Some Things Never Change

FROM WHERE I SIT   Some Things Never Change in this Unfamiliar World   NOV. 10, 2012I

America is anticipating Macys’ Thanksgiving Day Parade and stuffing ourselves with turkey.  Thanksgiving is a cherished tradition of gathering family and friends to remember our many blessings.  It all started with the Pilgrims and the Wampanoag Indians gathering for a meal in 1621.   President Abe Lincoln decreed that Thanksgiving would fall on the last Thursday of November.  Later President Gerald R. Ford moved Thanksgiving to the fourth Thursday in November to create a longer Christmas shopping season. 

Some traditions never change.  Ninety percent of Americans choose a plumb, stuffed turkey for their Thanksgiving meal.  We watch Macy’s Thanksgiving parade in New York City on TV and younger folks watch the annual Charlie Brown Thanksgiving special. 

BUT, “The times are a changin...”  The day after America’s “close” November election, my emails were filled with comments about America’s changing world views.  Our entire world seems to be spinning faster, values and lifestyles changing, and technology is making changes in our traditional world that some find hard to adapt to.   Here are a few emails I received:

“I am trying to recover from the election last night.  We were taught to work hard, be honest and get that education so we can amount to something.  I think we are slipping into the gimmie mindset and that everyone should be equal.  Socialism is not in my genes.”

“I hardly recognize my America.  The chasm between the youth of today and me is so wide - all because of technology.  I know I cannot know their world and they cannot understand my prehistoric age without computers. We live worlds apart and I am the one who is scrambling to find friends with my same values and memories. 

“It's hard for me to see how this increasingly socialized society is better than the one we grew up with, where you worked and if you were successful, you would reap the benefits.  I like the philosophy of 'a rising tide lifts all boats' as opposed to the confiscatory policies that we will likely see in Obama's attempt to equalize outcome.  It's hard not to feel that we are doomed.”

The election of 2012 is over.  Our country’s views have changed, at least drifted from traditional republican and democrat ideas.  We’ve become more polarized.  No longer is “compromise” acceptable.  Today our nation is focused on immigration rights, who will pay the most taxes for they are sure to rise, and there’s a huge issue between big government versus individual choice. 

Fox news host Bill O’Reilly stated, “The white establishment is now the minority.  The demographics are changing.  It’s not a traditional America anymore.”

America has changed.  According to an editorial in a November Investor’s Business Daily, African-Americans made up a record 13% of the electorate in 2012.  Latinos make up 14% of Colorado voters; three-fourths of them supported the president.  Nationwide, roughly three of every 19 voters were minorities this election.  African-Americans chose Obama by 93%.  Latinos by 71% and Asian-Americans are Americans fastest-growing minority, by 73%. 

Have we reentered the protest era of the sixties?  Bob Dylan’s well-remembered lyrics to “The times, they are a changing” have resurfaced.  Change is afloat.  This election showed that we are a different nation.  We are a multihued, multicultural country demanding new policies on voter registration, immigration, religious tolerance, respect for civil unions, & legitimizing gay marriage. 

“Come senators, congressmen

Please heed the call

Don’t stand in the doorway

Don’t block up the hall

For he that gets hurt

Will be he who has stalled

There’s a battle outside

And it is ragin’

It’ll soon shake our windows

And rattle our walls

For the times they are a-changin’.

“Come mothers and fathers
Throughout the land
And don't criticize
What you can't understand
Your sons and your daughters
Are beyond your command
Your old road is
Rapidly agin'
Please get out of the new one
If you can't lend your hand
For the times they are a-changin'.

The line it is drawn
The curse it is cast
The slow one now
Will later be fast
As the present now
Will later be past
The order is
Rapidly fadin'
And the first one now
Will later be last
For the times they are a-changin'.

Change frightens, but change also invigorates.   Technology has shifted some values in America that many find difficult to accept.  Some days life feels like I’m in a foreign country where no one but me speaks English and pays cash.  Most in my world text; many do not speak to each other eye to eye or write in sentences.  They interact with machines more than have relationships with other people.

BUT, I’m still a traditionalist.  Some things will NOT change in my life.  I’m determined to speak in sentences and have face to face interactions with other people.  Though I use Bill Pay on my computer and Skype to talk with my daughter in Mexico City, I will once more watch Macys’ Thanksgiving parade on the TV and a bit of the Charlie Brown special.  I’ll serve a big turkey on my expanded Thanksgiving table surrounded by family and friends.  We’ll have stuffing, sweet potatoes, cranberry relish, green-bean casserole and pumpkin pie.  But I cut off the tradition of Mom’s thimble glass of sweet Mogan David wine.  892 words