I'm About To Commit DU Heresy Here, But...

I'm actually (not always) enjoying this election season so far! I mean, once you get away from the back-biting, self-immolation, and "Good-Bye DU" threads, this is pretty great!

A bit of back-story...

Although my old man was a political analyst\reporter when I was a mere lad, and my folks hung out with (and hosted) many a fete with the California Heavy's (state legislators, Governors, et. al.) back in the 60's early 70's, and although I "attended" those parties as a toddler\waif, my first truly political awareness came on November, 22nd, 1963.

I was in the 3rd grade, and I walked home from Alice Birney Elementary School for lunch, and found my mother face down on the couch and bawling. I had no idea what was wrong, but the TV was on and I soon figured it out. We huddled around that TV for the next four or five days trying to fathom what had just happened. My old man was a Navy\Marine guy from WWII, and he just sat there, looking at the TV, fuming. I was getting my first dose of politics, on steroids.

It was that same year, that my best friend at the time, Terry Osuga (we would walk around the school with our arms over each others shoulders being best friends, LOL), brought for show and tell, a book that his father had salvaged from a house somewhere in Europe during WWII. The book was in pristine condition, and showed the Nazi highlights on their rise to power. The photography was outstanding. :sarcasm:

What I was too young to realize, was that my best friend's dad had been in one of the few Japanese Battalions allowed to fight in Europe in that war. What had happened to the rest of my best friend's dad's family during the war I have no idea, because I had no knowledge or hint that they might have been rounded up, and sent to camps. All I knew then, is that my best friend had brought this really cool relic of WWII, and we all got to touch it and examine it thoroughly.

The next year, 1964, was the first time that I remember actually watching a political convention. I'm sure my parents had probably watched a convention before, but I have no memory of that. I barely have a memory of the '64 Convention itself, except for this. The night Bobby Kennedy was to speak before the convention, as he was introduced, he came to the podium, and for almost 20 straight minutes the crowd cheered and shouted an applauded. I believe they had just shown a film in memory of his brother John. He tried to start his speech several times, but they wouldn't let him. They kept their standing ovation to the point of exhaustion, and my parents, my sisters and I, even at our tender ages were totally and absolutely in tears.

The following year 1965, my mother had me sit down with her for a talking to. She informed me, that the kids from Argonaut School were gonna be coming to our school from now on. Now you have to understand, that Argonaut School was the Elementary School literally across the tracks from Alice Birney. Seriously. From Alice Birney you could see the Southern Pacific Railroad tracks, as you could from the back (other side of the tracks mind you) of Argonaut. There was a road that could get you from one side of the tracks to the other, and I remember many a times taking that road on my bicycle and wondering why there was some dead animal or another hanging (as in having been hung) from the trestle that went over that adjoining road.

Well, my mom informed me that the kids from Argonaut would look different from what me and my sisters were used to (and I confess that I don't remember if she said negroes, blacks, people of color...) but she warned me that if she EVER heard me use the word "n***er", she'd tan my hide good, and make me eat a bar of soap. I looked at her seriously, and asked, "Ok, but what does that word mean?" She immediately teared up, because we had never used that word in our house. EVER. And none of my friends had ever used it either. It wasn't until Junior High that I was introduced to the world of racial hatred.

And while in Junior High in 1968, after the Reverend Martin Luther King was assassinated, we had race riots. Huge rolling riots where the teachers locked themselves into their room because of fear. And then Bobby Kennedy was assassinated, and then the 68 Democratic Convention, and then Richard Nixon, and Vietnam, and Watergate, and the Ford' Pardon of Nixon, and...

Sorry if I jumped the shark there, but I really am proud of the Democratic field we\they put forth this year, and as much fun is it can be to be a full-blown intra-Democratic partisan, I find myself for some inexplicable reason, enjoying (unlike 2000\2004) this year's race. As long as we don't riot, put each other in camps, or shoot one another, we should be fine.

Could somebody please explain me to me, LOL?

