{"id":4057,"date":"2014-12-28T08:54:53","date_gmt":"2014-12-28T13:54:53","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/intramuralist.com\/?p=4057"},"modified":"2014-12-29T17:51:54","modified_gmt":"2014-12-29T22:51:54","slug":"who-are-we","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/intramuralist.com\/?p=4057","title":{"rendered":"who are we?"},"content":{"rendered":"

A fascinating<\/em> statement…<\/p>\n

With the questionable on-again\/off-again moves by Sony Pictures these past two weeks considering release of a controversial movie after threats from North Korea, Pres. Obama addressed the issue in a year end press conference. He said, “We cannot have a society in which some dictator some place can start imposing censorship here in the United States… that’s not who we are.<\/strong>\u201d <\/em><\/p>\n

When Obama announced this fall that he has the executive authority to alter immigration law, he delivered a prime time address in which he acknowledged that while criminals still need to be deported, deporting millions of others \u201cisn\u2019t realistic.\u201d To defend his controversial move, he added, \u201cIt\u2019s also not who we are<\/strong> as Americans.\u201d <\/em><\/p>\n

Again, after a controversial, questionably substantiated report was released in December by Senate Democrats regarding CIA tactics after 9\/11, Obama publicly responded, “Some of the tactics that were written about in the Senate Intelligence report were brutal and, as I\u2019ve said before, constituted torture, in my mind. And that\u2019s not who we are.<\/strong>\u201d <\/em><\/p>\n

We are always declaring who we are not. It\u2019s also not always Pres. Obama…<\/p>\n

Last week as the annual bowl game season commenced, Brigham Young and the University of Memphis found themselves in a tight, two-overtime contest, with Memphis finally edging out the Cougars 55-48. With the game complete in addition to both teams’ dreams of winning, a brawl broke out on the field. Dozens of players partook in the punching. Said Memphis coach Justin Fuente in the immediate aftermath, “I don’t know what happened at the end… It’s not who we are.<\/strong>\u201d <\/em><\/p>\n

So what is this notion of declaring \u201cit\u2019s not who we are\u201d? Note that the practice is not to actually declare who we are;<\/em> it\u2019s declaring who we are not.<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n

Who, no less, is capable of declaring such? And what\u2019s the reason for the declaration?<\/p>\n

As with many rhetorical one liners, it seems to this semi-humble observer that impression management must be motive #1… \u201cimpression management\u201d… saying or doing things around other people in order to convey a specific impression. Obviously, for example, the head coach of the Memphis football team does not want the watching world to think of his team as a bunch of thugs who beat up on other people… \u201cthat\u2019s not who we are.\u201d True. They are not. But they are a team who got into a significant fight at the end of the game…<\/p>\n

… we are a nation that deports the illegal… we are a nation that has struggled with censorship… we are a nation which had to find a way to respond to 9\/11… we are a nation that has made good decisions and poor decisions… and we are a nation that often disagrees on what those are.<\/p>\n

My point is that the \u201cnot who we are\u201d line is more about controlling the narrative that an actual truthful statement. Allow me to speak for myself. I\u2019ve made my share of foolish mistakes. I\u2019ve said some stupid things, done some stupid things, and put my foot in my mouth on one too many occasions. \u00a0<\/em>It still — unfortunately — happens. \u00a0Is that who I am?<\/p>\n

That\u2019s not the right question. Better put would be, \u201cIs it consistent with who I want to be?\u201d No, not at all. But we are each capable of saying and doing some stupid things. That, truthfully, is who we are.<\/p>\n

Respectfully…<\/p>\n

AR<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

A fascinating statement… With the questionable on-again\/off-again moves by Sony Pictures these past two weeks considering release of a controversial movie after threats from North Korea, Pres. Obama addressed the issue in a year end press conference. He said, “We cannot have a society in which some dictator some place can start imposing censorship here … <\/p>\n

Continue reading “who are we?”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4,10],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-4057","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-current-event","category-daily-life"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/intramuralist.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4057","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/intramuralist.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/intramuralist.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/intramuralist.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/intramuralist.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=4057"}],"version-history":[{"count":10,"href":"https:\/\/intramuralist.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4057\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4071,"href":"https:\/\/intramuralist.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4057\/revisions\/4071"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/intramuralist.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=4057"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/intramuralist.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=4057"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/intramuralist.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=4057"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}