I have said leading up to the election that the problem with democrats is that they think that if they can educate enough, everyone will think the way they do. I chuckled to myself at their inability to comprehend why they couldn't win an election and the desperation they felt towards the possibility of loosing another. After witnessing the relief and joy that people around me have been showing now that Obama has been elected, I'm realizing that maybe for too long the Republicans have been the ones who couldn't understand the "other half." A new article in the Seattle PI recorded how democrats, who for years have been too ashamed to fly American flags have been buying them off the shelves. they once again feel like this is their country too.
Now you can't control how people will respond to every situation, but it is a sad state of affairs when a whole block of people are ostracized enough that they feel like they can't wave their own country's flag. This is an exciting opportunity to re-engage the other half of Americans who for so long have felt marginalized or slighted. This is no time for republicans to put away their flags. This is no time for republicans to go searching for their souls. This is the time for people on both sides of the political spectrum to be fully engaged in making the United States a stronger nation.
It may seem a little late to wave the white flag, after you have already lost, but if democrats gloat and the republicans sulk, then we will do no more than alienate the other 50%. A nation cannot be effectively governed by a leader content to carry only 51% of the vote. Fortunately I think we are moving away from this kind of leadership.
Below I have listed two newspaper articles to illustrate the political divide.
Red, white and true blue: City hoists Old Glory
Stores see star-spangled sales
Seattle PI
Thursday, November 6, 2008
By ANDREA JAMES AND KERY MURAKAMI
P-I REPORTERS
Barack Obama's presidential win held a poignant significance for liberal Seattleites: This is their America, too.
The feeling was evident in jubilant partying in the streets, in quiet moments of reflection and in blossoms of red, white and blue.
With newfound patriotism, Seattleites want to wave the flag, hang it from their homes and stick it on their cars.
"The thing that's kind of astounding to me is I never ever would have cared to own a flag," said Rosemary Garner, 42. "This is the first day in my life I actually feel this funny sense of pride about my country. It's a very foreign feeling, but it's a good one."
Garner, a self-described "flag virgin" who lives on Capitol Hill, bought eight flags Wednesday -- some to wave and others to stick on her car to "mix and match with some nice Obama and peace signs. Then I bought a couple of flags for some friends who wanted to hang them from their truck along with their biodiesel stickers."
How does Seattle feel about the election?
The answer is in the numbers: King County voted 72 percent for Obama. Incumbent Democratic Rep. Jim McDermott, whose district includes Seattle, won 85 percent of the vote.
The answer is in their words:
"I'm finally proud to be an American again, after eight years of being ashamed," 66-year-old Mark Lowney said, ticking off a list of complaints, including the Iraq war.
"It's just a rare feeling to feel that type of, I don't know, national connection," said Noah Kriegsmann, a 33-year-old builder from West Seattle. He feels that Obama's win will help America's standing in the world, and he bought a flag to fly on his truck, though he admitted it felt strange to see the flag in his hand.
"I have just historically felt shame for what the symbol of this country is internationally. Being in someplace like Morocco, and Canadians have their flag on their backpacks -- I would never ever do that," he said.
Sitting at Angie's Tavern in Columbia City, Ted Cock, 74, a retired airlines ramp worker, said, "I think everyone in here would say the same thing. We're grateful." Cock, who is African-American, said having a black president was meaningful, certainly. But he was grateful mainly because all the candidates he supported had won.
Cynthia Cohen, owner of Surplus Too Army Navy, summed it up this way: "You can almost just feel it in the air. I think we have a happy world today."
Republicans looked to the future as well.
"I'm very hopeful; Obama seems to be very positive, and he seems to listen to people," said Barbara Fruhling, a Republican, reflecting on the election while walking her daughter's dog in Maple Leaf on Wednesday.
Fruhling said she and her husband worry about the economy, and aren't thrilled about potential tax increases. But still, "I'm a great believer in Thomas Jefferson, democracy, small government, so when I woke up this morning I realized, I'm living in the Democrats' world. But this country was built on the ideal of equality, that people should be judged not by the color of their skin but the cut of their jib, their abilities, so for that, I'm very proud of us as a nation."
The return to business-as-usual felt good.
"I got so tired of all the rhetoric, I stopped listening," said Alison Jaeger, "a dyed-in-the-wool Democrat" who supported Obama. "I'm really glad it's all over and, from my point of view, settled in the right direction."
She and a friend of 20 years, a Seattleite and John McCain supporter, walked around Green Lake on Wednesday. They chatted about everything but the election.
"I voted for McCain, but I'm not sour grapes," said her friend, who did not want her name used. "I've tried to be supportive of all our presidents, whoever it is. It is a hard job -- and worthy of respect."
The answer is in their spending:
At All the King's Flags in Ballard, people have been snatching up American flags.
"Just today I've had a noticeable rush on U.S. flags," said James Sawyer, assistant manager. "I had a lady come in and she said she's happy to be an American again, that's why she was buying a flag."
Of a dozen customers, one had supported McCain and worried about rising taxes, but everyone else was upbeat, manager Alex White said.
While flag waving is normal in some parts of the country, the Stars and Stripes haven't been so ubiquitous in Seattle.
"People around here don't fly flags like they do on the East Coast," said Seattle flag maker Carol Anderson, who hails from Rhode Island but has lived in Seattle for seven years.
The Star-Spangled Banner should transcend political party, said Anderson, who supported Obama.
"I don't care whether it's the Fourth of July or whatever. This country's at war. You'd think that you'd see a few American flags flying. Were they not flying the flag because they don't like George Bush? I mean, give me a break. It should represent more than who's in office. The flag itself to me has always represented an honor."
