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
