Trump World and the Beaver<\/p>\n
\u201cLeave it to Beaver\u201d was a television show from 1957 to 1963. It presented the model suburban family, the Cleavers, living in Mayfield, Anytown, USA. It was a tranquil world, as June cleaned the house in pearls, dress and heels and Ward went to work in shirt and tie, then came home to the business of raising Wally and \u201cthe Beaver\u201d.<\/p>\n
It was white, middle class, suburban, and has become a model of what life used to be like. \u201cIf only we could go back to those innocent times,\u201d before Vietnam (though we were already there), civil rights (Rosa Parks and the Montgomery Bus Boycott, 1955), and grateful Muslims (\u201cLawrence of Arabia,\u201d 1962). Jobs seemed plentiful (unemployment rates averaged 6% – currently 4.8%) and crime didn\u2019t happen (1.6 in a hundred thousand chance of violent crime, versus a high of 7.6 in 1992, and a current 3.8.)<\/p>\n
All of those issues existed, but Ward, June, Wally and the Beaver never had to deal with them. And with the election of 2016, many in this nation were trying to go back to that idyllic, make believe, world. Gay marriage, immigrant rights, global warming, a black President: the drumbeat of change, change, change that many want to escape. Escape back to Mayfield, to a non-existent time when everything was \u201cright.\u201d<\/p>\n
Did this nation\u2019s reach towards acceptance and freedom exceed its grasp? Here is just a few of the changes we\u2019ve gone through in the past 50 years:<\/p>\n
1993 \u2013 President Clinton authorizes \u201cdon\u2019t ask, don\u2019t tell\u201d policy for gays in the military
\n2011 \u2013 President Obama allows military service regardless of sexual preference
\n2016 \u2013 President Obama allows transgendered to serve in military<\/p>\n
1970 \u2013 US Census defines minorities at 16.5%
\n2020 \u2013 US Census projects minorities at 39.9%
\n2042 \u2013 US Census projects \u201cminorities\u201d at 50.1%<\/p>\n
1990 \u2013 Major Broadcast News \u2013 ABC, NBC, CBS, PBS
\n2016 \u2013 Major Broadcast News \u2013 ABC, CBS, NBC \u2013 MSNBC, FOX, PBS,
\nhundreds(thousands?) of online sites<\/p>\n
1990 \u2013 Flags memorializing the Confederacy flew over the state capitols of South Carolina, Florida, Mississippi, Arkansas, and Georgia
\n2017 – Mississippi still displays the Confederate Battle Flag, some other states still have some symbolism of the Confederacy in their flags.<\/p>\n
Our nation has moved towards change with what to some is alarming swiftness. While there were plenty of issues specific to the Trump\/Clinton Presidential race, there is a much larger context that should be considered. Many in this country, after electing the first African-American President in 2008, were demanding a halt. The first woman President was beyond them. Even Donald Trump was better than this crazy pace of change: to go back to a calmer time, when Wally and the Beaver went to school in Mayfield, and the world was predictable and constant.<\/p>\n
That world existed only on television. But its \u201creality\u201d still exists in many minds. If we look at the \u201cRed and Blue\u201d schism (or the \u201cflyover country schism\u201d) we need to acknowledge that the pace of change in America is incredibly unsettling to many. They feel left behind, looking at a country they don\u2019t recognize, seeing things they didn\u2019t think were possible, and facing challenges that Ward and June never acknowledged.<\/p>\n
As one of her final acts of the Presidential campaign, Hillary Clinton and her staff wore purple to symbolize a uniting of America. As the \u201cresistance\u201d movement moves forward, we should not be secure in a 2.8 million vote majority. We need to find ways to assuage the concerns of those who feel left behind by the rapid pace of change.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"