political prop, but take that as a neutral observation not covered by Article 88 provisions of the UCMJ.

Apparently there was a theme to the spoken part of the address, but it is still early enough that we have not had time to find the text for detailed review. From the commentary available this morning, it focused on a place called “America,” and is filled with millions of citizens who wish to return it to some of sort of previous status of unity and peace. Those of us that served swore an oath supporting that general proposition, although there obviously is some mild disagreement on the nuts and bolts of the matter for implementation.

We will have to wait for the talking heads to sort it out for us. We took our own poll right at the Fire Ring, so the authenticity is unquestioned. We have decided that both of the major political parties no longer reflect or advocate much that reflects the reality we have experienced with more than a century of active service. We are most comfortable calling ourselves “independents,” provided we go back and ensure the first letter “lower case,” since upper case implies a certain central leadership. Or armed people stage-lit in uniform with vibrant colors.

We will see how the information streams play this out. We are comfortable with “independence” as an identification, and there are still a couple months for the message stream to sort itself out. Oh, but of course we are going to vote. There were no bright lights or troops in the Civics classes we took a long time ago, but we will do the best we can.

Copyright 2022 Vic Socotra
www.vicsocotra.com