Before returning to the pallet on which democracy lies, breathing very shallowly, let's take a midday break and check in with some uplifting stuff that's somehow blossomed into relatively full view amid our presently desiccated political prairie.

First, and you've probably seen this already, but Beto O'Rourke, currently running against the remarkably friendless Tailgunner Ted Cruz for one of Texas's U.S. Senate seats, got asked about NFL players who take a knee or otherwise demonstrate against police violence during the pre-game playing of the national anthem. The question was posed in a barbed, but not hostile manner, and this is the way you answer one of those.

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Straight, no chaser. No hemming and hawing. A perfect defense of the right of every American to protest. This is how a real patriot talks.

My short answer is no. I don't think it's disrespectful.

And then an easily understood, and difficult to refute, history of the various forms of American heroism. I'm not sure if Beto can eliminate the Tailgunner from public life, but I have a feeling that he at least can make it close enough to put some Texas congressional seats in play. And, anyway, who cares? This is how a real patriot talks.



One of my favorite writer/reporters in all the world was Mike Brick, who wrote in a number of places, most notably in The New York Times, and was one of those talented old souls who believed in this fickle craft for all the right reasons. Two years ago, Mike died of a fast-moving cancer. (A number of us got together and put out

No one goes into journalism for money, the people who do these jobs do them because they are called to them; they feel a duty to tell stories or expose wrongdoing. The truth is that journalism is a brutal profession with constant layoffs, stagnant wages and long hours, yet somehow, in your mind, this is elitism. What am I to say to my children, who are still struggling with their grief, when they hear you demean journalists like their dad? You are sullying their father’s name and the names of his best friends and many colleagues. You are belittling a profession that has been respected and protected since the time of our country’s founding. Your words aren’t those of a person who knows how to lead and who has nothing to hide; they are the words of authoritarian leaders and tyrants — the words of a small man hiding behind a big desk who has no idea how to do his job.

That is what I must say to my children.

I don't know about y'all, but I needed both of these things a great deal this week.

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Charles P. Pierce Charles P Pierce is the author of four books, most recently Idiot America, and has been a working journalist since 1976.

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