Just when you thought we could not stoop lower, think again. The vitriol and cruelty coming from comments on the attack on Speaker of the House’s husband, Paul Pelosi, are beyond the pale. What have we come to as a country? What happened to empathy, compassion, caring, kindness, and just, in general, overall good will? 

The horror and shocking actions of a perpetrator entering a home by crashing into a glass door with a hammer, slinging a hammer at an 82-year-old’s head, while armed with zip ties, and ranting, “Where’s Nancy” and later telling San Francisco police, “he wanted to break her kneecaps if she lied to him,” is bad enough. But the ensuing comments and jokes that followed are cruel, heartless, and patently immoral. 

Some Republican members of congress, including McConnell and McCarthy, condemned the violence. But it did not take long for other opponents of Nancy Pelosi to begin making cruel comments and completely inappropriate jokes at Pelosi and her husband’s expense. 

Here are just a few examples. Virginia governor, Glenn Youngkin, said this. “I want to stop for a minute…there’s no room for violence anywhere, but we’re going to send her (Nancy Pelosi) back to be with him (Paul Pelosi) in California. That’s what we’re gonna go do. That’s what we’re gonna do.” Donald Trump Jr. retweeted a photo on Sunday of a piece of underwear and a hammer that was captioned. “Got my Paul Pelosi Halloween costume ready.”  Kerri Lake, Republican candidate for governor of Arizona, drew laughter at a campaign event in Scottsdale, Arizona, when she said, “Nancy Pelosi, well she’s got protection when she’s in DC.  Apparently, her house doesn’t have a lot of protection.”  Georgia congresswoman Marjorie Taylor Greene claimed that nothing would have happened to Pelosi if he carried a gun with him. And during a debate, Republican Ohio senate candidate J. D. Vance blamed Democratic immigration policies since he claimed that the perpetrator was an illegal immigrant. Apparently, the perpetrator entered the country 20 years ago from British Columbia. 

And then, of course, the conspiracy theories began. One promoted by many of the far-right persuasion was that the attacker and Paul Pelosi were gay lovers who had gotten into a fight. Elon Musk did nothing to squelch the ridiculous conspiracy theories but instead posted, “there is a tiny possibility there might be more to this story than meets the eye.”  Fox News commentators also insinuated that this was a lover’s spat. Donald Trump Jr., later claimed that the intruder was breaking out—not breaking in. Trump himself repeated that claim on a radio show. (For the record, Capitol Police camera footage released this week shows the perpetrator entering the house from the outside by smashing glass doors with a hammer.)

Seriously? Is this who we are now? It is beyond disgusting. It is pathetic that people joke about a horrible assault and spin all kinds of bizarre false narratives and then post and repost. 

 I am aware that there was hatred and contempt in America before Trump became president. But I am also aware that Trump legitimized mocking disabled people, criticizing women’s looks, giving competitors’ cruel nicknames, condoning violence, spinning outrageous false claims, and eventually making all these vicious attacks become business as usual. 

It is a sad, disappointing, and embarrassing commentary on our society today. Let’s just say this. It is never OK to encourage violence, invent and perpetrate outrageous lies, mock those who are less fortunate, and celebrate an opponent’s adversity. It just isn’t. 

Maya Angelou said, “I’ve learned that people will forget what you said, people will forget what you did, but people will never forget how you made them feel.” When we celebrate others’ misfortunes and mock their struggles, we diminish ourselves and our society. Please let’s just stop spewing negative and cruel comments at someone’ else’s expense. And please let us not support, elevate, and celebrate those who do. 

Maria Grant was principal-in-charge of a federal human capital practice at an international consulting firm. While on the Eastern Shore, she focuses on writing, reading, piano, gardening, and nature.

During this election season, the most frequent attack you hear from Republican candidates is that Democrats are soft on crime. Elect Republicans, they say, and rid the country of crime. Think again. Let’s review the facts.

A study released from Third Way found that per capita murder rates in 2020 were 40 percent higher in states that voted for Donald Trump than in those that voted for Biden. The study also found that eight of the 10 states with the highest per capita murder rates in 2020 voted Republican in every presidential election in the century. 

Next, Republicans repeatedly have opposed gun control, allowing people who should never have access to weapons to acquire them. Soon after he became president, Trump rolled back an Obama-era regulation and made it easier for people with mental illnesses to purchase guns. Several Republican candidates running for office propose ways to weaken gun laws if they get elected. Florida Senator Marco Rubio voted against the bipartisan Safer Communities Act which was the first new legislation on gun policy to pass Congress in roughly three decades. And most Republicans are against raising the legal age to purchase guns to age 21. Many of the recent horrific shootings have been done by males under the age of 21. (Remember Texas Senator Ted Cruz’s solution for reducing school shootings—lock all but one door and post guards at schools.)

