When I was a kid, the 60s and 70s were alive and flourishing and civil rights advances were happening daily. I was too young to see the sacrifice, but old enough to understand that society was changing all around me.
Kent State happened when I was in third grade. I never will forget it. My teacher sat us down and asked us if we knew what Karma was. She said that terrible things were happening and that the forces that want to repress all the advances that were happening were gaining strength. It was a big pendulum, she said, and to watch out when it swings the other way.
She said it is always easier for politicians to run on NO than on YES, that it was easier to run on hate than on love, on fear rather than compassion. She warned us that a dark cloak was coming that would try to hide the light, and she said that, when we were grown-ups, we could stand up and say what was right and that it would make a difference.
I don't think about her often. It was such a 60s time in the world, and, clearly, she was really quite a 60s kind of a teacher.
But, 35 years later, in this election cycle, I see that my third grade teacher, flaky though she was, had a point.
For too long, we have been defined as what we are against rather than what we are for. Our positive messages are being hidden under the dark cloak of negativism. We are against Bush. We are against the war. We are against FMA. We are against judges and schoolchildren and sunshine and apple pie.
We are painted in deep black paint, as offering negativism and obstructionism rather than forward thinking.
But it's not true. We are not anti-Republican. We are pro-American. If the Republicans don't like it, let them be anti-Democrats.
It is far better to say "everything that I support, Ashcroft opposes." rather than "everything that Ashcroft supports, I oppose." It's the same sentiment, but the words are different. We have the good of America at heart. They oppose it. We're good, they're bad. We support, they oppose. We move forward, they obstruct, and that's if you're lucky.
Words matter. And it happens that all of it is true. We do move forward. They do push back. Not the other way around.
Republicans have been very good at seizing this basic truth and painting us in the minds of middle America as negative and miserly and obstructive and the Grinch who stole Christmas.
They lie. The truth is nearly always exactly the opposite of what they say.
Let us choose our words carefully to reflect the positive.
What I suggest is that we find things that we are for.
Rather than being AGAINST FMA, let's be FOR equality for all our citizens.
Rather than being AGAINST the war in Iraq, let's be FOR a strong America with its troops at home.
Rather than being AGAINST Bush, or Kerry for that matter, let us be FOR progress and change.
Let us be FOR our economy, our environment, civil rights, equality, tolerance, service, intelligent use of our resources (human and natural), science, research, tomorrow.
Let the Republicans be AGAINST us. Let them stand up against our economy, our environment, civil rights, equality, tolerance, service, intelligent use of our resources, science, research and tomorrow. They are anyway. But let the American electorate be served with that choice between Democrats and Republicans in every race in the country.
I'll bet America will respond... POSITIVELY