A New England upbringing has led Briggs Hause, a cashier at Magnolia Ace Hardware, to frequently fly the flag. But she disliked President Bush's leadership so much that she couldn't.
"I haven't the last eight years because I was very depressed with it," said Hause, who gave her age as "in my 60s." "It wasn't my America. I didn't put out one (a flag). Refused to. But now I will."
Seattleites aren't showing their true colors just with flag purchases. Life-sized cardboard cutouts of Obama sold out early on at Champion Party Supply in lower Queen Anne.
As of Wednesday, Vice President-elect Joe Biden was the only cutout left, on sale for $15.
"Poor Joe is a little lonely," said Elizabeth Powell, associate and manager. "McCain sales didn't pick up until the end. ... Most people wanted (Sarah) Palin for joke, that was why she was a big sell."
At Display & Costume in Northgate, Democrat-donkey-themed plates and napkins outsold GOP-elephant ones, said Bill Case, store manager.
"There was definitely a lot more excitement this year," Case said. "We were selling out of the Obama masks and stand-ups before Halloween even ended."
Obama, he said, was the "rock star of the election."
And at Simply Seattle souvenir shop, "Obama cappuccino mix" sold out early on, said Kuniko Nobori, sales associate.
But "McCain mocha" didn't sell even when marked half off. On Wednesday, Simply Seattle was giving the cans away.
Tolerance fails T-shirt test
Chicago Tribune
November 13, 2008
John Kass
As the media keeps gushing on about how America has finally adopted tolerance as the great virtue, and that we're all united now, let's consider the Brave Catherine Vogt Experiment.
Catherine Vogt, 14, is an Illinois 8th grader, the daughter of a liberal mom and a conservative dad. She wanted to conduct an experiment in political tolerance and diversity of opinion at her school in the liberal suburb of Oak Park.
She noticed that fellow students at Gwendolyn Brooks Middle School overwhelmingly supported Barack Obama for president. His campaign kept preaching "inclusion," and she decided to see how included she could be.
So just before the election, Catherine consulted with her history teacher, then bravely wore a unique T-shirt to school and recorded the comments of teachers and students in her journal. The T-shirt bore the simple yet quite subversive words drawn with a red marker:
"McCain Girl."
"I was just really curious how they'd react to something that different, because a lot of people at my school wore Obama shirts and they are big Obama supporters," Catherine told us. "I just really wanted to see what their reaction would be."
Immediately, Catherine learned she was stupid for wearing a shirt with Republican John McCain's name. Not merely stupid. Very stupid.
"People were upset. But they started saying things, calling me very stupid, telling me my shirt was stupid and I shouldn't be wearing it," Catherine said.
Then it got worse.
"One person told me to go die. It was a lot of dying. A lot of comments about how I should be killed," Catherine said, of the tolerance in Oak Park.
But students weren't the only ones surprised that she wore a shirt supporting McCain.
"In one class, I had one teacher say she will not judge me for my choice, but that she was surprised that I supported McCain," Catherine said.
If Catherine was shocked by such passive-aggressive threats from instructors, just wait until she goes to college.
"Later, that teacher found out about the experiment and said she was embarrassed because she knew I was writing down what she said," Catherine said.
One student suggested that she be put up on a cross for her political beliefs.
"He said, 'You should be crucifixed.' It was kind of funny because, I was like, don't you mean 'crucified?' " Catherine said.
Other entries in her notebook involved suggestions by classmates that she be "burned with her shirt on" for "being a filthy-rich Republican."
Some said that because she supported McCain, by extension she supported a plan by deranged skinheads to kill Obama before the election. And I thought such politicized logic was confined to American newsrooms. Yet Catherine refused to argue with her peers. She didn't want to jeopardize her experiment.
"I couldn't show people really what it was for. I really kind of wanted to laugh because they had no idea what I was doing," she said.
Only a few times did anyone say anything remotely positive about her McCain shirt. One girl pulled her aside in a corner, out of earshot of other students, and whispered, "I really like your shirt."
That's when you know America is truly supportive of diversity of opinion, when children must whisper for fear of being ostracized, heckled and crucifixed.
The next day, in part 2 of The Brave Catherine Vogt Experiment, she wore another T-shirt, this one with "Obama Girl" written in blue. And an amazing thing happened.
Catherine wasn't very stupid anymore. She grew brains.
"People liked my shirt. They said things like my brain had come back, and I had put the right shirt on today," Catherine said.
Some students accused her of playing both sides.
"A lot of people liked it. But some people told me I was a flip-flopper," she said. "They said, 'You can't make up your mind. You can't wear a McCain shirt one day and an Obama shirt the next day.' "
But she sure did, and she turned her journal into a report for her history teacher, earning Catherine extra credit. We asked the teacher, Norma Cassin-Pountney, whether it was ironic that Catherine would be subject to such intolerance from pro-Obama supporters in a community that prides itself on its liberal outlook.
"That's what we discussed," Cassin-Pountney said about the debate in the classroom when the experiment was revealed. "I said, here you are, promoting this person [Obama] that believes we are all equal and included, and look what you've done? The students were kind of like, 'Oh, yeah.' I think they got it."
Catherine never told us which candidate she would have voted for if she weren't an 8th grader. But she said she learned what it was like to be in the minority.
"Just being on the outside, how it felt, it was not fun at all," she said.
Don't ever feel as if you must conform, Catherine. Being on the outside isn't so bad. Trust me.
1 comment:
The Catherine experiment is SCARY- kids shouldn't be allowed to say things like that to each other, no matter what. And I agree with Anderson, originally from Rhode Island- the flag shouldn't have much if anything at all to do with who is in office. Another example of small-mindedness that we witness daily. Good articles.
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