:shrug:

ANY Democrat is just candy after that.

is that alot of us do not view all of the democrate candidates as being "democratic" in fact alot of people have mad an argument that all of the democratic candidates are actually more centrists or repub lite. Alot of this controversy stems from if they are democratic or progressive enough for this country. Alot of people are not touting their own candidates but in fact trying to label others as being selfish/corpratist. The fight is not who is the best democratic candidate but which candidate is less of a sell out.

Thank you for posting it. I think you captured the sentiments of many of us at DU.

:hi:

I think a big reason why is that I really don't have a primary dog in this fight. I like some candidates more than others, but could deal with all of them as President. The Democratic field is infintely more qualified, more intelligent, and more deliberative than the Republican contingent.

for America, the lifestyle. I accept a shoe in the head ... MLK was dead and I was a White target.

I wish I shared your sanguine attitude about this election cycle. One crazed act could open wounds again and for some of us, they're real painful memories.

There are several crazed acts that could be our undoing. But it's hard to lead or follow from under the bed.

Individually, I'm trying to stand tall and resolute, while keeping my eyes peeled, and my wits about me.

I don't know if MLK's "I've been to the mountain top..." speech the night before he died was premonition or not. What I DO believe, was that he was saying, 'no matter what happens to me, it's really up to you all'.

:shrug:

sacrifice themselves to the mob. Under the bed? I'll face down cops to reverse social disorder.

And we face nothing less, unless we want to tip back into dark ages. Don't take civilization or civility for granted.

we all enjoy a good fight and the brutal competition will make the eventual democratic nominee a better candidate against which ever asshole the pukes nominate.

... of how much better liberals have made this country. There's still a long way to go, but we have indeed come a long way. Those who would return us to the "good old days" are either malicious aristocrats or television-brainwashed fools.

:dem:

-Laelth

Thanks for that.

:hi:

:shrug:

I love chocolate!! :P

:hug:

Black men got the right to vote 50 years before ALL women!! :grr:

I'm getting so agitated that I just may play the gender card this time.

I guess maybe it's the same for the Hillary supporters, being women et all.

I guess I'm supposed to 'fall in line' and be an HRC supporter but...

And if not, I've been told if I'm a DK supporter then I should support Obama.

My head is reeling. I can't decide, so? I'm writing in Kucinich. ;)

:hug: Enjoy your election days! :D

That old Chinese curse "May you live in interesting times..." applies to an entire generation of folks--yourself included. Often on here I am struck by the passion and the energy exhibited. Sometimes I think it is people who are maybe pretty new to the process, other times I think it is the passion of those who lived BEFORE and refuse to go back to what it was...

We are seeing "interesting times" again. It doesn't take much imagination to look around and see the college campuses waking up and the kids realizing they have a vested interest in the outcome of this election. For them, it goes beyond just idealism there is a personal involvement in seeing their friends (or themselves) held up as cannon fodder in another war created by politicians who sit safely on another continent. The "War Pigs" are running again, and these kids know intimately who pays the price for it.

It also isn't much of a reach to see that we have racial and gender issues coming up for discussion again. I do think we need to realize that it all kind of follows a cycle. I thank you for your post, Willy T, because you remind us all that there are cycles and it will get better with the application of passion and vision. It has happened before and will happen again, I'm sure.

Seems like the ONE thing that is constant is the fact that we are all doomed to repeat past mistakes until such time as we fully understand their implications.



Laura

I really appreciate that.

I don't want to start any fights by mentioning Nader... but he said a long long time ago, that it would take at least two terms of a truly corrupt and unconstitutional administration for Americans to fully realize what other Americans are capable of.

And although I wanted Gore in 2000, and Kerry in 2004, maybe the ONLY "favor" this current administration will end up doing for this country, is making sure we NEVER cycle back that way again.

I'm hoping Rove had it backward. I'm hoping for a "permanent" Democratic\Progressive majority.

Well... A guy can dream can't he?

:grouphug:

Maybe we'll see the American equal to the Magna Carta as a result of dubya's two terms. Could be he (and Ralph) were both right--maybe we'll be driven as a nation to great strides forward based on the horrors of the current men in power...

I have long speculated that the chimp would not be viewed favorably by history--maybe I was more right than I realized.



