I leave for college one week from tomorrow. I leave this town, this house, these people, the only people, places and things I have ever known. I go to live with people I've never met from all around the country and the world. I'll have to do my own laundry, my own grocery shopping, and monitor my sleep schedule, whilst taking advanced classes and maintaining good enough grades to keep my honors scholarship and possibly get me into Harvard Law. And I can't wait.
I've developed the most immense zest for learning lately. I'm studying my calculus textbook (I haven't taken math in two years), reading Deep Economy for a discussion at orientation, and am glued to MSNBC at night. Between socializing with the friends I will soon leave behind, I put myself in the most educational situations I can manage. I have grown to love this fear of failure that has gripped me. I cannot fail.
Ah Healthcare Reform, long time, no see. Actually, It's Nice to Meet You. After last weekend's "no more public option" scare, I was worried. Democrats, THANK YOU for not giving in. THANK YOU for putting your feet down and publicly refusing to vote for a bill without the public option. This is a great day for progress. At any rate, I am curious to know what sparked the hesitation from President Obama. Clearly, the Democrats have a large enough majority that the Repuclicans are, if not virtually powerless, in no position to filibuster. I'll see what Ms. Maddow has to say on the subject tonight. At least we're hearing a bit less about the fear-mongering fake-grassroots nonsense. (Rachel Maddow and Keith Olbermann did great exposés about the conservative-led lobbyist groups that really catalyzed this unAmerican movement.) I'd like to emphasize a point made by Olbermann last night: Obama needs our support now as much as he did in the election. Stick to your guns, Mr. President. This public option really is Change We Can Believe In.
I'd also like to emphasize the importance of education, not just for students in this sense, but for every American. We can prevent ourselves from being used by the fear-mongerers if we investigate for ourselves what we are being fed. Don't stick to one point of view (cough Fox News cough cough) because then you lose true perspective. No one is trying to kill Grandma.
In an effort to educate myself on local policy structure, I attended our town's Republican caucus with my Republican parents last night. (Of course, they didn't know when the Democratic one was, not that I would still be here anyway.) I walked into the building and was promptly led down a line of guys in suits who shook my hand and and handed me pamphlets and said "I'd appreciate your vote on November 3rd." As a newly registered Democrat, I felt like an underage kid at an R-rated movie; I had to remind myself that I was there to observe, not vote. It was boring. They were all unopposed within their party, and there were lots of "Aye"s and no "Nay"s. My father had told me that if you weren't a Republican in this tiny town, you basically had no say in the way things run. I saw this was true-- you could tell these people were not at all worried about any Democrat opposition, citing their values as the reason they always won elections.
Now I know that's a fairly benign statement, but really, Democrats don't have values?
Time out: Deep Economy, the book I'm reading for college, talks a lot about local economies and communities as solutions. This sparks a rather primal response in me-- could it be disgust? When I think of the worlds "community" or "local", I tend to associate that with my ultra-conservative hometown. I know that's wrong; some communities are very accepting and more progressive. I think this place has fed into my own personal hyper-individualism. When I hear "local", I don't want to think about church-going farmers who bad-mouth the political figures I admire. Why would someone like me want to stay here?
Maybe others react the same way that I do. Maybe our intolerance of our differences encourages separation of conservative and liberal in the demographical sense. But hey, if anyone can come up with an alternative solution to that rationale, let me know. My point is that we need to accept that we're all trying to do the right thing. We ALL have values, no matter our political leanings. The democrats are not trying to destroy your small businesses, an the republicans are not trying to put people on the streets by denying them affordable healthcare. We all have motives, but they are generally not at all malevolent in nature.
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