Last night the 2018 Frontline production The Facebook Dilemma was rebroadcast on our local PBS station. Why play a rerun? Why now?

The documentary outlines the history of Facebook and interviews several of the people associated with its early development and rise to global prominence. Like most Silicon Valley startups, its full of youth and energy, and a focus on popularizing the product. While getting a great buzz on the internet as more and more people signed on to use the product, real riches lay in taking the company public. And to do that you had to demonstrate how the platform could be monetized. That monetizing came in the form of collecting personal information, profiling, and aggregating potential target groups to whom to sell, and then coordinating with marketing companies to provide personalized advertising within Facebook.

Our culture’s quick slide downhill has hit an oil slick on its downward trajectory, and man, is it speeding to the absolute bottom. The popular streaming service Netflix has announced a new movie called “Cuties,” coming out in early September featuring 11-year-old girls involved in a “twerking” competition.

I have regular conversations with people who wish me luck or good fortune, or tell me that their fingers are crossed for a positive result. I often reply something along the lines of, “My blessings come from G-d – luck is not part of my faith.” Which tends to set people back on their heels a bit. After all, “Good luck” is just a phrase, right? Right?

Or is it?

It’s an odd thing to see your city on the news night after night. I suppose those living in New York City, Washington DC, or Los Angeles hardly bat an eye at the attention, but for Minneapolis it’s been surreal. Those of us in the Twin Cities have a sort of little-brother complex – always chasing the coattails of other, bigger cities, like Chicago or New York, trying to elbow our way into relevancy. Now in the summer of 2020, we have our moment. And it’s not at all what it’s cracked up to be.

The initial riots and violence in the aftermath of George Floyd’s death engulfed the city like a blowtorch. But there is still a city here, with people struggling to survive, to pick up the pieces of their neighborhoods, to find hope in the ashes of their reality. There is a fight to save a city – once at the threshold of vibrancy and decency and opportunity – now at the edge of the morass.

Once the fires in the streets receded to smoldering embers, the national news outlets chased the rioters to the next blazing city. But when they left, other groups were quick to take advantage of our wounded city. Citizens were angry. Angry at leaders who utterly failed at everything except casting blame at each other, and of course, Trump. Angry at suffering economic ruin after months of state-mandated shutdowns, immediately followed by unopposed, violent rioters and looters. Angry at civic institutions that failed to protect lives and property. All the anger provided the perfect opportunity for groups marching under the flag of justice to step in and promised solutions – and radical change.

My wife is currently struggling with implementing the complex re-opening guidelines for the parochial school where she has worked for many years: class scheduling where half the students will be present every other day, geometric plans for use of outdoor play areas, logistical planning so that siblings and carpool parties are scheduled for the same alternating days, spreadsheets of schedules, novel tasks, duties, and spatial arrangements. She is also the sole computer tech support resource that got everybody up and running remotely when the Great Lockdown began months ago. And she teaches.

The worst part of her current situation is the near-certainty that some kids will test COVID-positive probably before the end of September and there will then be another shutdown and all of this extensive prep work will be for nothing. The first case will almost certainly generate panic at the grassroots and kneejerk action at the top layers of the system and in government.

Why does Colorado have color coded ballots? I guess it is because color coding is way quicker than that little R or D under the bar code to know what party the ballot represents.

Our fellow American citizens have not been on their best behavior recently. Those who look for the positive side of human nature have certainly been struggling this year. People seem mean. The rioters in cities across the country seem intent on destroying just for the sake of destruction. I get dirty looks in the grocery store if my obediently worn mask does not adequately cover my nose. Those who disagree on anything are often unwilling even to speak to one another, viewing everyone else as evil rather than simply holding a different perspective. If I were to attempt to convince you of the beauty of human nature right now, I would surely fail. But let me try.

In my line of work, I often work with patients who are dying. When I tell someone that I have found a disease that I can’t fix, and that their time here on earth is limited, you would think that they would immediately regress into bitter selfishness: “All those people get to go out partying tonight, without a care in the world. While I have chemo in the morning, and I will feel horrible, until I die. This is not fair.

I don’t think that any of us would begrudge a terminally ill person a few thoughts like this, from time to time. That would make sense. And I do see that response in some unfortunate individuals. Sometimes. But not usually. Usually, I see something different. Something unexpected.

From: The Mainstream Media and the Democratic National Committee
To: Useful Idiots Everywhere
Subject: Today’s Scheduled Hysteria

Dear Useful Idiots,

You may recall that, back on May 30, lawyers Urooj Rahman and Colinford Mattis were arrested for allegedly tossing a Molotov cocktail into a police car during a “peaceful” protest in New York City. According to police, the two were picked up as they drove away from the scene. Evidence of the crime includes a photo of Rahman with cocktail in hand and face partially covered with a Palestinian keffiyeh.

According to a report from IPT (the Investigative Project on Terrorism), “Islamist, Arab American and Palestinian organizations” along with civil rights groups are defending the pair with claims that the charges against them are “motivated by racism and ‘structural Islamophobia.’”

The two lawyers’ defenders include: The Center for Constitutional Rights, The Justice for Muslims Collective, Linda Sarsour’s MPower Change (MPC), the Palestinian Youth Movement (PYM), Islamic Circle of North America Council for Social Justice (ICNA-CSJ), Arab Resource and Organizing Center (AROC), and lawyers calling themselves the “Fordham Law Community,” and the “NYU Law Community.”