In addition to an uptick in gun-related crime, hate speech has become mainstream, courtesy of Trump and many of his hand-picked Republican candidates. It is not their country, it is your country, they say. Rants against Jews, immigrants, and minorities in general, encourage violence and motivate others to assume that such acts are justified. Multiple studies have indicated that crime is much more rampant from right-wing extremist groups—Proud Boys, Oath Keepers, and others–than from left-wing extremist groups such as Antifa. Data shows that right wing groups are more dangerous and much more active. 

Finally, let us not forget that many of these so-called “law and order” candidates encouraged the attack on the Capitol on January 6. Some marched with them. Some helped organize the insurrection. And then there was Missouri Senator Josh Hawley’s famous fist-pump to the perpetrators who killed police, chanted “hang Mike Pence,” wore swastikas, smashed windows, and desecrated the Capitol. On many occasions, Trump has called these perpetrators patriots, and he has promised to pardon them should he get re-elected. Tough on crime, you say?

Democrats are not soft on crime. In the coming days until the mid-term elections, Democrats must do a much better job of changing the narrative and communicating their positions to voters. Some Democratic candidates, like Florida senate candidate Val Demings, are starting to discuss solutions to reduce crimes such as community funding intervention initiatives rather than simply echoing their Republican opponents’ claims that they will be tough on crime. Democrats must continue to do so. It will be a crime if they do not. 

Maria Grant was principal-in-charge of a federal human capital practice at an international consulting firm. While on the Eastern Shore, she focuses on writing, reading, piano, gardening, and nature.

The other night, as a bit of a lark, I started to watch this relatively new series on Netflix called Partner Track. It is about a group of associates who are trying to make partner at a high-powered New York City law firm. They constantly struggle to make themselves look good and their fellow associates look bad in front of senior partners and potential clients. 

In the first episode, associates spend time predicting what phrases will be used in a meeting about a potential merger and acquisition. They guess phrases like boil the ocean, that’s real money, golden ticket, kick the tires, circle the wagons, slippery slope, and align the incentives. It turns out they are right. Within minutes after the meeting has begun, the jargon spews forth. 

The scene cracked me up. When I was in consulting, I found lingo used in business meetings hilarious. I started recording common phrases and then got sophisticated enough to divide phrases into groupings. There were the sports metaphors, like full court press, taking it over the finish line, there is no “I” in team, the ball’s in your court, Hail Mary pass, down for the count. And whenever we were bidding on a long-shot proposal, you could bet someone would pipe up with “any Given Sunday” you never know what will happen. 

Then there were the money metaphors, like cash cow, printing money, pouring money down the drain, money talks, time is money, rainmaker, and giving my two cents.

Next came the old sage metaphors like it’s not over til the fat lady sings, don’t reinvent the wheel, you’ve got to break eggs to make an omelet, the proof of the pudding is in the eating, it’s not in my wheelhouse, at the drop of a hat, don’t let the cat out of the bag, you missed the boat, leave no stone unturned, and cut to the chase.

Consultants would tell me phrases their parents used when they were growing up. They gave examples like I brought you into this world, I can take you out, tell someone who cares, two peas in a pod, the world is your oyster, you’re barking up the wrong tree, you’re making a mountain out of a molehill, she’s a diamond in the rough, life isn’t a bed of roses, and, of course, money doesn’t grow on trees. 

Often when we had meetings, just to get things going, we would see how many phrases we could use in the first five minutes. Then we would make up our own bad sage sayings. My favorite was “assign blame whenever possible” which, of course, is the worst thing you can do. 

There is something about these sayings, I find fascinating. Often, they speak of an era. Parents who grew up during the depression used sayings about tough times—A penny saved is a penny earned, don’t cry over spilt milk, a stitch in time saves nine. FDR said, “It is the American people themselves who are in the driver’s seat.” He called people who were in denial about the horrors of war “cheerful idiots.” And he frequently used the phrase “separating the wheat from the chaff.” 

Many popular sayings come from Benjamin Franklin’s Poor Richard’s Almanack. They include haste makes waste, lost time is never found again, no gains without pains, we must indeed all hang together or most assuredly, we shall all hang separately, well done is better than well said, and guests like fish begin to smell after three days.

