WHAT’S LEFT IS ALWAYS RIGHT

Or, “Hey Dad, why do old people oppose Health Care?”




Living with a politically conscious college student is a challenge. It is the futile breathing grounds of political discourse, the ensnaring grip of disagreement, the gauntlet is thrown and the kid gloves are off.

‘Dad’, based on his history is considered old school, out of touch with the future political specter, that of idealism and unlived experience that makes up youth. Does it matter that ‘Dad’ has lived 65 years? How could it possible match the life experience that and a few years of college found in my 23-year old son?

When I was in college, I was on a field trip to a composing room, where they studied and utilized the different typographic styles and taught to use it in a psychological manner to sway a point of view in the masses. One of the things said that day that left an impression on my impressionable mind was that 10 years from that moment, I would probably be doing something totally different than what I was studying for! It wasn’t true in my case, but for many of us in that room that day, it was.



Then there was what Sir Winston Churchill once said, and I will paraphrase it: If you are not a liberal as a young man, you have no heart: if you are not a conservative as an older man, you have no brains.

Then I am reminded about the Nixon/Kennedy debates in my high school years, how opposed to Nixon I was, how dynamic I found Kennedy. The arguments with dad especially heated and mine of course were based on “Information” while poor Dad, what DID he know? And finally while in college, how disappointed I was when I read a review of the old issues of US News and World Report, Time Magazine and Newsweek, and how Kennedy was viewed as unsuccessful in his presidency, and how he stood a strong chance of losing the election, before he was assassinated! Somehow, all of Dad’s points seemed to hold true!

In all those instances, time was the factor. Time changed things for me as they evolved on a personal stage, as well as on the world stage!

HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO TOOTS II (Lois Cope)
From the Wanna-Be Bank and Truss Company!