Assault rifles on sale. REUTERS
A bipartisan group of Senators saw all the rallies throughout the country this weekend and finally realized it’s time to take some action on guns in America. Emphasis on “some.”
To paraphrase the Bard, if all the world were a stage — like the Tonys — we’d certainly be better off. Especially if Arianna De Bose emceed everything.
I’ll talk about the necessary diversion that is Broadway in a sec, and the importance of getting our diverse stories—the real narratives of our lives—told through the arts.
But first the important stuff about our real-life democracy hanging on a thread because of false narratives on guns and the presidential election of 2020.
Guns
A bipartisan group of Senators saw all the rallies throughout the country this weekend and finally realized it’s time to take some action on guns in America. Emphasis on “some.” But it’s still just a drop of remedy when we need a bucketful if the point is to stop another Uvalde.
The proposal includes some background checks and mental health provisions, but no universal background checks, and no assault weapons ban, or anything like that to quell America’s taste for a high kill rate.
There’s also no ban on semi-automatic weapons sales to those under 21. You can still go from “Call To Duty” to infamy on the Ten O’Clock News on a whim.
The bipartisan proposal still must pass the full Congress and who knows what legislation might look like once all the NRA-infused pols get in their digs about how semi-automatic weapons defines being American. Or how the proliferation of guns that can kill faster than you can think somehow makes us all feel safer.
We need greater gun protection legislation where society is protected from the misuse of guns. But at this point, we live in a “something is better than nothing” democracy.
And by now we all should be tired of nothing.
Jan. 6 Select Committee Hearings on our Democracy
Which brings us to the other major story of the day that requires your absolute attention–the Jan. 6 hearings which lays out how the twice impeached former president, No. 45, created the “Big Lie” that the 2020 election was rigged or stolen. That would be quite enough, but small lies snowball into mega-lies and create the frenzy that led to the insurrection by MAGA followers to riot on the Capitol Jan. 6th.
This is nothing less than hearings on the future of our democracy. Everyone should be watching.
Twenty million tuned in to the Thursday primetime preview last week, which is about five times the number that tuned into Trump’s “Apprentice,” in its heyday. But there’s 300 million in this country impacted by the “Big Lie.”
Everyone needs to see the former attorney general Bill Barr call Trump’s false claim that the election was stolen, “Bullshit.” Let that be emblazoned in our collective heads.
Here’s the man who was Trump’s chief enabler during his administration. And he is saying in no uncertain terms there was no election fraud. And then there’s Trump’s own daughter, Ivanka, who said she believes in Barr.
This is Trump’s inner circle telling the truth under oath. They know how the rule of law works. But Trump still held on to the idea that the election was rigged and stolen. He continued to push the lie and even fund- raise millions of dollars off the lie.
And as Barr’s testimony continues to remind us it was all based on Trump’s embrace of “bullshit.”
All of it. From Rudy Giuliani’s theory of voter dumping in Michigan, to dead people voting, to bad voter machines. It all amounts to “bullshit.”
The hearings continue this week. Barr’s testimony again came up again on Monday, and really is the most damning thing you’ll hear, that Trump knew all along that there was no fraud, and that he lost the 2020 election.
But it won’t be in primetime. I urge you to watch in real time if you can. Or to watch on C-SPAN later.
If you don’t think it matters just think of Committee Chair Bennie Thompson’s opening statement on Thursday. Thompson, a respected representative from Mississippi, put it on the line at the start:
“I am from a part of the country where people justified the actions of slavery, the Ku Klux Klan and lynching. I’m reminded of that dark history as I hear voices today try and justify the actions of the insurrectionists on January 6th, 2021.”
Thompson and his colleagues are under oath to defend the Constitution, against all enemies: foreign and domestic.
The sad thing the hearings are revealing is that sometimes the enemy may include an outgoing president and his cronies hellbent on ignoring the will of the people.
If you still are lukewarm about the hearings as Asian Americans, just remember Thompson’s statement and remember the stories of our forebears, our mothers and fathers who came to America
Our parents didn’t come from Philippines because of the big lie.
They came to America because the truth means something. It means freedom and opportunity, all of which is represented in our American democracy.
And that’s the killer here for all you die-hard Trumpsters. The hearings show us how low a president was willing to go to debase the truth in our democracy. It is an unforgiveable act.
But the real fear is that without a savvy informed electorate it could all easily happen again.
The Tonys
All that news stuff is the reason why we need Broadway and the storytelling of live theater and its artful diversions. On Broadway purposeful fictions are delivered in song, dance and literature that are often more truthful, and necessary compared to other storytelling means.
This year, the Tonys just had that look and feel of a living diversity. After two years in pandemic mode, Broadway seems to reflect the stories of an America today that is busting at the seams. Black, Latinx, Asian stories. Queer stories. Just in time for Pride month.
After a breathtaking opening number, Ariana DeBose seemed like the perfect universal hostess. An Oscar winner in Spielberg’s “West Side Story,” a triple threat as a dancer, singer, actor, plus an out queer/bisexual/Afro-Latina, DeBose highlighted how Broadway has become a place for stories “that have broadened our world and opened our hearts and our minds.”
“I feel like the phrase ‘Great White Way’ is becoming more of a nickname as opposed to a how to guide,” she said to a long seven second cheer.
She pointed out to a gender-fluid Company, and L. Morgan Lee first openly transgender to be nominated for “A Strange Loop;” Sadly, I admit to not having heard of “A Strange Loop” until this weekend, when a friend of mine mentioned she was a smallish investor.
It’s a musical based on a black queer writer who works as an usher trying to deal with the impositions of others on his blackness from all sources. That includes the white mainstream, as well as the ethno-black crowd. Add to that the writer’s own authentic inner voice casting self-doubt on being a queer black man, and you have a formula for a musical of our times.
As a Cis-gendered American Filipino, who ushered at the big theaters in San Francisco, wondering where I fit in, I could totally relate.
When you have an American politics that is trying to undo the progress of the last 50 years, it’s good to know the voices of Broadway, entertaining and meaningful, are still an important counterpoint in our democracy.
NOTE: I am doing a storytime show on FB on Wednesday at 5:30pm Pacific. Theme is Father’s Day. Go here for invite: https://fb.me/e/2DZsvnzz2
As always, I will talk about this column and other matters on “Emil Amok’s Takeout,” my AAPI micro-talk show TODAY. Live @2p Pacific. Livestream on Facebook; my YouTube channel; and Twitter. Catch the recordings on www.amok.com.
