Recently, I spent one evening and night with my son and his family, following an Endoscopy. My Daughter-in-Law drove me home. My son and his wife are around forty - with two children, a girl seventeen and a boy twelve - they are wonderfully sweet, intelligent and kind - all four of them. They live in a more conservative suburb of Tampa - and the children attend public schools (the younger child recently was moved to virtual school as he refused to attend his public school. He is artistic and I consider him to be an Indigo Child - google that if you are interested). My granddaughter is a superb student (Senior), highest grades, socially popular, smart and kind and loving - and wonderfully humble and sympathetic/empathetic to those in need. She is remarkable.
The children have always been respected and deeply loved by their parents - and vice versa. I am so proud of how they were raised. Sometimes there is friction. Sometimes there is a major crisis (intra-familial), but family members are loving and caring and it is always worked out.
I am the son of and FDR/JFK/LBJ Feminist mother and a Steelworker/Farmer father who both taught me about the social contract and the solidarity of workers and families and the US middle class/working classes, as well as the love and support society must provide to the most helpless among us.
I have been aware that the area where they live and attend school has a history of racism and racial inequality. This is Florida. When the children were younger - they and I never discussed socil issues - we discussed TV shows, artistic and school issues, how to get along at school and at the mall, as well as many mundane things. That changed recently.
Read More