My mom’s favorite saying was, if you don’t have anything nice to say, don’t say anything at all. I was thinking about that saying as I watched the news coverage about the passing of Queen Elizabeth II. Say what you want about the woman, there was no question that she ruled with a quiet grace and dignity that is all too rare in today’s rude crude world. It is difficult not to juxtapose her countenance with Trump’s mean-spirited comments about others. I am sad and embarrassed as I reflect on the fact that America elected a president who clearly put no stock in grace, class, kindness, or compassion. The word decorum was not in his lexicon. Such virtues were not a priority for us as a nation when we elected him to be our president, and the world was watching.

In closing, when I reflect on where we are as a country, perhaps the most appropriate saying is, you reap what you sow. Let us hope that one of my favorite authors, George Eliot, was right when she said, “It’s never too late to be what you might have been.”   

Maria Grant was principal-in-charge of a federal human capital practice at an international consulting firm. While on the Eastern Shore, she focuses on writing, reading, piano, gardening, and nature.

I have become weary of the unending hyperbole. Every ad. Every Instagram posting—it is the finest, the most exquisite, unique—one of a kind (hello, it means the same thing). Sometimes I read seven adjectives before I get to the noun it modifies—venerable, historic, breathtaking, refined, decadent, esteemed, noteworthy, rarified, bold yet understated. What? I long for the unadulterated concise sentence. Where is it?

The irony, of course, with all this extreme adulation about ice cream, dinner, jewelry, wine, automobiles, or cellphones is that the noun in question often disappoints. Truth be told, it would be hard for most anything to live up to such embellishments. 

Many products we consume in today’s marketplace are of lesser quality than they were in bygone days. But you would never know it to hear the accolades on radio, TV, websites, and Instagram. 

Harvard Business Review published an article sometime back about the eight dimensions of quality:  performance, features, reliability, conformance, durability, serviceability, aesthetics, and perceived quality. For example, Japanese vehicles focus more on reliability and conformance and less on options and aesthetics. The premise of the article is that because it is difficult for a product to be ranked superior in every attribute, it is smart to focus on one or two attributes, while keeping the others in mind. 

The issue of quality is interesting. Some mansions, automobiles, spirits, and purses sell for ridiculously expensive prices. When you read Friday’s Mansion section of the Wall Street Journal, you see stunning estates for $300 million, $240 million, $125 million. (Bill Gates’ house called Xanadu 2.0 is 66,000 square feet, is worth $127 million, and has an annual property tax bill of approximately $1,154 million. It has been reported that Melinda Gates never really liked the mansion that once caused her to have a “mini sort of personal crisis.”) A McLaren Speedtail, an exotic sports car, sold for $3 million at auction. A bottle of Macallan M Scotch sold in a Hong Kong-based auction for $628,205. Melania Trump’s Hermes Birkin purse was valued somewhere between $75,000 and $100,000. Louis Vuitton sells a skateboard for $8,250.

A while back I authored an article about the importance of quality versus quantity. I believe that to be true. But there is a dramatic difference between working hard and striving to own wonderful things that you care for and treasure for a lifetime and ostentatious consumption. This difference becomes even more disturbing when you consider the tremendous income inequality in this country. At the end of 2021, the top one percent in the U.S. owned. 32.3 percent of the nation’s wealth, one of the reasons you see such outrageous spending on items with astounding price tags. 

My point is not only that it is mind boggling that someone would pay $100,000 for a purse. But that most ultra-expensive purchases are not worth their exorbitant price tags. Surely, a Birkin bag is well made. But is it worth 85 percent more than another handbag that is handcrafted from the finest Italian leather and costs $1.000? There comes a point of diminishing returns. A survey from the American Affluence Research Center found that the affluent believe most luxury brands are “overrated.”  

Several surveys have been conducted where avid scotch drinkers taste test scotches ranging from modest prices to bottles worth several hundred dollars. Tasters could differentiate from the lower-cost scotches but had trouble discerning the expensive versus the ultra-expensive ones. Distinctions were small. The same goes for expensive wines. We all love a great crisp chilled white wine but how much more enjoyable is that $800 bottle? 

All this excess makes one long for the short honest descriptions for which Hemingway was famous. 

Here is a quote from Hemingway’s A Moveable Feast: “Sometimes when I was starting a new story and I could not get it going, … I would stand and look out over the roofs of Paris and think, do not worry. You have always written before, and you will write now. All you have to do is write one true sentence. Write the truest sentence that you know. So finally, I would write one true sentence, and then go on from there.”

Let us celebrate the one true sentence—a rarity in this world of overwhelming hyped-up social media. 