Laura

I think that a lot of the pointless bickering here is actually pretty healthy. It's mostly peaceful, even when it's nasty. Every once in a while, we even see people reaching consensus.

Lock-step is for the fascists. Real people trying to live in the real world need to meet, air differences, and make decisions based on compromises.

The ONLY way the GOP wins this year is if we destroy ourselves.

When you create a circluar firing squad all the other side must do to win is to supply the bullets.

Unfortunately this is happening and many people, due to their passionate support of their candidates are falling for it.

Ever notice the moment things start to die down another low count poster will step in, kick all the fight threads and start a few new flamefests? The mods are starting to figure them out more quickly now, so there is hope.

memories. I can still feel the past in my bones. I was in New Haven in the summer of '67 when mace was used on an American demonstration (the only white kid in the crowd, I had to lie down in the back seat with a blanket over me when we drove through the neighborhood). .

From the civil rights movements onward, the Democratic Party has been of the side of the people who need government the most. We have good candidates, and this year is ours to lose.

Our family joined a tennis and swim club in the mid 1960's. Mainly because I was an asthmatic, and some good doctor told my mom that getting me swimming lessons, and putting me on the swim team would help develop my chest and lungs. It worked great. But...

One day my younger sisters invited the youngest child (Okeera sp?) of our across the street neighbors the Yamamotos (dad was a successful physician) to go swimming at the club. When they arrived, my sisters were informed that Okeera could come in and sit by the side of the pool, but was not allowed to go into the pool. I don't know if Okeera was close enough to have heard these instructions, and I hope to god that he was not.

My sisters grabbed Okeera, turned around and headed for home. They told my mom what had happened, and she found another activity for them to do. She also found another activity for herself. She got the by-laws of the Club we had joined and poured over them.

She found that nowhere in the by-laws was it stated that this club had any restrictions as to race or ethnicity. If she had, I'm sure we would have quit the next day. Instead, she saw on the club's calendar, that there would be an open enrollment party for people who wanted to join the club.

She got a pile of membership forms, and canvased the neighborhood for any families that might want to join, She put particular emphasis on families that might not normally want to join a white suburban private athletic club, LOL!

So when the night of the open enrollment came, there were Black families, Hispanic families, Jewish families, the Yamamotos and other Asian families, etc... you get the idea I'm sure. And one pasty older white man, a tad liquored up and red in the face came up to my mom and said, "Jesus Grace! Did you MEET any of these families before you gave them the membership forms?"

Smiling... she said, "Yes. Yes I met with every single one of them." And walked away.

And so began the integration of the South Hills Raquet Club in the late 1960's.

Gawd I love my mom.

:evilgrin:

And a hearty :patriot: to your mum!

My dad was president of the local officials association and often had board meetings at our house. One of the other officials on the board was a black man. One afternoon, as my dad was out working in the yard, the bigot next door came over and asked him who that "nigger" was he had seen coming out of our house the day before. My dad said "oh, I was planning on coming over and talking to you later. We sold our house to him."

That man never spoke to my dad again in all the years we lived in that house. LOL

Thank goodness...

post. It appears that while I am a "mere" nine years older than you, I remember much of what you do. Fortunately, living in a lily-white town in rural IL, I didn't experience the riots or any other violence for that matter. I was raised to respect all people, ALL people! Thank you for sharing! :hug:

AWESOME!

:rofl::bounce::rofl:

"I'm actually (not always) enjoying this election season so far! I mean, once you get away from the back-biting, self-immolation, and "Good-Bye DU" threads, this is pretty great!"

:loveya:

:bounce::loveya::bounce:

:hi:

My first "political memory" is of Shirley Chisholm in 1972. In retrospect, I understand her historic legacy, but at the time I was a child with no understanding of "the wide world." I didn't know anything about racism. I don't think I even knew about "race." I remember watching on TV, fully expecting Shirley Chisholm to win because that was who my mother said she was voting for. I remember being really surprised that she didn't win.

I don't know if I would say I am 'enjoying' this primary season... but I do think the potential huge step for our country is very exciting. (Probably I am just reading too much DU - the best way to take the joy out of politics ;-) )

Would have voted for either one of them, if I'd been able to.

:hi: