Yes, anyone can become the US president, and this makes a great deal of difference to today's American parents.
My father always told me that anyone in the United States could become president. "Even you, Dad?" I asked. Yes, even him.
That was the sixties, after Americans had elected the first Catholic president. As a child I did not grasp the historic importance of that event; I simply saw John Kennedy as a well-spoken, good-intentioned and inspiring leader. I became hooked on the potential that that kind of president represented, and the promise that anyone, even my own father, could and should provide it to the nation.
In 2000 when a C-student who could not speak proper English became president, I realized that what my father had told me as a child could cut both ways.
My husband and I had talked about the election with our children, aged 4, 7 and 13, and what it would mean for the country if one or the other of the two very different candidates won. In particular, we talked about the big environmental challenges that needed to be addressed, and how Mr. Gore’s plans in this area were more in line with our family’s values.
When I finally went to bed in the small hours of election night 2000, it was in a cloud of disappointment. I ran into Rachael, my youngest, walking down the hall.
I squatted down, took her by the shoulders and apologized, "Honey, George Bush is going to be our next president."
She said, "That’s not good, Mommy, because he’s going to cut down all the trees and then I won’t be able to take big steps."
How I wish now that felled trees were the only inhibitors to my daughter’s progress in the world resulting from that night!
Now 12, Rachael has spent her formative years under a president whom I could never hold up as a positive role model. For the first time in my life I could not say to any of my children: "See children, hard work, duty and honesty will get you ahead in life." Or, "Look at our president, he shows that getting good grades is the best strategy to success." Or even, "Look at our leader; he talks out problems before striking. And he cares about the sick and the poor. Work, sharing, respect and cooperation, that’s how we get things done in this country."
None of that was an option to me anymore. Where had it gone?
When Rachael was in first grade, she was asked to list three good things presidents did for the country as part of a President’s Day assignment. She could not think of one, and she shared her dilemma with us. My husband told her to say that the one good thing about President Bush was that one day he would no longer be president. I advised her, with real sadness my heart, to focus on what presidents were supposed to do, rather than on her own experience. She told me that when she had confided to her teacher that she did not like President Bush, her teacher had responded, "Oh YES YOU DO!"
That attitude has permeated everything our family has faced as Democrats in rural red state America. As local Democratic Party leaders and activists, we have been refused service, received hate mail, and been intimidated by the local police. We have stood our ground, patiently explaining things like the concept of Habeas Corpus and how it had been betrayed, for example, to local veterans.
With other members of September 11th Families for Peaceful Tomorrows, we have spent our time in free speech zones and in the cross hairs of scornful looks, remarks and gestures by members of our own community. Our children have had to endure playground bullying and social exclusion just because our family openly wanted a government by all the people and for all the people. Was it really so wrong to insist that our government leaders be the kind that we could be proud of again?
When I asked Rachael this morning what Barack Obama’s inauguration meant to her, she said that it meant freedom. More specifically, she said, she would be free in her life to make a better future.
I thought about how the social acceptance issue would be eased for her now with Obama as president. I thought about how our task of parenting also would be eased with a national leader who is a role model for the values we are trying to pass on to her: education, honesty, integrity, tolerance, cooperation and, last but not least, environmental responsibility.
I guess we were both thinking that now she would be able to take those big steps.