Maria Grant was principal-in-charge of a federal human capital practice at an international consulting firm. While on the Eastern Shore, she focuses on writing, reading, piano, gardening, and nature.

 

You may have seen segments on late-night TV where hosts go out on public streets and ask passersby questions like, “What’s the capital of Italy?” Or “In what continent is Australia?” Later, when given the correct answer, the responder says, “Wait, you mean Australia is a continent?” The audience roars with laughter. Is this funny or embarrassing? Our ignorance is mind boggling. How can we have the so-called best education system in the world and yet have so many uninformed people?

And things are getting worse. Now we see people proud of their ignorance openly castigating experts in their fields. The number of anti-vaxers during the height of the pandemic was astounding. After millions of Americans were vaccinated, they still doubted the experts, refused to protect themselves, and put others in danger. 

Early election returns have Sarah Palin ahead for the Alaska congressional seat vacated by Representative Don Young (R) who died earlier this year. This is the case even though she was unable to name a single newspaper that she read when she was ran for vice president on the GOP ticket with John McCain. Her lack of foreign affairs knowledge during the debates was beyond frightening. Enter Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-GA) who speaks of “Peachtree dishes” and “Gazpacho police.”

This is a particularly frightening phenomenon given that public officials, who are supposed to consult experts and determine appropriate laws, are incapable or resistant to making informed thoughtful decisions. 

And then there are those policy makers who have Ivy League educations but refute facts and create alternative realities to explain away truths when the facts present themselves. Ted Cruz (R-TX, Princeton, and Harvard Law) said guns were not the problem in the recent school shootings in Uvalde. Instead, he suggested that shooters can be stopped by locking all but one door and posting guards at schools. Immediately after the January 6 insurrection, fist-pumping Josh Hawley (R-MO, Stanford, and Yale Law) voted not to certify Biden’s election, even after no election fraud was detected. Governor Ron DeSantis (R-FL, Yale, and Harvard Law) stirred up a big brouhaha about critical race theory, all the while knowing that it was not a big issue in Florida schools’ curriculums. So why did these three take such positions knowing that the facts did not substantiate their points of view? To play to their base—saying what they knew their base wanted to hear, taking calculated positions to ensure their reelections. 

Many young people today do not read newspapers or watch any news programs. They get their information from the Internet, social media, Facebook, TikTok and various chat rooms. Many of them do not read substantive books. When they pick up a book, it is some fantasy escape or manga cartoon. 

This social media obsession has created an environment where Americans skim the surface of critical issues, develop uninformed opinions and then mock experts who explain in detail the various permutations of different subjects. (Just remember the hatred the masses had for Dr. Fauci.) We have now reached a point where we are proud of our ignorance and refer to those who have done the “deep dive” on particular subject as “elitists.” 

This is a dangerous situation. America seeks to be entertained rather than informed. The inane premises of some recent TV shows are depressing. A new TV show premiering on ABC is called The Final Straw where apparently four teams of contestants pull items from towers of kitchen appliances and basketballs. The winning team is the one whose tower stands the longest. Seriously? Also, speaking of inane TV, on The Masked Singer, Palin was disguised as a bear and Giuliani was a Jack-in-the-Box.

We live in a world of increasing complexity. We must trust scientists, engineers, doctors, who are experts in their various fields. Do these experts sometimes get it wrong? Absolutely. But, at the end of the day, do they know more than average citizens about the issues at hand? Yes. It is the height of ignorance to celebrate ignorance and mock intellectualism. When you do not believe in climate change, even when presented with indisputable facts (Death Valley, CA reached a record high of 130 degrees.) When you continue to believe the election was stolen, even when recount after recount proves otherwise. When you believe lies scripted by QAnon about secret Satanic child-sex trafficking rings or Marjorie Taylor Greene’s false claims that more votes were cast than there were voters in Pennsylvania. Or that straight people face extinction. Or Paul Gosar’s (R-AZ) claim that the Texas shooter was a “transsexual illegal alien,” let us admit that we have issues.

Yes, some may laugh at the insanity of these comments. But we are heading to a seriously bad place, and the rest of the world is watching.

To quote Dostoevsky in The Brothers Karamazov, “Above all, do not lie to yourself. The man who lies to himself and listens to his own lie comes to a point that he cannot distinguish the truth within him or around him, and so loses all respect for himself and for others. And having no respect, he ceases to love.” 

How close are we to that exact situation today? Please, America take heed. 

Maria Grant was principal-in-charge of a federal human capital practice at an international consulting firm. While on the Eastern Shore, she focuses on writing, reading, piano, gardening, and nature.

