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                             Stuck In Traffic
            "Current Events, Cultural Phenomena, True Stories"
                         Issue #29 - October 1998
ÿ                         
                 Contents:
     
                 Deceit and Denial: 
                 Why President Clinton's scandal isn't 
                 about sex and why it's too late to save 
                 his reputation.  

                 Alan Chello-Jaxon:
                 A tribute to the passing of a great story 
                 teller.  

                 Review: "Amphibian" by The Changelings: 
                 The latest success from a band that's 
                 taken gothic music where it's never gone 
                 before.  

                 Frank Sinatra's Last Letter to Nancy:
                 Advice from Frank Sinatra that's good for 
                 us all.  

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                         Current Events
   Deceit and Denial                   
                                             
   "Every time (the president) talks about trust it makes chills run up 
   and down my spine.  The very idea that the word 'trust' could ever come 
   out of his mouth after the way he has trampled on the truth is a 
   travesty of the American political system." -Bill Clinton, speaking of 
   President George Bush, 1992 
                                             
   Everyone would like to think that electoral politics are issues based 
   competition in which the merits of policy propositions are debated in 
   the market place of ideas and the candidate with the "winning" 
   positions on the issues wins the election.  But it's not true.  Any 
   seasoned political consultant can tell you this.  
      
   The plain fact of the matter is that public will not even listen to a 
   candidate they don't trust, much less vote for him, no matter what his 
   positions on the issues are.  That's why so many elections degenerate 
   into mudslinging battles.  That's why you see so many quotes from 
   candidates like the one above from Bill Clinton.  
      
   Is this a good thing or not?  Which is more important, that you trust 
   your political representative or that he states policy positions that 
   you agree with?  This is the fundamental question that has been raised 
   by President Clinton's scandalous behavior over the past few months.  
                                           
                                             
   It's not about sex 
                                             
   The scandal that the United States of America has had to endure since 
   January isn't fundamentally about sex.  If a newspaper had published 
   lurid sexual pictures of Bill and Hillary in the White House living 
   quarters, its reputation would be ruined forever.  Even if Bill and 
   Hillary's sexual relationship was unusually titillating in any way, no 
   one would stand for the invasion of privacy.  
      
   And despite American's reputation for being puritanical and squeamish 
   about sex, they are actually amazingly forgiving of sexual misconduct 
   by public officials.  In fact they are more forgiving of elected 
   officials than they are of any other segment of the population.  Barney 
   Frank managed to survive the scandal over his misconduct relatively 
   unscathed, with is political career as strong as ever.  Salon 
   Magazine's attack on Henry Hyde for his past sexual misconduct failed 
   miserably to detract attention from the President's current scandal.  
      
   What's the difference?  How can Barney Frank and Henry Hyde survive 
   their scandals and put it behind them when the President has been 
   unable to do so?  In various combinations, the scandals surrounding 
   Frank's, Hyde's and Clinton's misconduct involved adultery, sex in the 
   workplace, and sex with subordinates.  All three of which, just for the 
   record, are still considered to be Bad Things by the vast majority of 
   Americans.  Yet Barney Frank and Henry Hyde were forgiven by the public 
   and the President hasn't.  Why?  
      
   Some have suggested that the reason Clinton's scandal has remained in 
   the public eye is due to a partisan witch hunt by the Republican Party.  
   But that's putting the cart before the horse.  No doubt that 
   Republicans are taking every advantage being offered them by the 
   current scandal.  No doubt that Clinton's now 10 month old scandal 
   can't do anything but help the Republican's build their party base and 
   win elections.  One may be disgusted at how they are taking advantage 
   of the current scandal, but it's difficult to pin blame on them for 
   creating the scandal.  
                                             
   It's about denial 
                                             
   The public is fascinated by public figures being caught in a lie.  They 
   are fascinated by evasiveness.  When a public figure is caught up in a 
   web of deceit, the public refuses to let go.  They love to watch public 
   figures get more and more entangled.  
      
