Breaking with my 1980 retrospective, I thought that today, Election Day in the US, might be a good day for a political post.
I decided to do this, because Nancy wrote on her blog that her parents are just "not very political" and that kind of surprised me, because while I think that is true of her father, I had never thought of myself that way. This is the comment I wrote on her blog, from which I will continue my thoughts:
"It is actually pretty funny to me that you see me as being "not very political." Because I was just like Andrew once upon a time. I followed both US and Canadian politics avidly. I watched President Kennedy's funeral, after having watched all the news about his assassination; I was very much aware of Johnson's inauguration. I was -- not yet six years old. I watched the liberal party caucus meeting at which Trudeau won the leadership of the party in 1968. I was 10 years old...and very disappointed at the outcome because I was not a Trudeau supporter. I discussed US and Canadian politics All. The. Time. With my family, on the bus on the way to school. In the school library before school. I wanted to be either the Prime Minister of Canada or the President of the United States. Seriously. I ALMOST decided to run for office at age 17, and actually had some supporters among my dad's friends. Somewhere along the line...something happened. Maybe it was reading "Mrs. 'Arris Goes to Parliament" and seeing how achingly difficult it is to change anything. I know that part of it has been the way the media turns everything into a circus, and the way "the truth" (whatever that is) gets so distorted, and the invasion of privacy...I am not sure. But somehow I have wound up as this person who is seen as "not very political" and who just wants this election year to be over. Please. Yesterday."
I came from a family in which politics mattered. My mother's brother Alma was a politician in Alberta, very active in provincial and local politics, one of the formative members of the Social Credit Party in Canada. He served several terms as an MLA (member of the legislative assembly), so lived with his family in Edmonton, the capital of Alberta. In fact, my mom spent a school year living in Edmonton with them. (Her neice, Doreen, only a year younger, admonished her to tell all the kids at school that she was Doreen's COUSIN, not her AUNT. That was just too embarrassing.) When I was a child, Uncle Alma spent years as mayor of Raymond.
My father's family was also politically active. One year, Uncle Clyde was the organizer of a picket of the sugar factory. He organized all the farmers with signs on pickets, and they did the whole marching around demanding better pay for their sugar beets and better conditions for their workers.
As I said before, I was very politically aware and informed. I read three newspapers from cover to cover every week--in my little town, we did not have any dailies, but I read our town newspaper, The Taber Times, and two regional papers The Free Press Weekly and The Western Producer, thoroughly each week. (The Western Producer had a young writers club, and all of my siblings and I participated, all of us submitting stories and poems for publication, and all of us were occasionally published.)
The bad thing about my reading was that, during the sixties and seventies, a time of great civil unrest, there were a whole bunch of farm murders throughout the Canadian and US farm states. All the gory details of these crimes would be written in the papers (I don't think we got much television coverage of such things back then, at least not on CBC, our one and only network until by my early teens when we also had CTV) and therefore, already prone to nightmares, I spent many sleepless nights worrying about being murdered in my bed.
The good thing about my reading was that I noticed things. Once, when I was about 15 or so, I read a tiny notice in the paper that there would be a public meeting in Taber about a law that was going to be voted on in the legislature. It was about the right of farmers to move things on their farms--things like rocks. Nancy will realize the importance of a law like this, since she has spent time rock picking on Uncle LeRon's farm! Anyways, I brought this notice to my dad's attention--he also read the paper, but he had missed seeing this--they had, I am sure deliberately-- made the notice as small as possible. He called Uncle Clyde, and they organized a calling tree. The meeting was scheduled for a small room in the Town Hall that would hold about 20 people. They really did not expect many to show up, since the notice was small and that was all the advertising they had done--just enough to satisfy the demands of the law. Well, my dad and uncle managed to notify enough so that several hundred people showed up for the meeting, and all of them were loud, vocal and demanding to be heard. They had to move the meeting into the auditorium. All the fuss attracted the press, so they made the front page of our own local paper and of The Lethbridge Herald. This way, awareness of the law that was being attempted to be railroaded through the legislature was brought to the attention of many in the province, and interest among farmers spread. It was a glorious moment for me, my dad and my uncle.
