The year 2023 is pretty much over and the future seems bleak at times. Personally, I feel like shutting down.
Election interference, significant trials, the economy, age factors, fake news, AI, scandals, greed, intimidation, violence. Is this what we have to look forward to?
Lots of great reasons to give up. Tempting, but I’ve decided to hang in. With care.
Credit: contributed
Credit: contributed
The caveat: There is a part of me, the self-protective-tendency feature, that counsels to avoid the news. Bury myself in nostalgia or personal growth. Personal growth can demand a great deal of focus. But, no, I’ll end up watching the partisans have at it. I like to root for the underdog.
In this case, the underdog is democracy.
I’ve been voting in presidential elections since 1970. Prior to that, I was one of the neighborhood kids who passed out Adlai Stevenson buttons. They actually said, “I like Ike, but I’m voting for Stevenson.”
How quaint to have respect for both candidates.
Life is a kind of bate and switch operation. You know that. You are headed in a certain direction because the prospects look good. Until they don’t. Or until a dozen new, unexpected possibilities pop up as you are making your way. You deviate. Adjust.
We only think we know who our leaders, our heroes, our antagonists are going to be. A lot of good, and bad, people and potential benefits will burst forth from seemingly out of nowhere.
Take my word. I’m old. I know.
Surprises? Barack Obama was quite the unlikely presidential candidate. Lyndon Johnson, a Southerner and a wheeler dealer politician who’d opposed civil rights legislation during the first two decades of his political career, ended up initiating some of the most important government programs ever to address human needs and human rights.
More recently, who’d have guessed that Mike Pence would refuse to get into the car?
When I was a child, CBS aired “Gomer Pyle, U.S.M.C.,” a rather ridiculous or at the very least, low common denominator of a television series, staring Jim Nabors. The actor portrayed a simpleminded yokel. Nabors was so convincing as a bumpkin, with the twangy down-home country innocence, that later in his career, when he opened his mouth and revealed a rich baritone voice, the public was flabbergasted. Okay, not flabbergasted, but completely taken by surprise.
I’m a Northerner who suspects that wasn’t the only voice hiding in the South.
My plan? Stay away from used car salesmen disguised as motivational speakers and motivational speakers disguised as patriots. I don’t want to know why a candidate is wrong. I want to know what a candidate is for and how he or she intends to get the country to head in that direction.
I am not necessarily in favor of older generations leading the way. It’s an arduous route. But I do want to see people achieving office because they believe they can enhance our way of life, not destroy it.
I intend to do what seems logical and realistic. To keep in mind that the future is influenced by many things -- philosophy, science, great investigative reporting, opinion leaders, people who step up, changing trends, personal needs, tragedy, responsibility and concern for succeeding generations.
One of the themes of my life is that no one knows for sure. Not about tomorrow.
On difficult days, I try to remember that.
Many of us worry that the country is in for challenging times. That democracy is about to be sold to the highest bidders and that some version of autocracy is likely to be imposed.
That’s not a prediction. It’s a fear.
You’ve got to remember, Jim Nabors sold lots of records.
Charles E. Kraus is a writer and children’s entertainer who lives in Seattle. A Vietnam veteran who earned a Bronze Star, he is the author of “Baffled Again .. and Again.”
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