   Take the O.J.  Simpson trial for example.  The scandal hits the public 
   with O.J.  Simpson barreling down a Los Angeles freeway trying to evade 
   police.  He never satisfactorily explains his behavior after the death 
   of his ex-wife.  As the murder case goes to trial, Simpson does nothing 
   but evade the search for truth.  He refuses to testify.  His team of 
   lawyers attempts to block every line of inquiry that the prosecution 
   pursues.  And the public loves every moment of it.  They enjoy watching 
   O.J.'s dream team of lawyers protecting their client with every evasive 
   legal maneuver they could think of.  But it wasn't until O.J.'s team of 
   lawyers turned the public's attention to the Los Angeles police 
   department that public sentiment in the trial began to shift.  All of a 
   sudden, it was the Los Angeles police department that appeared on the 
   defense.  It as the L.A.  Police department that appeared to be evading 
   inquiry and concealing the truth.  But even though the public's 
   attention shifted during that trial, the fuel that sustained the public 
   interest was their fascination of watching people attempting to deny 
   and evade the truth.  
      
   As another example, look at the Iran-Contra hearings and Oliver North.  
   As scandals go, It was a relatively dry scandal.  The charges being 
   levied against North, and indirectly against President Reagan, were 
   serious charges which involved illegal arms sales and illegal 
   interference into the internal affairs of another country.  But the 
   hearings lasted for weeks and weeks and they dominated the news and the 
   public attention.  Why?  Because it appeared that Oliver North was 
   Hiding Something.  Exactly what he was hiding we didn't know, but there 
   was no doubt at all in anyone's mind that we was doing his best to 
   avoid facing the facts.  He was doing his best to avoid telling the 
   truth.  No one ever quite got to the truth in that particular scandal, 
   but North's reputation was ruined.  
      
   On the other hand, Barney Frank was caught in a scandal involving a 
   double dose of taboos, homosexuality and prostitution.  Yet the scandal 
   disappeared from the public's attention relatively quickly and he has 
   continued to win reelection to Congress.  Henry Hyde has twice faced 
   the consequences and humiliation over his extramarital affair twice and 
   yet his reputation is a solid as it has ever been.  
      
   The reason both of these men survived their scandalous misconduct is 
   because they realized that the issue at stake was trust and reputation.  
   Both men faced the truth, they took responsibility for their failures, 
   and, most importantly, they took positive corrective actions to fix the 
   situation.  
      
   Once they overcame their failures and took measures to restore 
   themselves as honest and reputable men, the salacious details of their 
   misconduct were not sufficient to sustain interest in the scandal.  
      
   Deceit and denial are far more titillating than sex.  
                                             
   The President's Biggest Mistake 
                                             
   One might be tempted to think that the President's biggest mistake was 
   that he had the affair in the first place.  And certainly it was a big 
   one.  As President of the United States, he is probably the most 
   guarded, scrutinized, and watched person on the planet.  How he thought 
   he could have an extramarital affair with a subordinate employee in the 
   Oval Office and not get caught is anyone's guess.  
       
   But as big a moral failure as that was, it wasn't the biggest.  
   Clinton's biggest mistake was that he lied about it.  It started in 
   January, with a nationally televised statement by the President: 
                                             
   "But I want to say one thing to the American people.  I want you to 
   listen to me.  I want you to listen, again.  I did not have sexual 
   relations with that woman, Miss Lewinsky.  I never told anybody to lie, 
   not a single time, never.  These allegations are false and I need to go 
   back to work for the American people." 
                                             
   But the truth can be a pesky thing.  As reports of more and more 
   evidence to the contrary began to surface, Clinton and his team of 
   lawyers and political spin doctors spent 8 months trying to deny that 
   the affair happened.  He spent 8 months trying to shift blame to anyone 
   and anything else except himself.  
      
   First, he and his supporters tried to float the idea that the scandal 
   was all the result of a delusional little girl who was living in a 
   fantasyland.  When that didn't work, the Clinton team tried the 
   partisan "vast right wing conspiracy" tactic.  When that didn't work, 
   even tried to blame the scandal on discriminatory biases against people 
   from Arkansas.  They have tried to demonize Ken Starr.  They have tried 
   to demonize Linda Tripp.  They have complained about the amount of 
   money that has "been wasted." 
      
