Three-Year-Olds Don’t Care About History

As I sit here on this historic day, watching that history unfold on my TV, I am struck by the utter disregard my daughter has for the solemn events we are watching. So far I have received one request for Pink Panther, one for “Pongo” (101 Dalmatians), and two crying fits when I told her “No.” Now she is rapidly emptying a tissue box and making a small mountain out of the tissues.

Well, it’s ridiculous to expect a toddler to appreciate something I consider exciting but that she has proclaimed boring. And it is exciting, instead of gazing longingly to a past that never really existed, we, as a country, are once again looking resolutely into the future. And once again we will have a president who addresses the American people as the adults that we are.

I think the chief failing of the out-going administration (and most conservatives) is that they do not see the American people as adults that are capable of making our own decisions, they do not trust us to handle the hard stuff. The Great Depression could have destroyed the country but the strength of the citizenry kept it alive. During WWII, the tough-minded American people did what was required to defeat the greatest threats our world had ever faced. Tire-rationing, food-rationing, women taking over “man’s work” to free men to fight, Civil Air Patrol, black-outs, the American people coped very well, soldiered on, made do, made it work.

After 9/11, did the administration ask the people to sacrifice any material comfort for the good of the country? No, they told us to go shopping, to travel, to spend money as if there were no tomorrow. Oh, we sacrificed all right, our civil liberties, the assumption that our private telephone calls were truly private, our dignity at the airport, too many of our brave service men and women. We weren’t even asked to forgo paltry tax cuts so our troops could have little luxuries like body armor. But now many people have unwillingly sacrificed much of their life savings, many have sacrificed their homes.

Were those who benefited the most from the CEO-president asked to sacrifice their golden parachutes when their companies began to falter? Are you kidding me? The CEO-president asked us, the tax-payers, to bail out his buds!

At a time when it was easy to blame the “other”, were we asked to set aside old prejudices and come together in unity? No, grievances were allowed to fester, bigotries were encouraged. We were told to fear the “other”, to fight them over there so we don’t have to fight them over here. Innocent people, whose only crime was practising a different faith than most other Americans, were detained in airports and escorted off planes.

I interrupt this post with the joyous news that Obama is now officially our president even before he takes the oath of office. Great day in the morning!

The old administration did not trust us with the truth, they did not trust us with their mistakes, they thought we were too weak to handle the difficult road ahead and tried to deceive us that the road was a smooth one.

President Obama trusts us enough to admit that the road ahead is a tough one, but that we can meet and exceed the challenges. He understands that we come from tough stuff. Every single American born in this country is the descendant of people tough enough to cross land bridges during the last ice age, to make perilous ocean voyages, to leave the comforts of home to carve a new life out of the wilderness, to survive and surmount slavery, to fight for independence, to fight to keep our country united, to survive deadly epidemics and find cures for them, to claim, demand and fight for the inalienable right to be treated as full and equal citizens, to rise up and demand the right to vote, to walk The Trail of Tears, to retain their sovereignty in the midst of hostile forces, to have their land taken away and forced to move to reservations and survive, to endure internment with dignity. Our naturalized citizens all took the difficult steps to leave their homes and start a new life here. No matter how desperate their previous existences may have been, no matter how war-torn or destitute their old homes were, it is still painfully difficult to pull up stakes, forsake roots, leave family and friends, say farewell to familiar sights and faces, to chose to live among strangers, to learn a new language, to adapt to new ways of doing things, yet thousands of people do just this every year.

We are, all of us, tough-minded people, capable of surmounting any difficulty that we face. And I have complete faith that President Obama’s administration will treat us as competent adults. I believe that his administration will trust all of us to make our own private sometimes difficult medical decisions for ourselves. I hope that his administration will usher in a new era of tolerance, compassion, and acceptance for all people.

But my little daughter doesn’t grasp any of this because she has no knowledge of the past eight years. And apparently neither do these people up in Wyoming and many others just like them. People were so concerned about Bill Clinton “taking away their rights” that militias multiplied like cockroaches. But it was Bush who presided over the biggest retreat on civil liberties in decades. And now these same types of folks are worried about Obama infringing on their rights!

I wonder exactly what sorts of rights people are concerned about losing. The right to have guns? Contrary to popular opinion, Democrats and other assorted liberals do not want to disarm the public. We want hunters to have their firearms, we want law-abiding citizens with the proper training and permits to pack heat, when appropriate. We just want to keep the criminals, the mentally unstable, the rage-driven nutjobs from having easy access to guns. We want waiting periods and cooling-off periods, we want children to make it through childhood unscathed even if daddy has a handgun, we want places of business to be able to keep guns out of the workplace if they so choose. WE DO NOT WANT TO TAKE ALL YOUR GUNS!!!!! Please get over yourselves.

Are they afraid that now with a black man in the White House, they won’t feel as comfortable making racist jokes? Good. Discomfort is a sign that you should stop. Are they afraid they will have to stop hating gay people and, you know, start treating them like human beings? Hatred and fear are terrible things to harbor in your heart and your soul will shrivel and die as a result, and we can’t make you stop hating, but we can insist that you treat other human beings with dignity and respect.

They seem to be afraid that their religious liberties will be compromised. I simply don’t get this. This country was founded without requiring religious tests for holding public office and without establishing a state religion. Our founding fathers had seen first-hand the dangers inherent in a state religion and many colonists came here to escape real religious persecution, not the “persecution” some modern church members claim to experience. Religious persecution tries to keep you from practising your faith. Not being able to force others to abide by your faith is NOT persecution. Get over yourselves.

Are they as worried about leaving a huge national debt as they say? Too late, baby! Bush already did that for you. It’s a little late to be getting your underpants in a wad over it.

I’ve got it! They’re afraid that all their trans fats will be replaced by olive or canola oil, that the air they breath may become cleaner under a president who doesn’t despise the EPA, that some of those lazy, useless, good-for-nothing endangered species may be protected. After all, who needs healthy oceans and diverse habitats? Soylent Green, anyone?

Wow, imagine the affront to one’s dignity should the partially hydrogenated oil in snack cakes be replaced by polyunsaturated fats! The horror.

Honestly, can’t the right come up with anything better to be concerned about? Oh yeah, terrorism. Well those wars have totally turned out great, huh? There have totally not been any more terrorist attacks anywhere since….oh, wait, there have.

We already live in a surveillance society, unless you never leave your home, you are photographed or filmed in lots of public spaces, from banks to department stores to parking lots. Your banking habits are subject to scrutiny, as are your overseas calls. And all this happened way before President Obama was even elected.

I personally am looking forward to the next four years, the new era we are entering promises to be exciting and scary and ultimately fulfilling.

Congratulations, Mr. President, you earned it!