I will end with a comment I posted on Nancy's friend Crystal's blog:
"I grew up in Canada (Nancy's mom), and always thought that if I were in the States, I just might be a republican because so many of my relatives were, and we must all think alike, right? But...after living in the US, I realize that I am so NOT a republican. Actually, on the www.politicalcompass.org questionnaire, every time I take it, I find myself way out in left field by Ghandi. And actually, I don't mind at all being associated with him. On the aforementioned political compass, Romney and Obama are pretty close to each other, at least when compared to either of them and where Ghandi and I sit. Once my nephew Michael and I were discussing politics, and he said, "It is impossible to be both Canadian and republican" --assuming, you know, that you are the kind of Canadian who is also a dual citizen of the US and so therefore it might matter--and I have to agree. Socialism, as in democratic socialism, which "seeks to establish socialism through democratic processes and propagate its ideals within the context of a democratic system" is very much a part of the Canadian psyche. So, though I am a dual citizen and CAN vote in the US, and definitely Obama is a teeny bit closer to Ghandi, I am just probably not going to vote. Mormons who are anti-socialist are so interesting to me, given that there are complete countries counting a goodly number of socialist Mormons among their citizenry..."
And the chart from political compass, not mine, but the one that shows the political positions of people in the current election. Me and Ghandi are right over there by Stewart Alexander, and I don't even know who he is. When I was a teenager, I would have known that--without having to look it up, like I will have to do now! I encourage people to go to www.politicalcompass.org, and learn about the whole political spectrum, and where you really fit. It may surprise you.
I decided to do this, because Nancy wrote on her blog that her parents are just "not very political" and that kind of surprised me, because while I think that is true of her father, I had never thought of myself that way. This is the comment I wrote on her blog, from which I will continue my thoughts:
"It is actually pretty funny to me that you see me as being "not very political." Because I was just like Andrew once upon a time. I followed both US and Canadian politics avidly. I watched President Kennedy's funeral, after having watched all the news about his assassination; I was very much aware of Johnson's inauguration. I was -- not yet six years old. I watched the liberal party caucus meeting at which Trudeau won the leadership of the party in 1968. I was 10 years old...and very disappointed at the outcome because I was not a Trudeau supporter. I discussed US and Canadian politics All. The. Time. With my family, on the bus on the way to school. In the school library before school. I wanted to be either the Prime Minister of Canada or the President of the United States. Seriously. I ALMOST decided to run for office at age 17, and actually had some supporters among my dad's friends. Somewhere along the line...something happened. Maybe it was reading "Mrs. 'Arris Goes to Parliament" and seeing how achingly difficult it is to change anything. I know that part of it has been the way the media turns everything into a circus, and the way "the truth" (whatever that is) gets so distorted, and the invasion of privacy...I am not sure. But somehow I have wound up as this person who is seen as "not very political" and who just wants this election year to be over. Please. Yesterday."
I came from a family in which politics mattered. My mother's brother Alma was a politician in Alberta, very active in provincial and local politics, one of the formative members of the Social Credit Party in Canada. He served several terms as an MLA (member of the legislative assembly), so lived with his family in Edmonton, the capital of Alberta. In fact, my mom spent a school year living in Edmonton with them. (Her neice, Doreen, only a year younger, admonished her to tell all the kids at school that she was Doreen's COUSIN, not her AUNT. That was just too embarrassing.) When I was a child, Uncle Alma spent years as mayor of Raymond.
My father's family was also politically active. One year, Uncle Clyde was the organizer of a picket of the sugar factory. He organized all the farmers with signs on pickets, and they did the whole marching around demanding better pay for their sugar beets and better conditions for their workers.
As I said before, I was very politically aware and informed. I read three newspapers from cover to cover every week--in my little town, we did not have any dailies, but I read our town newspaper, The Taber Times, and two regional papers The Free Press Weekly and The Western Producer, thoroughly each week. (The Western Producer had a young writers club, and all of my siblings and I participated, all of us submitting stories and poems for publication, and all of us were occasionally published.)
The bad thing about my reading was that, during the sixties and seventies, a time of great civil unrest, there were a whole bunch of farm murders throughout the Canadian and US farm states. All the gory details of these crimes would be written in the papers (I don't think we got much television coverage of such things back then, at least not on CBC, our one and only network until by my early teens when we also had CTV) and therefore, already prone to nightmares, I spent many sleepless nights worrying about being murdered in my bed.
