LOOKING FOR HEROS AND HOPE IN THE LAND OF CORRUPTION

Often you read this column and wonder about the nurse with the pissy, pithy insights and comments. ( all two of my readers that is...) I also am a mom. A good piece of me sees the world though my son's eyes. I try to see what he sees, and sometimes I try to see what his eyes are searching on the horizon.

"Teach your children well" .I have been walking around with this song in my head all week. You remember that song from the 1970's, by Crosby, Stills, Nash and Young. It is a song I lullabyed to my baby when President Clinton was in the White House. I would sit and rock him for hours...

When I was pregnant I walked in Peace Marches, at that point in time it was the build up to Iraq- the first one. I collected Peace buttons and sang peace songs left over from the sixties. My son now has usurped my music collection and all of my buttons. He also is now the same age I was when I had my Watergate Summer. Which over the past few monthes has become more and more haunting. Teach your children well, does that mean teach them your own history.

I grew up with Nixon and Vietnam. I didn't like Nixon, from early on. As early as eight when he was campaigning I called Nixon a name at the dinner table. To this day I see Palmolive, and I cringe and think of Mr.Nixon. I called him a name that I had learned while playing hopscotch on the playground, I wasn't even sure what it meant- but I knew it somehow suited him. And to be honest his name was Richard, so "Dick Head", could be just considered another version of his name. I also sadly grew up in a Very Republican family where early on I was viewed with great horror and shock. My grandfather once exclaimed "if she doesn't turn around soon, she'll soon be turning into a damn liberal Hippie". Somehow that career path now held bohemian charms and allure, now that it had been condemned.

( Years later I would learn that there were Closet Democrats in the family, it would have been nice to know that while I was gagging on the green Palmolive).

Back to teaching Your Children, So I have tried to teach my son well. I have tried to teach him about What Matters. That we take care of each other in this world. That we look out for the elderly, the poor, our neighbors. That we try to do the right thing, even if it feels uncomfortable. That when someone is in trouble that we do what we can to help. That we don't bail on people. That Bullies are never to be tolerated. That whistleblowers are to be valued and protected. That Honesty and Integrity are more than mythical, they are valuable qualities to be embraced. And he watched Katrina with the same horror that I experienced.

As he is a boy, early on he started looking for heros in books and movies. And in the past five years he has been looking again. He has seen them all Bond,Spiderman, Zorro, X-Men , Batman etc. He even jokes about it," I think I am looking for Heros, because I am not going to see one on the news". I tell him to read To Kill a Mockingbird. He says "Maybe I am looking for an Atticus.
Geez I am looking for things that aren't here". We read All the Presidents Men and he says, "Whelp we don't have a Carl or a Bob, so how is this gonna end without them ? "Hmm, I don't know....

"You know none of the people that the news says are corrupt really go to jail. I mean look at Enron and all" ( I try to remind him of Tyco and that Some have gone to jail.) And he points out it is not Real Jail. He is worried that we do not have a Justice System that works in this Country, and I am running low on proof.

"The Rackateer is not someone dressed in a black suit with a diamond stick pin. Sometimes it is someone outfitted in a grey flannel suit.....When the rackateer bribes local officials and secures immunity from police action, the price exacted by corrupt law enforcement -incalculable in dollars-is paid again by the public. In short, organized crime affects everyone. It cannot be be the only concern of law enforcement officers. It must be the urgent and active concern of every citizen. "
Robert F. Kennedy is quoted in Theft of the Nation by Donald R.Cressney.

He points out I was lucky I had heros, people that left their mark and made a difference, I had Robert Kennedy, and Martin Luther King, and even Rosa Parks. I tried to tell him that there have been different people that have tried to make a difference. We talk about this Plamgeate Investigation late into the night and we review the "Players", the inpacted, and the bad journalism that is indeed a player ( NYT & Judy Miller). He reads alot so some of his mentors are writers, Howard Zinn, Al Franken, and John Stewart, and more. And he has been watching this Investigation closely, and he said "You know Joe Wilson is a whistleblower, and he and his wife are being mistreated because he spoke the Truth, Joe needs a Hero too. He needs Someone to tell the Truth. It is different than Watergate, Watergate had Carl and Bob, we don't have that this time. We don't even have Peter Jennings anymore.We have John Stewart. But there has to be some Justice, and a Hero to bring it."

So he's Watching and Waiting. And he also knows his future is being determined by Lies and he doesn't want
to br drafted to fight for the Liers. And he knows it could happen. He also knows his mom won't let it happen.
And I sit and wonder will History repeat itself again leaving him jaded and cynical, and wiser.
Or will the process leave him bitter and confused.

Or will the Next few days deliver a Hero, an Atticus, to bring some Justice and Truth for all of us. Is Fitzgerald our Atticus ?
Is this Plamegate our Watergate ? Are we at the Tipping Point ?

"We must accept finite disappointment,but we must never lose infinite hope." Martin Luther King