 

It has been said that imitation is the sincerest form of flattery. Well, let’s just say that there is a lot of flattery going around these days. Every new shiny thing imitates something that came right before it. I watched this year’s Grammy Awards. Billy Ellish was a huge Grammy winner last year. This year, 19-year-old Olivia Rodrigo has taken the world by storm. And a large segment of her music smacks of Billy Ellish’ style. Justin Bieber dances like Michael Jackson. BTS, a Korean rock group, takes one back to the glory days of n ’Sync. Michael Bublé and Harry Connick Jr. echo shades of Frank Sinatra. 

Shakespeare scholars claim that Shakespeare stole whole plot lines from other authors and wove them into his plays. In his case, he did so so ingeniously that they have lasted for hundreds of years. And how many writers imitate Hemingway’s style? J. D. Salinger, Cormac McCarthy, Raymond Carver come to mind—the list goes on. Some of these writers have authored wonderful novels. Other novels are poor imitations.

Picasso once said, “Good artists copy. Great artists steal.”  And it is easy to recognize similarities among works by Cezanne, Monet, Matisse, Degas, Gauguin, and Picasso. Yet each of them provides a valuable variation on a theme. I attended an art auction last week. And much of the art for sale imitated Andy Warhol’s style and took the “soup can” to the next level—Banksy, Lichtenstein, Penley.

Musicians build on another’s work—Beethoven, then Brahms, then Mahler. None of this is bad per se. I suppose it is an evolutionary process. And many successors deepen and enhance their mentors’ works. Yet somehow, I feel the originator should be given more credit. Let’s face it. The movie Clueless does not come close to capturing the charm and nuance of Jane Austen’s wonderful novel Emma. 

Sometimes we witness the result of too much innovation—the DeLorean, the Corvair, the Edsel—cases in point. Perhaps the manufacturers’ of these cars tried a bit too hard to be innovative with less than stellar results. Yet, with perseverance, innovation is its own reward. The progress with electric cars in the past few years —driven so much by Tesla—is utterly amazing. 

The greatest inventions of all time are said to be the wheel, the automobile, the airplane, the printing press, the light bulb, penicillin, the steam engine, the bicycle, the camera, and the telegram. More recent seminal inventions include X-rays, the internet, the PC, the smart phone, and GPS. 

The French author Andre Gide once said, “Everything has been said before, but since no one listens we have to keep going back and beginning all over again.” 

My issue is that I have become weary of the all-pervasive propensity of “clones.” How many singing, dancing, dating and overall talent reality shows do we really need? Yet another NCIS? Seriously? 

In the grocery store, there are clones of Oreos, Cheez-Its, corn flakes, Pringles. You can select from dozens of healthy breads made by the same company—12 grain, 18 grain, whole wheat, multi-grain oat, thin-sliced, thick sliced, etc. 

This year, you can choose from nine different models of Ford SUVs and more than seven different models of Mercedes SUVs. With so many different models, we lose the benefits of economies of scale and, therefore, prices rise. Wouldn’t it make more sense to say have three different models—small, medium, and large–and focus on making them as high a quality as possible? If that were the case, there would be far fewer recalls. (The total number of car recalls has nearly doubled in the last two decades.)

Have you been to the liquor store lately? The variety of assorted flavors of vodka is crazy—lemon, mint, cucumber, raspberry, grapefruit, and more. Here’s a concept. Why not just squeeze fresh lemon or lime juice into your cocktail? Then you can be sure you are getting the real thing. 

Nora Roberts, the romance novelist, has written more than 220 novels. James Patterson has written more than 200 mystery/thriller novels. He writes an average of 10 books per year. How is that even possible? How much time and thought goes into each one? 

The U.S. has taken consumerism—or conspicuous consumption– to new levels. The success of the economies of some Asian countries lies in their recognition that in the U.S consumers will gladly sacrifice quality for quantity and are eager to buy foreign manufactured products that are of lower quality and at a lower price point. In contrast, many find the simplicity of less developed countries appealing. There is beauty in the loaf of homemade bread, pasta, and wine not served before its time. 

Sometimes less really is more. Going back to basics. Stripping down facades to their bare essence makes sense. I have come to find beauty in the unadorned simple gown, a beautifully honed simple piece of furniture carved to perfection. Samuel Johnson said, “No man is evermore great by imitation.”  Henry David Thoreau said, “Simplify, simplify!”  America, take heart. A focus on quality rather than quantity is a beautiful thing. 

Maria Grant was principal-in-charge of a federal human capital practice at an international consulting firm. While on the Eastern Shore, she focuses on writing, reading, piano, gardening, and nature.