Time for peace and love

I remember begging my parents to switch our only black and white TV to the national news and Walter Cronkite. Can you imagine an eight-year-old begging to watch “Face the Nation”?

In the late 1970s, alarm clocks introduced the ability to wake up to a radio station. Think of the movie Groundhog Day, where Bill Murray’s character is stuck in a time loop day after day, awakened by the Sonny and Cher clock radio DJs singing “I Got You Babe” on an endless, monotonous loop.

When I was in high school, my alarm clock’s monopoly loop was set to Minnesota Public Radio, where Garrison Keillor had a morning show called “The Powdermilk Biscuit Hour” – followed by NPR’s “Morning Edition,” which began airing in 1979.

My parents were too busy working to care much about politics. My grandparents were more politically active – because they remembered what life was like before Franklin Delano Roosevelt’s programs saved the country from the Great Depression.

My paternal grandfather was a World War I veteran and suffered from PTSD. He was in his 70s at the time of the Vietnam War and was deeply opposed to “sending boys to slaughter.” My maternal grandfather lost a farm in the 1920s and spent his life trying to find any job he could. He fell in love with the Farmer/Labor Party, which elected one of Minnesota’s most radical and popular governors, Floyd B. Olson.

So my grandparents were more involved in instilling in me my political values, values ​​that were instilled in them as they lived through the Great Depression and benefited from the programs that Roosevelt initiated – and which were expanded 30 years later by President Johnson’s Great Society.

Neither set of grandparents could buy a house until they started getting regular paychecks from Social Security, and neither set of grandparents had health insurance until Medicare. My paternal grandfather was able to buy a house with enough land for a horse, which he named “Ladybird” after President Johnson’s wife.

This newspaper made it very clear to me that national politics without a local connection is out of the question. OK. But our political biographies certainly influence our decisions.

For example, my grandparents were staunch Democrats, but they were still subsistence farmers. They benefited from things like subsidies for the milk they produced to ensure milk supplies for growing children. My grandparents got electricity thanks to the Rural Electrification Act. That meant they no longer had to harvest ice in the winter and store perishable foods in the “icebox” or make endless canned goods in the summer.

The government had a positive impact on their lives and they never forgot that. They remembered what life was like before the so-called “progressive” era.

You would never have found a “Don’t tread on me” sticker on my grandparents’ cars. So what happened? Why do I live in an area that is loyal to a party that has opposed any progress in rural areas for the past 90 years?

The Greek philosopher Socrates said, “A life without self-reflection is not worth living.” Does that hold true for our political lives? What are our values? Why do we vote the way we do? Why does Doug LaMalfa, a man who wants to undo 90 years of progress in health and social programs, keep getting re-elected in a rural area that receives so many welfare payments from the federal government?

What happened?

I write this one day after the assassination of Donald J. Trump. As I watched the rally on television, my instinctive reaction was one of utter disgust. We now have an opportunity to look ourselves in the mirror and ask ourselves, “To what extent does hate play a role in our political lives?”

One of my favorite political columnists was the late Alexander Cockburn. To be a good political columnist, he said, you have to ask yourself, “How pure is your hate?” Sorry, Alex. Hate is not the answer. The better answer would be, “How deep is your love?”

Love for rural areas will take Democrats much further than hatred of Wall Street. Do we need to tax the rich more? Yes. Do we need to do something about income inequality? Yes. Are there problems that need to be solved? Yes.

Former Beatle Ringo Star turned 84 on July 7. He has turned his birthday into an annual event where he wants us to stop at some point during the day and say “peace and love.” Peace and love – good old hippie values ​​that desperately need to be revived. He’s like the little drummer with a seemingly banal but very important message.

I’ve had enough of hate. Perhaps the best political act in these troubled times is to step back, let go of our hate and turn to a politics of peace and love. Martin Luther King was sure of this when he led a movement based on the principles of nonviolence.

What creates peace? What promotes a politics of love and joy? What if these were our core values ​​when we approach an issue? What if Ringo Star was right? What if John Lennon was right when he said, “All you need is love”?

Peace and love to all. I hope you find some joy today and every day.