My dad, who is eighty, is a Republican. Now I know that lots of people, including me, are Republicans, but Dad happens to live in Toledo, Ohio, which is rabidly....Democrat. This is due, in part, to the less than impartial news that is printed by the local newspaper, the Toledo Blade. Dad says that the Republican Party has, in effect, been shut down in Toledo. It is not safe to bring up your political views because people start yelling. If you are Republican that is. If you are a Democrat, it's fine.
So yesterday, my dad stopped for breakfast at McDonald' on his way to church. Two men in the McDonald's were reading the Blade and discussing the fact that George Bush and all Republicans are liars. Loudly. So loudly that they could be heard throughout the restaurant. Their discussion annoyed my father. It probably annoyed a lot of people in the restaurant, but nobody was going to say so because that other party (the Republicans) are not looked upon kindly in Toledo.
Have you noticed that as you get older, you lose patience with some of the dumb stuff that happens in life? I am thirty years younger than my father, and I have already noticed this in my life.
As the men were talking, an African-American (is that the current politically correct term?) man entered the restaurant and seated himself near them. They tried to include him in their conversation thinking, I guess, that he would be a Democrat. Woe to them, though. The man was a Republican, and he said so. He tried to give them some soft answers, but they weren't having it. Finally, he told the men that he doubted they would even have liked Abraham Lincoln. Well, they didn't, and they proceeded to tell the whole restaurant why.
Dad had had enough, and in a loud voice he said that he had political views too, and he figured he should be able to state them as loudly as the two men. That shut them up, he said, for maybe a minute and then they went on. After my dad's comment, the man behind him chuckled and said that he was glad he was a Canadian. I was just worried because being Republican in Toledo has started fist fights. What if the men had followed my dad to his car? What if he put a Republican sign in his yard for the mayoral election? Would his house get egged?
People are always going to have different opinions about politics, I know. But it does create a bad situation when the local media are so obviously slanted. I learned this when I was a freshman in high school on the debate team. We were debating the judicial system, and as I researched both sides, I found to my surprise that the platform for objections is built in to the system. In the courtroom in particular, it doesn't matter if you are telling the truth or not. Who cares if the judge tells people to disregard what you have said? You said it, and you planted an idea in people's mind.
I learned this again when I went back to school for my teaching credentials. Professors stated over and over again that you had to avoid the appearance of impropriety, whether you were female or male. Especially since my certification was secondary, I should never transport students without another adult present and never, ever, should I have a student in my room with the door closed or when we both were not in full view of the open door. Why? Because the charge of impropriety will ruin a teacher whether it is proved false at a later time or not.
I know that the reporting of news and politics itself is big business. But I still think there should be an effort to report both sides fairly. Not that I think it will happen in a country as big and as political as ours. But I think it is something we should work toward.
Certainly, an eighty-year-old man should be free either to express his opinion or to eat his breakfast in peace. That "liberty and justice for all" that we remind ourselves of when we say the Pledge of Allegiance applies to Republicans as well as to Democrats.
So yesterday, my dad stopped for breakfast at McDonald' on his way to church. Two men in the McDonald's were reading the Blade and discussing the fact that George Bush and all Republicans are liars. Loudly. So loudly that they could be heard throughout the restaurant. Their discussion annoyed my father. It probably annoyed a lot of people in the restaurant, but nobody was going to say so because that other party (the Republicans) are not looked upon kindly in Toledo.
Have you noticed that as you get older, you lose patience with some of the dumb stuff that happens in life? I am thirty years younger than my father, and I have already noticed this in my life.
As the men were talking, an African-American (is that the current politically correct term?) man entered the restaurant and seated himself near them. They tried to include him in their conversation thinking, I guess, that he would be a Democrat. Woe to them, though. The man was a Republican, and he said so. He tried to give them some soft answers, but they weren't having it. Finally, he told the men that he doubted they would even have liked Abraham Lincoln. Well, they didn't, and they proceeded to tell the whole restaurant why.
Dad had had enough, and in a loud voice he said that he had political views too, and he figured he should be able to state them as loudly as the two men. That shut them up, he said, for maybe a minute and then they went on. After my dad's comment, the man behind him chuckled and said that he was glad he was a Canadian. I was just worried because being Republican in Toledo has started fist fights. What if the men had followed my dad to his car? What if he put a Republican sign in his yard for the mayoral election? Would his house get egged?
People are always going to have different opinions about politics, I know. But it does create a bad situation when the local media are so obviously slanted. I learned this when I was a freshman in high school on the debate team. We were debating the judicial system, and as I researched both sides, I found to my surprise that the platform for objections is built in to the system. In the courtroom in particular, it doesn't matter if you are telling the truth or not. Who cares if the judge tells people to disregard what you have said? You said it, and you planted an idea in people's mind.
I learned this again when I went back to school for my teaching credentials. Professors stated over and over again that you had to avoid the appearance of impropriety, whether you were female or male. Especially since my certification was secondary, I should never transport students without another adult present and never, ever, should I have a student in my room with the door closed or when we both were not in full view of the open door. Why? Because the charge of impropriety will ruin a teacher whether it is proved false at a later time or not.
I know that the reporting of news and politics itself is big business. But I still think there should be an effort to report both sides fairly. Not that I think it will happen in a country as big and as political as ours. But I think it is something we should work toward.
Certainly, an eighty-year-old man should be free either to express his opinion or to eat his breakfast in peace. That "liberty and justice for all" that we remind ourselves of when we say the Pledge of Allegiance applies to Republicans as well as to Democrats.
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2 Comments:
Republicans are lame. 2008, year of the reckoning. 2006, midterm elections, Senate and House go back to Democrats. Face the facts, small town hicks don't have the ability and shouldn't have the ability to legislate on policy.
Is the United States run by an elite of city-dwelling Democrats, then? What about government of the people, by the people and for the people. No wonder your comment is anonymous!
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