So my son had to watch John McCain's acceptance speech last night as an assignment for his history class. (I didn't object when he was required to watch Obama's speech last week, but this time around I was thinking, "What? That's a ridiculous assignment. They shouldn't be requiring me to expose my child to Republican propaganda.") My son decided he wanted to watch the speech by himself, in our bedroom, where he could focus on his note-taking--his job was to write down 15 facts from McCain's speech. Please don't get me started about how difficult I would find that task.
After my son had left the room, my husband turned to me and said, "That's probably for the best. I wouldn't want him listening to me and writing down facts like 'If John McCain wins the election, my family will be moving to Canada.'"
Once McCain started speaking, of course, no end of hilarity ensued. I can't wait to introduce Sarah Palin to Washington.
"Um . . . Mr. McCain . . . Washington is dead, sir," my husband said.
"What?" I said. "No one told me that! I just had coffee with him yesterday!"
And on and on and on. Before too long, my son came out of the bedroom with his list of facts (I didn't fact-check his assignment, in the interest of letting him get to bed sometime before the new year.)
"So, what do you think of Mr. McCain?" I asked.
"He almost got me," my son said. "I think it's pretty impressive that he spent five years in a prison and didn't come out completely mean and evil."
I declined to challenge that assessment. "Well," I said, "Dad and I have always told people that the only way you and Sissy can rebel against us is by becoming Republican accountants. I guess it was inevitable that we'd part ways."
My son gave me a sideways look. "I said he almost got me. This fish is not taking the bait."
If my eleven-year-old is smart enough to see through the rhetoric of jingoism, let's hope the rest of the country is too. I'm not holding my breath, but I'm audaciously hopeful.
No comments:
Post a Comment