I've long been a political junkie, like many who come to DailyKos--strategizing, going door-to-door, persuading, policy making, meeting political stars, donating, experiencing the "agony of defeat" and the absolutely addicting high of winning. Sometimes, with all the activity, the fact that politics is about quality of life for all people can get lost in the shuffle. My son has just graduated from high school and I've been thinking a lot about what kind of quality of life he and his friends from the class of 2006 will have. There's more.
I've just gotten back home from taking our youngest son to start college. His room here is breaking my heart. It's too neat, too clean. His favorite posters are missing and it is too quiet. Before, if he was home and awake, the music was blaring. Classical, jazz, rap, teen rock, Christian rock, classic rock and roll--always played at glass-shaking decibel levels. I keep waiting for the front door to open, for him to be home with his posse of loud, hungry, laughing high school friends. I know he will be home again--at Thanksgiving, at Christmas, but there is still the shock of missing him now. I think of parents like Cindy Sheehan whose sons' and daughters' rooms will be forever quiet and waiting.
We have lived in this house for seven years. When we first moved here, my son's newly-made friends came by when their parents could find the time to drive them here. These young adolescent boys were scrawny stick figures with torsos going one way, arms going another, and legs in a third direction, like marionettes with St. Vitus dance. They would squeak and mumble looking down at their shoes when forced to interact with adults, mothers, females: me. Is there anything more vulnerable than a 13 year old boy?
I think of the 13 year old boys in Iraq dealing with all the changes brought by adolescence but also trying to survive the death and destruction all around them.
From his debut as a tentative "new kid in school" in sixth grade to being elected to vice president of his freshman class was a bumpy journey, filled with many painful teen moments in between. He absolutely refused to run for office after freshman year because the Student Council meetings were "a useless waste of time" but remained a committed volunteer in an after-school mentoring program for middle school students throughout his four years of high school. I know that passing up popularity symbols in favor of volunteerism is not particularly valued in TeenWorld, much less in our grab-it-while-you-can Republican BushWorld. I'm proud of his values but wonder if they can survive in the corporation-driven, competitive world that is America now.
Later, we became a second home to stampeding herds of teenaged boys of various sizes but always with huge, running-shoe-clad clown feet. Cars revved in front of our house then roared off. The gangly, toe-stubbing mumblers of two years before were now revealed as Princes of the Universe, liberally endowed with hearty handsomeness, killer wit, tons of charm, and groupies.
Three of the brightest and funniest kids in my son's class have accepted ROTC scholarships. All they can see now is that they might have a chance TO FLY PLANES!!! WAHOO!!!! In four years they will be part of the made-up-war killing machine. "But they knew they were signing up for." Do they, really?
My son's best friend is good-looking, bright, as witty as a professional comic, achingly sweet and goodhearted and a lovable goof-off who drove his teachers nuts while they were laughing themselves into strokes over his antics. He is from a Republican military family. He joined the Marines. He and his family negotiated a guaranteed job for him "guarding the President, Boo Rah!!!!!" Others might be going to Iraq but he would be guarding the President. We just heard from him--he is being sent to the Middle East. His group of Marines haven't been told exactly where they will be stationed.
I know where this incredible kid will be sent and so do you.
If he survives, if his body is intact, (and I pray, oh, how I pray), his soul will not be--not after what he will see and hear and have to do. He cannot be the same person after these experiences. But, as Rumsfeld says, this kid should not be viewed as a unique human being, he is instead, fungible. If the draft is reinstated my son will be fungible, too.
I understand why these kids are willing to consider the military. My son's ACT scores were in the top 5%, he has a 3.5 GPA and he filled out hundreds of scholarship applications. He didn't get one single scholarship offer from those applications--"so much money drying up from the feds..., states hit so hard..., so many kids applying... dontcha know." He did receive financial aid offers from the colleges he applied to but much of it was in the form of loans for him and separate loans for us.
We are terrified of exposing him to the mobster tactics of the current student loan program and are determined that he will take out no student loans that will leave him $30,000 in debt and keep him from being able to marry, have a family, buy a house or leave an abusive job situation. Unfortunately for the Republican Daddys who know what's best for me, I am oddly unmoved by the pressure of the either/or choice of taking out loans for my son or spending my retirement years eating cat food and pushing a three wheeled grocery cart through alleyways. Through our own determination and the help of extended family members who are willing to sacrifice for him I think we will be able to make it. Barely.
I worry about what adult life will be like for my son and the class of 2006. Will they, like so many 30-somethings I've talked to, have a series of short project-jobs, be laid off as companies downsize, outsource, and merge or be forced to work for Scrooge, Legree, and Walton Corporations? After the economic slump predicted by bonddad and others, will this class even have jobs or own houses? With gas prices, will this generation need to live in tenement-type housing close to the job site? Will informed citizenship even be a possibilty considering the state of the MSM and coming changes to net neutrality? Will they live shortened, painful lives because of lack of healthcare?