A Change of pace

Donny was in Wisconsin today giving one of his fatuous and fundamentally dishonest speeches. As one would expect, he talked about his election victory. As it is the only thing he is accomplished that's understandable. Nonetheless it is dismal to watch, listen and think about this Congress and administration. There is also no small measure of redundancy as what passes by are variations on the same tired theme. So, as they used to say on Monty Python, "Time for something different" and I hope better.

I have a 15-year-old granddaughter who is delightful. She has Down's syndrome and a kind of autism that makes her often rather obstreperous. But this is not really about her. She is mainstreamed and now in high school. Obviously she gets treated a little differently and is in a group of special needs children within the larger school population. What this is about is her fellow students. These kids are wonderful. They open their hearts and lives to her. On Valentines day, in her last year of junior high school one of the really bright stars of the class brought her a half dozen roses. She was an adjunct member of the cheerleading squad, uniform and all, and performed lip syncs to great applause at school performance shows.

This year in high school she was invited to a school prom by a very popular boy, a member of the basketball team. A girl who was a friend of his invited a special needs boy and the four them went to dinner and the prom. My granddaughter loves to dress up and loves to dance and had a wonderful evening. These are things that when she was born we never expected would happen. They happened not because of anything her family did but because of the wonderful teachers and schoolmates she has.

There are many more people like her schoolmates than there are those like Donald Trump. Ourjob is to help kids like this grow up and retain the promise they show. It is to somehow convince the young that he who dies with the most toys doesn't win. He wins who lives a happy and rewarding life. That is not easy. It is particularly difficult now that we have a President whose primary compulsions are selfishness and egomania. We have to try. It is easy to criticize and ridicule Trump; it is a lot more difficult to teach and demonstrate the better path.