Random thoughts on fear and history
Well, it’s over. Or, I suppose, it’s just beginning. History was made and now the hard work begins. I’m not sure about the reaction to Sen. Barack Obama’s win where you all live, but here in Montana, it’s been, well, odd.
Considered to be a solidly red state, Montana didn’t get so much as a nod from Sen. John McCain yet he was able to pull off a narrow win. Bozeman and other areas in the state’s southwest corner voted strongly for Obama. The shocker was that Billings, which has voted Republican as far back as anyone can remember, also went overwhelmingly for Obama.
The state reelected incumbent Democratic Gov. Brian Schweitzer by a 2-1 margin and all five statewide offices: attorney general, secretary of state, auditor and state school superintendent, went to Democrats. Republicans, however, retained control of the Legislature. Go figure.
At the same time, local gun dealers have never had such a profitable week. The NRA endorsed McCain and sponsored TV ads warning gun ownership would be in jeopardy if Obama were elected. Unwarranted fear mongering, but obviously effective. Shotguns, rifles and handguns flew off the shelves, leaving sporting goods stores nearly empty of firearms and ammunition, even though dealers anticipated the reaction and most had doubled their inventories.
This puzzles me. But what do I know? As a newcomer, I’ve been careful about expressing my views even when asked outright how I’d be voting. I think that question borders on rude and is way too confrontational. But it was more compelling when the inquiry came from my young friend, who apparently had heard quite a bit about fear.
Evading her question for the moment, I asked the nine-year-old her opinion. It went like this:
Child: “I like McCain because he would be better at war.”
Me: “Do you think much about war?”
Child: “Well, it’s like 9/11. We have to win the other team.”
Me: “And what is it about 9/11 that worries you?”
Child: Silence
Me: Seeking to reassure, “Well what do you think there is here in Montana that might be a target for such an attack”? (I’m thinking: what are they going to do, bomb your dog?)
Child: “I don’t know. Are you voting for Obama?”
Me: “Yes, I plan to.”
Child: “Why?”
Me: “Well, I think McCain is an honorable man and could be a good president. He ran once before and if I had been voting then, in the Republican primary, I probably would have voted for him. But this is a different time, a historic opportunity to reunite the country and I think Obama would be the most likely one to do that.”
Child: More silence. Probably too much information for a nine-year-old.
Me: We’re very lucky to live here in Montana because we have all sorts of people who think differently about these things and yet we all get along. However it turns out, it’ll be fine, and we’ll all still like each other.
By that time, we were pulling into her driveway, and I was off the hook. But I couldn’t help wondering what she had heard and from whom. She doesn’t watch much TV, and I can’t imagine a teacher bringing up 9/11, much less referring to armies as “teams.” Probably one of her young friends was repeating what she overheard somewhere.
Anyway, at a David Quammen lecture the night after the election, the mood was euphoric. Apparently, the entire student body of MSU voted for Obama and, along with most of their professors, celebrated mightily until dawn.
Now, that I understand. A university with outstanding science departments would be justifiably wary of another administration that might devalue science in general, and anything to do with climate science or evolution, in particular. While McCain’s record on these issues is moderate, Bush appointees have done everything possible to gut the Endangered Species Act, the Clean Air Act, and the budgets of the NIH, FDA, EPA and other agencies concerned with environmental quality and public health.
Today, I’m confident that Obama will choose carefully from many talented and knowledgeable people of both parties to lead key agencies. No more Heck of a job, Brownies.
And I hope we’re done with the rhetoric of fear, those baseless threats of dire consequences spread on the airwaves and the Internet. Smears, lies and savagely edited videotape. We’re told political operatives use these tactics because they work, and perhaps that’s true in some places, among people who are comfortable only with what they have known all their lives.
But these times call for something better from our leaders and from all of us. We’re willing to work together if you are. Just ask us. We’re not afraid anymore. Just show us the way.