My son just spent a month with relatives in Alabama. He is a smart kid whom I've always taught to think for himself. He's fourteen now and makes me proud, especially when he doesn't shy away from political discussions with the Bush zombies.
For instance, he began to interview my grandfather, a WWII vet, former Navy Seabee. He didn't ask him questions about WWII, specifically. Instead, he asked this wise man what he thought about the current conflict in Iraq.
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My grandfather shares a birthday with the Evil Emperor himself, George W. Bush. But my grandfather really IS the hard-working, laid back rancher and military hero. Whereas we all know the truth about W and he is none of the things he and Rove have painted him to be. My grandfather, who is 84 years old,
volunteered to serve in WWII.
My son asked him what he thought about the current conflict in Iraq. My grandfather told him he didn't think we should've gone there in the first place, but he thought it was important for us to win. He said he didn't think the soldiers who were there, at least many of them, really knew the gravity of the situation before they got there. He was visibly upset when he mentioned that he didn't think the troops were properly trained and that the administration didn't seem to care about them. He started crying and said that he was afraid the draft would have to be reinstated and that my son and my nephew would be drafted and sent over to the Middle East for this unjust conflict.
My grandfather is a life-long Democrat. He is a man who is fearless and can think for himself, and I believe that is why he's not fallen prey to the Red State Rhetoric. My grandmother, whom he married when he was seventeen and she was fifteen, is the type of woman who accepts whatever any religious leader tells her as gospel truth. Sadly, she now includes government officials and Fox News Channel as the absolute bearers of truth. She truly is a Bush zombie.
My son has a sleeping disorder and needs to sleep whenever he can, but was getting upset that my grandmother would come downstairs to watch TV, with the volume all the way up, right outside his bedroom. He asked her why she couldn't watch the news on one of the television sets upstairs. She said it was because the downstairs TV is the only one hooked up to satellite, so it's the only one that picks up Fox News. He asked her why she had to watch Fox. She told him:
"Because Fox News is the only news channel that tells the truth about what's going on!"
Ugh. My son got into several discussions and arguments with her while he was there, and he said she would always play the "Jesus" card when he was winning an argument or discussion on its merits.
My grandfather told me he'd discussed the war with my son and was impressed with his insight and his thirst for knowledge. My grandfather told my son to learn everything he could in the next few years in case he gets drafted. He said that when he went to war, there wasn't anything he didn't know about cars or guns. He knew how to fix things and was very resourceful. He said these skills helped him survive in Okinawa.
I hope my grandfather is wrong. I hope my suspicions and worries are wrong. I hope the draft does not get reinstated. If it does and my son is called up, I will become a household name like Cindy Sheehan, but will hopefully not have to bury my son like she did.