I cautiously try on a celebratory hat then replace it on the shelf for now…

Around here, Bush is synonymous with Mega Evil Fucking Bad. H.o.p. has grown up hearing it…is well aware. Y’know the old cartoon where Gallant is Good and Goofus is Bad, in simplifying ethics for H.o.p. Bush has pretty much stood for All Things Bad. “Would Bush do it? Well then that’s just what you don’t want to be.”

Whenever a picture of Bush comes up, H.o.p. reflexively comments, “I don’t like Bush.”

And no it’s not brainwashing when you’re trying to bring up a child to be able to recognize rabid dogs and what has not a shred of respect for what isn’t the color of money. No, it’s like training the baby penguin that the leopard seal will eat your hide the first chance it gets. It’s part of raising your child to be able to survive in the world and is my duty as a parent.

Monday, H.o.p. sees a pic of Bush and comments, “I need to learn how to write and read well so that when I’m an adult I can vote Bush out of office.”

Now, I hadn’t told H.o.p. that he needed to read and write for that, but I didn’t remark anything otherwise. He was aware that a voting day was upon us and being eight years of age had the idea that Bush was being voted on as well and that hopefully Bush might be voted out but as Bush is everlasting ever-ready evil he assumes that Bush will still be the foe when he’s old enough to vote, thus the wish to one day vote him out of office. We spent a good part of the day discussing voting and I didn’t say to H.o.p., “Well, let’s just hope your vote will count one day, because not everyone gets to vote and not every vote counts because there’s rigging and voter intimidation and difficulties intentionally put in the way of people being able to vote.” I didn’t tell him about black boxes…though I have before, and I have talked about all this with him before, but when the child pipes up and in hopeful voice exclaims he will vote Bush out of office and must learn to read and write to do so, then I’m just going to say, “Good for you.”

So, Tuesday we talked a lot about voting and politics and war. We did our spelling (the AVKO is really working and I fill up his spelling page with happy stars) and we did multiplication and I was otherwise preoccupied with thinking about the polls and waiting to hear what kind of bullshit was being pulled across the country to skew votes and prevent people from voting. When I read the exit polls I wanted to go, “Hell, yes!” and felt an adrenaline flush of excitement. When I read of people at one precinct spontaneously breaking out into a burst of song (“Nyah, nyah, nyah, nyah, hey, hey, good-bye”) I felt the same flush of adrenaline and allowed myself to enjoy it a minute before switching it off….because I was expecting shit. All kinds of it. And I’m cynical.

Of course Earthlink DSL was out most of the day and is still out and right now (I’m only online via dial-up currently working but intermittently at 26 kbps) which means I didn’t get to track some of the news I wanted to tonight (we don’t have cable and our television reception is poor). So we watched a rental movie, “Pirates of the Caribbean”, which was entertaining, and then when the dial-up began working I scouted around the online news and read some commentary.

Is nice be able to tell H.o.p. that, thankfully, the GOP no longer controls the House at least.

After everything the Dems have given Bush it’s not like I’m a fawning fan and it’s not like I trust them…but they’re not Republican. It’s enough to make me feel well maybe, eventually, perhaps, if things change a lot, I might concede, may acquiesce to a bit of hope. We still live in a fucking insane country and no telling what Bush has up his sleeve that he could pull ten days from now or in two years (impeach the bastard, please) but hey the citizens took back the House and maybe if they’re mad enough then who knows maybe they’ll decide rioting in the streets is an option if Bush pulls out all the stops and announces he’s king for life.

I’m not holding my breath but I’m putting on my imaginary polka-dotted party hat and tooting my imaginary horn for two seconds and now that that’s done I’m taking off the hat and tucking it away with the horn on the shelf to the left of me, behind too many other hopes and dreams, but this is a hat I in particular hope I’ll be able to pull out one day and wear a little longer for sake of my son. The other congratulatory party hats will never be worn. But the hat that celebrates a measure of national sanity is the one I’m hoping will get another airing some day soon, for sake of the future of my son and the kids of today.