Acceptance comes with age
October 26, 2008 by James
Filed under Agriculture, Economics, Guest Writer: Lindberg, James G., Health, History, In the News, Iowa, Life is Political, Politics
I’ve been traveling a bit lately, and I was talking by phone to a North Dakota boy Tuesday. Here are the three sentences that this good Republican named Stan had to say about the prospect of the election of Barack Obama:
First,
He followed that with,
- “Well, that’s all right.”
And ended by saying,
- “We’ll just give him a chance and see what he can do.”
Acceptance comes with age.
Stan is in his late 80s and he has lived a lot of American history, gained a lot from living in America, and given a lot back. He has known
- hard work on a Great Plains farm
- the Great Depression
- service in WWII as a technical trainer at Chanute Air Base
- marriage
- a long career as a government accountant and his wife as a teacher
- a modest income and sound judgment in how it was spent
- homes (one at a time, not multiple homes)
- retirement in Arizona and
- declining health
Now in his sunset years he and his wife were having difficulty keeping up with the physical demands of their home, so they moved into an assisted living facility, and they put their house in Arizona on the market. You guessed it. A full year later their house is still on the market with little hope for a sale. There is no bailout in sight for these loyal Americans – veterans of the Great Depression and World War II. Why haven’t we heard these Americans mentioned by John McCain in the same sentence as Joe the Plumber? Why we haven’t heard them mentioned by Sarah Palin in the same sentence as the parts of the country she calls pro-America? Couldn’t those “maverick” Republicans at least refer in passing to the aging Americans who have started with nothing and are seeing 60 years of hard work and careful living disappear either slowly or quickly? To add insult to neglect, if McCain were elected these uncomplaining, aging, loyal Americans would be saddled with McCain’s proposed cuts to Medicare.
Celebrate, Stan. It looks like the young guy is going to win.
photo by flickr by rileyroxx
James is James G. Lindberg (Jim) is the Purple Wren’s sweetie and is a visiting chemistry professor at Grinnell College and retired from Drake University.
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[...] he can do.” Acceptance comes with age. Stan is in his late 80s and he has lived a lot of America Source Blogs about [...]
If “the young one” wins, we will be handing him an America literally on the brink of Socialism: government-owned insurance companies and banks, an economic bailout program that included salary caps for executives, and plenty of cronies happy to help with the whole “redistribution of wealth” idea, all overseen by a far-left socialist who can’t wait to seize your 401-k so he can give it to those for whom the past 80 years of “New Deal” welfare and entitlements have somehow not been good enough. If we give this nation to Obama, we are selling out the freedom that generations of Americans have fought and died for. “Let’s see what he can do” – indeed, if Obama wins it will be a very different nation 8 years down the road. I shudder to think about who he would have us become.
PS – the link to the Barron’s article requires a paid subscription to read the whole article. Without spending a hundred bucks to read it, I’ll assume that it fairly represents the McCain health care plan by showing that McCain would “cut Medicare” by reducing fraud and broadening the use of generic drugs – and NOT by limiting eligibility or cutting benefits.