Happy Independence Day! That must always be acknowledged. I listened to The Egg and Is Anybody There from 1776 before I went to sleep last night. I couldn’t wait till I woke up. There must be someplace I can watch the film on TV today. I’ll see.
Yesterday I did one of the top items on my to do list, I renewed my driver’s license. Of course I screwed up while doing so. I did it in person as I wanted a new picture on my license. I didn’t want to wait on lines so I chose the self-service kiosk. No place in the process did it say that if you want a new photo that you have to go to a window first. So I’m going to keep the same picture. If I want to change it I have to wait for my license to be mailed to me and then go back and have my photo taken and pay for a new copy. I probably won’t do it.
I walked the 1.7 miles there and a slightly longer route home so I got my exercise for the day. I made two stops on the way home, White Castle for one of their great and very reasonably priced shakes, and the Dollar Tree to get new reading glasses. I bought about 6 glasses for two dollars from the dollar store in my neighborhood. I thought they were great, very small and they came in tubes that make them easy to carry around. There was one problem. Every single one of them broke. I had bought one at Dollar Tree, it cost, guess how much? That’s right, one dollar. It lasted. Yesterday I bought two more. I’d have bought three but they had only two in the size and strength that I wanted. I need many so I can have one in my bedroom, the living room, the bathroom, the backpack I take everywhere, and the little case I bring to Met games as they won’t allow my backpack.
I watched the Met Yankee game on TV last night. Without me they don’t do nearly as well. When will they wise up and pay me to go to games, or at least give me season tickets?
On the fourth of July I always write about the Declaration of Independence. I will but not as much as usual. I have other civics to write about. So here’s a link to the Declaration, you should read it every year, as I do. It reminds us what the country is about. He’s the link, The Declaration of Independence. I will highlight just one passage without comment. It’s just an insight to how the founding fathers thought of the country. It is from the list of injustices, “The history of the present King of Great Britain is a history of repeated injuries and usurpations, all having in direct object the establishment of an absolute Tyranny over these States.”
He has endeavored to prevent the population of these States; for that purpose obstructing the Laws for Naturalization of Foreigners; refusing to pass others to encourage their migrations hither, and raising the conditions of new Appropriations of Lands.
The founding fathers were far from perfect, they were men of their time sharing the prejudices of their time. They suffered from knowing what everybody knows, not a reliable source of knowledge. They were racist and sexist by modern standards. Just remember that we’ll be judged by those that come after us for believing what everybody knows.
Jefferson, Franklin, Adams, and the rest had their flaws but they were wise enough to know they had flaws. They weren’t out to make a perfect union but simply a more perfect union. It’s a process, one that is still going on. Felicity to their prejudices is very much against their intent.
If we want the union to be more perfect we should work at making ourselves more perfect. That means facing our own prejudices, knowing what everybody knows. I want to focus on just one thing, evaluating presidential candidates. You know that you are not a racist or a sexist. You make your decisions based solely on who is best suited to be president. In the primaries you want a candidate that is electable, likable, is inspiring, and shows leadership. That’s where our hidden prejudices come in. Despite the evidence to the contrary, many people identify those qualities more with white men. For some it’s outright bigotry that they are conscious of. To more it’s unconscious. It just so happens that the candidates they feel have those qualities are white men, and the ones that don’t are women and minorities. Even women and minorities can absorb those prejudices. They confound traits that have nothing to do with those virtues, with those virtues. How do you decide is inspirational? It’s not a rational choice. It’s a gut feeling, in other words a prejudice. Women so much internalize this that they are far less likely to run. They think they lack the qualifications when they don’t. Of course they don’t look and act like the great leaders of the past; all the great leaders of the past have been men.
Make yourself more perfect, don’t judge candidates by your gut but by the facts. When the voice tells you, “There’s something about her that I just don’t like” or “I like her but she’s not a leader,’ don’t listen to it. Take your own prejudices into account. Consider the importance of having a president that doesn’t look like all those in the past. It will help expand our vision of what presidential looks like. It will make us more perfect.
Wise Madness 