By Bob Hoyt / Chronicle contributor
The Kid and the Cub were picking berries at the edge of a stand of timber. The Cub was carrying a small radio. It was stuck on a talk-show station. “I thought we had an election last year,” Kid said.
“We did,” the Cub answered.
The Kid still persisted. “But the people voted for a change in direction for the country. Listen to that clabber-head on your radio. No one elected him to judge our leaders. He’s saying ‘no!’ to everything! And he needs professional counseling to get over the fact that we have an African-American president. He may bite himself and get hoof and mouth disease!”
“The radio is stuck,” the Cub said.
“You don’t really believe that nonsense anyway, do you?” the Kid continued. “There are as many people trying to keep from changing direction as there are making changes. My mom says that Independence Day is coming and citizens have forgotten about us being ‘one nation under God.’ Gaggles of weirdoes everywhere think they are authorized to stop the country from changing direction. If you belong to the wrong party, then you better watch them or they’ll run you down or run you over. Their ‘loyal opposition’ has turned into a whining club with self-imposed ignorance for by-laws. Where is justice and reason?”
“Settle down! Those are strong words,” Cub said.
“I don’t think so,” the Kid answered. “Take the old vice president. He wants us to keep torturing terrorist prisoners, even though most of the people are against torture.”
The Cub had a different view. “He just has a different idea about how to run a war,” the Cub said.
“Yeah, different from what the people want,” the Kid answered.
“Maybe,” the Cub said. “When did you get to be a war expert? You’ve never been in war.”
The Kid snorted. “Neither was the old vice president. But war is not all they whine about,” the Kid said. “Politicians with sunlamp suntans and pretty hair keep braying about the borrowed money their grandkids are going to have to pay back.”
“Isn’t that true? Someone has to pay it back,” the Cub said.
“Sure it’s true,” the Kid retorted. “But if someone doesn’t get the country heaved to its feet it won’t make any difference how much taxes are cut or how much debt someone will pay off. There won’t be an economy. And what about health care? Even before there’s a plan, the drug companies and the insurance companies are using our tradition of spirited debate to say anything they want, whether it’s true or not. They want to keep robbing us.”
“You’re looking at the bad side of everything,” the Cub answered.
“Okay,” the Kid protested. “You pick something. How about oil? How are we going to get off of foreign oil if the oil lobby nitwits convince people that we only need to drill more wells in more places? They believe there’s a big puddle of oil in the middle of the earth.”
The Cub sighed. “So? Have you got the answers?” the Cub asked.
“If I did, I wouldn’t be blathering about ‘the market’ and trying to do away with government. Too many citizens ignore what the people and good government programs can do when they work together. This county wasn’t built by waving the flag and pointing fingers and putting down people with opposing ideas. We can believe different things, but we need to listen to each other instead of howling and complaining. My mom says if the elephants would quit fighting with the donkeys we’d all get through this bad patch in our history. But she says we might get through it a lot quicker if goats and tigers instead of squawkers and squabblers were running the political parties!”