The good thing about my reading was that I noticed things. Once, when I was about 15 or so, I read a tiny notice in the paper that there would be a public meeting in Taber about a law that was going to be voted on in the legislature. It was about the right of farmers to move things on their farms--things like rocks. Nancy will realize the importance of a law like this, since she has spent time rock picking on Uncle LeRon's farm! Anyways, I brought this notice to my dad's attention--he also read the paper, but he had missed seeing this--they had, I am sure deliberately-- made the notice as small as possible. He called Uncle Clyde, and they organized a calling tree. The meeting was scheduled for a small room in the Town Hall that would hold about 20 people. They really did not expect many to show up, since the notice was small and that was all the advertising they had done--just enough to satisfy the demands of the law. Well, my dad and uncle managed to notify enough so that several hundred people showed up for the meeting, and all of them were loud, vocal and demanding to be heard. They had to move the meeting into the auditorium. All the fuss attracted the press, so they made the front page of our own local paper and of The Lethbridge Herald. This way, awareness of the law that was being attempted to be railroaded through the legislature was brought to the attention of many in the province, and interest among farmers spread. It was a glorious moment for me, my dad and my uncle.
I will end with a comment I posted on Nancy's friend Crystal's blog:
"I grew up in Canada (Nancy's mom), and always thought that if I were in the States, I just might be a republican because so many of my relatives were, and we must all think alike, right? But...after living in the US, I realize that I am so NOT a republican. Actually, on the www.politicalcompass.org questionnaire, every time I take it, I find myself way out in left field by Ghandi. And actually, I don't mind at all being associated with him. On the aforementioned political compass, Romney and Obama are pretty close to each other, at least when compared to either of them and where Ghandi and I sit. Once my nephew Michael and I were discussing politics, and he said, "It is impossible to be both Canadian and republican" --assuming, you know, that you are the kind of Canadian who is also a dual citizen of the US and so therefore it might matter--and I have to agree. Socialism, as in democratic socialism, which "seeks to establish socialism through democratic processes and propagate its ideals within the context of a democratic system" is very much a part of the Canadian psyche. So, though I am a dual citizen and CAN vote in the US, and definitely Obama is a teeny bit closer to Ghandi, I am just probably not going to vote. Mormons who are anti-socialist are so interesting to me, given that there are complete countries counting a goodly number of socialist Mormons among their citizenry..."
And the chart from political compass, not mine, but the one that shows the political positions of people in the current election. Me and Ghandi are right over there by Stewart Alexander, and I don't even know who he is. When I was a teenager, I would have known that--without having to look it up, like I will have to do now! I encourage people to go to www.politicalcompass.org, and learn about the whole political spectrum, and where you really fit. It may surprise you.
6 comments:
I'm a little farther left than the Spencer guy (don't know who he is). I do know who Jill Stein is and on another test I took she is who I aligned with the most (though I was something like 90% democratic-oriented so my vote went to them). I think America's strong 2-party system is a bit of a fallacy...
Seriously...look how close the two parties are to each other. What is all the fighting and bickering about? Teeny differences of opinion. I think my biggest political problem is I am so jaded by it all.
I am a little bit - a whole lot - baffled by this election. Here in France, our radios and tvs and newspapers on line will keep us informed about every minute of the election. The way it's been ever since the campaign started. For Europe, the American elections are very important, more than ever... Economically speaking... Environmentally too...
Just in case you never heard about it in the States, we elected our new President this Spring. (France)
The campaign was ugly (uglier than in the States) and very harsh but we had 6 candidates ranging from Brown (the far right) to Dark Blue to Light Blue to Green to Pink to to Red (the new Communist party). Pink won. I mean the Socialist party.
Most people here don't talk about their political choices (we do not talk about money either in France). Philippe and I, we did vote Socialist for many reasons.
For me it is hard to understand how you never could get out of this 2-party system.
Two parties, ok. But I still see a slight (and sometimes very big...) difference between the two candidates' platforms.
But maybe because I am a Socialist at heart and because health programs are so important for me.
And also because I can't stand to hear that poor people, people with problems, etc. are totally willing to be supported by the state. (Which is something you hear in France too from the Right wing parties.) Being dependent is very often a hardship and never a pleasure... I mean, usually.
So sad to read such a post from you, petite soeur. Because it shows so blatantly how bad this campaign has been. Same thing to be said about France where too many people ended up not voting.
I never left any comments on Facebook because I am not American and who am I to judge but this has been very hard from time to time.
I knew that you were very political when you were young. I remember. You were way more political than I was at the time. And good for you!
I love you.
Sorry for the deleted comments. Technical difficulties led to a double posting which led to reconsideration of the whole thing. Agreed on the jaded bit. Thanks for writing this month. It has been so good to get to know more about the little sister I didn't get to know back then. Also, did you know about our uncle Loren's politic activities?
I was aware that Uncle Loren was very interested in politics. I remember when he became a US citizen--which was pretty silly, he did it the hard way. Meanwhile, up in Canada, Uncle Alma just waltzed into the US consulate and picked up his US passport...I don't think Uncle Loren knew he was already a US citizen! :o)
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