   And the most outlandish tactic of all attempted by Clinton and his team 
   has been the claim that this is purely private affair and isn't really 
   anyone else's business.  Future politicians take note, when you go on 
   national TV and claim that you have not had extramarital sexual 
   relationship in the workplace with a subordinate, you are _making_ the 
   issue a national issue and opening up your conduct to public scrutiny.  
                                           
   Some of the Clinton team's efforts at shifting the world's attention 
   away from Clinton and on to other peripheral aspects of the scandal may 
   have some merit.  No one is going to cite Monica Lewinsky or Linda 
   Tripp saintly virtuous women.  There is no doubt that there is a fair 
   amount of political partisanship involved.  
                                             
   But Hasn't He Apologized?  
                                             
   This much is known to be true.  After testifying before the Grand Jury, 
   Clinton went on national TV and acknowledged "an improper 
   relationship".  And he apologized for something.  But there has been 
   much debate over what exactly he apologized for.  Did he apologize for 
   having an extramarital affair?  Did he apologize for having lied to the 
   American people in January?  
      
   Rather than starting down the road to redemption, the President's 
   speech looked like more evasiveness and denial.  The Clinton spin team 
   hit the talk show circuit and tried to convince the public that it was 
   over and done with.  The President, they said, has apologized and now 
   it's time to put the scandal behind us.  After all, they asked, do we 
   _really_ want to hear the President acknowledge every lurid detail of 
   his affair on national TV.  
      
   The answer is of course no.  Hearing the lurid details will not make 
   the scandal go away.  What will make the scandal go away is to have the 
   President acknowledge that he had an extramarital affair, that it was 
   in the workplace with a subordinate.  Then just as in the case with 
   Barney Frank and Henry Hyde, we need to see the President take 
   positive, proactive steps to correct the wrongs that he has done and we 
   need to see the President take positive action regain the trust of the 
   American people.  
       
   The President has done none of these things.  Instead, his actions have 
   been more along the line of, "now it's time to get back to business as 
   usual." 
      
   In short, the President made a vague uncompelling apology and has made 
   no actions toward atonement whatsoever.  
                                             
   But it may be too late 
                                             
   Of course, now the scandal has grown so large, it's difficult to 
   imagine what Clinton can do to make amends.  What could he possibly do 
   to make up for the scandal he's caused since January of this year?  
   After 10 months of scandal, there's not much hope of Clinton regaining 
   the trust of the American people in a few days or even a couple of 
   weeks.  
      
   This is a big problem for Clinton because Ken Starr's report to 
   Congress wasn't about his failure to be a moral leader.  Ken Starr's 
   charges are not about losing the trust of the American Public.  His 
   report is about specific allegations of possible criminal actions by 
   the President in his attempts to evade the truth about his affair.  
      
   If Clinton had been able to face up to his failures and make proper 
   atonement for them, and if he had started work on regaining the trust 
   of the American public, he might have been able to prevent Impeachment 
   hearings because the public would then see the hearings as persecution 
   of a man who has already redeemed himself.  
      
   As the situation stands now, it is impossible to stop Impeachment 
   hearings.  All indications are that President Clinton will continue to 
   shift blame elsewhere where he can, accept as little personal guilt as 
   possible, and take no actions for atonement.  There seems to be plenty 
   of hard evidence and lots of truth left for to make Clinton squirm.  
   Americans won't be able to get enough of it.  They won't let the matter 
   drop.  And regardless of whether Clinton is found guilty or innocent of 
   the legal charges levied against him in Ken Starr's report, he 
   credibility as a leader has been ruined.  
     
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                             True Story                                      
   Alan Chello-Jaxon: RIP              
                                             
   Alan Chello-Jaxon passed away in early September, 1998.  Officially he 
   died of heart failure due to other medical complications.  But the fact 
   is he died of old age after living a long and full life.  
      
   I can't remember the day I met Alan Chello-Jaxon.  Whether you met him 
   five minutes ago or five years ago, you always feel like you've known 
   him your whole life.  But I can remember where I met him, which was at 
   Cup-A-Joe coffee house in Raleigh, near the NC State campus.  
      
   Despite harassment from the local Tobacco Nazis who have a 
   holier-than-thou attitude about teen smoking, Cup-A-Joe is the most 
   vivid place in Raleigh to hang out.  It caters to an amazing mix of 
   folks: NC State students pulling all night study sessions in everything 
   from engineering to veterinary medicine, fashionably oppressed goths, 
   heavily jackbooted and pierced punks, wayward programmers in for a late 
   night caffeine boost, starving artists, and even yuppie couples from 
   the `burbs.  The music is always great, the crowd always friendly, the 
   coffee cups are always huge.  
      
   And in the center of it all was Mr.  Alan Chello-Jaxon.  He was the 
   sort of person you hoped to meet while hanging out in coffee houses.  
   He was one of those people that could effortlessly sit down at a table 
   with a group of strangers, introduce himself and start telling his life 
   story.  People these days give lots of lip service to the notion of 
   "diversity", in which people from all social groups and strata are 
   supposed to mix and mingle freely, celebrating their own identity while 
   thriving on their differences.  Alan is the only person I've ever met 
   that seemed to be able to fully put this principle in to practice, and 
   it came to him naturally.  Alan had a great knack for drawing out 
   peoples' passions.  It didn't matter what you were into.  You could be 
   into radical libertarian politics, an up and coming punk band, a cool 
   new programming language, or herbal gardening.  It didn't matter.  Alan 
   could get you to talk about it.  He was a master at the dying art of 
   conversation 
      
   Alan's particular passion was underground artists.  He was a patron in 
   the truest and noblest sense of the word.  He bought his fair share of 
   art from unproven and unknown artists.  But more importantly he 
   promoted them.  He helped them find venues to show their work.  He made 
   introductions.  He supported their ambitions.  On more than one 
   occasion he had been known to lobby the parents of high school student 
   to let their children attend art school.  
       
   Above all, Alan was a great story teller.  Alan claims to have been 
   married seven times and could tell you stores about each of his wives.  
   And he claims to have had so many varied careers, it's difficult to 
   catalog them all.  His more common stories revolved around his days 
   living in New York City, running two different art galleries.  But he 
   told many stories about working as a newspaper stringer in the deep 
   south, during the civil rights unrest of the 60s.  He claims to have 
   served in the military for 2 years.  He told stories about saving 
   artists from going insane.  He told stories of business deals that fell 
   through.  He told stories of being in the middle of riots.  He told 
   stories about the wild performances by Ginsburg, during his hey day.  
   He told stories of being a sports broadcaster, covering baseball games.  
      
   The fact of the matter is that Alan claimed to have had so many 
   different careers, wives, and relationships throughout the years that 
   it's difficult to believe them all.  But he was so good at telling 
   stories about his life that they were more like prose ballads.  They 
   inspired you to live deliberately and live large.  And while they may 
   have transcended the notion of "legally accurate" truth, they touched a 
   universal truth.  That is his legacy.  
      
   I want to believe.  
                                            
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                     Cultural Phenomena                  
   Review of "Amphibian" from The Changelings                
                                             
   Like no other band before them, the Changelings have once again managed 
   to take an unusual pallate of musical instruments, ranging from a toy 
   accordion to violins, from keyboard synthesizers to classical guitar; 
   used them to build soundscapes around vocal arias; and created a sound 
   that's both haunting and beautiful, tragic and uplifting.  
                                           
   While their last album, Terra Firma, drew heavily from a Middle Eastern 
   influence, most of the songs on their latest album, Amphibian, are 
   built loosely around tales of life at the edge of the water and the 
   creatures that inhabit it.  
      
   The first track, "Deeper Than Light," sets the musical stage.  They 
   introduce haunting echoing soundscapes that are reminiscent of whale 
   song.  The vocals are dissonant, as if they are coming from far away 
   and tell the story of somone who hears the call of lost love, calling 
   them out to sea to drown.  
      
   "Frog Song" and "Afternoon of a Newt" introduce a living presence to 
   life on the edge of the water.  "Frog Song" tells the tale of frogs 
   contemplating the rise of the cities and how they are in contrast to 
   those who "choose a simpler beauty, pooling out wills for the globe." 
   And as the frogs watch the world, they wait for the day when "our day 
   has come to rise up/we'll take the city by storm/crushing non-circular 
   things." No cute, princess bait here.  "Afternoon of a Newt" adds a 
   chamber music period feel to the background of the album.  
      
   Against this backdrop we have two songs songs that loosely tell the 
   tale of mermaids and life on the sea.  "Port Royale" is a true ballad 
   that tells the story of a Pirate Captain who captures a King's 
   daughter.  But rather than sell her back for ransom, he tries to win 
   her heart.  When she refuses him her love he throws her overboard.  And 
   as she's sinking to the bottom of the ocean she sings out one last song 
   that so captivates the sea and the fishes and the whales whe becomes a 
   mermaid, And eventually gets her revenge on the Captain.  It's a great 
   tragedy with a refrain that captures the adveturous yet sad lonely 
   lives of pirates.  
      
   "Oceana" is the central track for the whole album.  It pulls elements 
   from all the background songs.  tells the tale of a mermaid who loses 
   her love to the deadly fishing nets of a sailor and yearns for revenge 
   against mankind.  
      
   Another strong track on the album is "Caterwaul." Here Regeanna Morris 
   steps out of her usual gothic vocal style and sounds a little more 
   modern, a little like Kate Bush perhaps.  At first it soundls like it's 
   going to be a cutesy song about a cat, but you quickly realize it's 
   bout the lusty, blood thristy predators behind those cute, furry faces.  
      
   Finally, my personal favorite track on the album is "Maelcum's 
   Righteous Dub," which sounds like something Victor Hugo would compose 
   if he had been a reggae musician instead of a gothic novelist.  
   Lyrically, the only thing I can figure is that it's about a woman 
   trapped in some sort of virtual reality gone horrbly wrong.  
      
   A highly recommended album.  If you can't find it in your local record 
   store, you can get it directly from the band at 
   http://www.draven.net/changelings 
                                           
     
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                     Cultural Phenomena                  
   Frank Sinatra's Last Letter To  Nancy 
        
   Chicken---a thought.  
        
   Strange, but I feel the world we live in demands that we be turned out 
   in a pattern which resembles, in fact, is a facsimile of itself.  And 
   those of us who roll with the punches, who grin, who dare to wear 
   foolish clown faces, who defy the system -- well; we do it, and bully 
   for us!  
      
   Of course, there are those who do not.  And the reason I think it that, 
   (and I say this with some sadness) those up-tight, locked in people who 
   resent and despise us, who fear us, and are bewildered by us, will one 
   day come to realize that we possess rare and magical secrets, and more 
   -- love.  
      
   Therefore, I am beginning to think that a few, (I hope many) are 
   wondering if maybe there might be value to a firefly, or an 
   instant-long roman candle.  
      
   Keep the faith                     
   Dad                                 
                                             
   As forwarded to me from the publisher of _The Tower of Babel_ `zine.  
   Check them out at http://www.towerofbabel.com 
      
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   About Stuck In Traffic 

   Stuck In Traffic is a monthly magazine dedicated to evaluating 
   current events, examining cultural phenomena, and sharing true 
   stories.  

   Why "Stuck In Traffic"?  

   Because getting stuck in traffic is good for you.  It's an 
   opportunity to think, ponder, and reflect on all things, from the 
   personal to the global.  As Robert Pirsig wrote in _Zen and the Art 
   of Motorcycle Maintenance_, "Let's consider a reevaluation of the 
   situation in which we assume that the stuckness now occurring, the 
   zero of consciousness, isn't the worst of all possible situations, 
   but the best possible situation you could be in.  After all, it's 
   exactly this stuckness that Zen Buddhists go to so much trouble to 
   induce...." 

   Submissions:

   Submissions to Stuck In Traffic are always welcome.  If you have 
   something on your mind or a personal story you'd like to share, 
   please do.  You don't have to be a great writer to be published here, 
   just sincere.  

   
   Contact Information:

   All queries, submissions, subscription requests, comments, and 
   hate-mail about Stuck In Traffic should be sent to Calvin Stacy 
   Powers preferably via E-mail (powers@ibm.net) or by mail (2012 
   Talloway Drive, Cary, NC USA 27511).  

   Copyright Notic:

   Stuck In Traffic is published and copyrighted by Calvin Stacy Powers 
   who reserves all rights.  Individual articles are copyrighted by 
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   Stacy Powers.  

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