You Can't Have Him
I was struck when I first saw this ASFCME/MoveOn.org ad... the "Alex" one that's been playing on the cable news channels.
It stopped me dead in my tracks. I don't think I would have had the same reaction if I didn't have a seven-week-old son. I guess my reaction is to be expected... I am fervently anti-violence and anti-war and I'm a new father. But my reaction has gone beyond what an ad should do to someone. I watch it over and over again. That part when the mom and baby make eye contact just grips me. I don't really have words for it. I never had any idea that I could have the type of bond with anyone that I do with my son. I can't even form a proper paragraph about it.
Anyway, I'm a political junkie... to the point that I listen to XM Radio's POTUS '08 channel every morning and evening on my commutes. Monday morning they were interviewing a regular contributor, listening to his reviews of the various campaign ads that are running right now. He slammed the "Alex" ad as a flat imitation of the infamous "Daisy Girl" ad. I understand his point, even though this interviewee seems pre-disposed against MoveOn ads. He thinks they are a flawed messenger in that even when they're correct on an issue the public distrusts them. Point taken. Regardless, even during this negative review of the "Alex" ad, I cried in the car... thinking of my baby boy.
So yesterday I happened upon William Kristol's opinion piece assaulting the "Alex" ad. It got my goat. His basic premise is that "Alex's mom" is narcissistic and selfish. That if "she" doesn't give up her son then someone else will to "protect us from danger". He says:
Unless we enter a world without enemies and without war, we will need young men and women willing to risk their lives for our nation. And we’re not entering any such world.
He's missing the point. "Alex's mom" is not a single person. "Alex's mom" is everyone. She is me. She is you. She is the person who does not yet have kids. She is every grandparent. She is every teenager. As long as we have volunteers to enlist in cowboy wars like Korea, Grenada, The Gulf War, Vietnam, Iraq, Iran etc than we are enabling the George Bush's and John McCains of the world. Until all of us stand up and say NO at the top of our lungs our 19 year old sons and daughters will be secreted home in flag-draped coffins for the flimsiest of political or imperialistic reasons. You will note I didn't mention Afghanistan or WWII. Defending our country is what our Department of Defense is for and I would be proud for my son to defend our country. But not for what George Bush and John McCain consider to be self-defense. For that, you can't have him.
3 comments:
Interesting write-up. I don't disagree on any of your points.
One level of abstraction up however, I have an issue with equating 21 year old soldiers with 21 year old infants.
Everyone is someones child yes, but I feel that we as a culture are pushing childhood into the low thirties now and I wonder what that means for our country when someone even Obama's age for example is considered "young" and inexperienced.
I also get the emotional heartstrings they are trying to play, but to me war shouldn't be an emotional decision, So I'm immediately put off by the "emotion" injected into it, from both sides, I abhor the way "patriotism" is used by the other side in that way as well.
I feel that reason needs to be injected into the situation instead of emotion. That's probably not the way America works at the moment, and it probably would not be as effective in the short term. But anytime, like in this Move-on ad, that I find myself in an ends-justifies the means situation, I get a little queasy at the compromise.
Good thoughts.
I was in the exact place you're coming from a couple of years ago regarding reason vs emotion... and I still am in many regards. But what struck me somewhat out of the blue is how protective I am of my son. I never had any clue that my feelings on the matter would be so strong... and it's quite odd that a MoveOn commercial triggered all of this. Had this commercial come out in the run-up to 2004 I wouldn't have hardly noticed as the emotionality wouldn't have registered with me (I probably would have been put off as well).
It is sad that it takes things like this (or the "patriotism argument on the other side) to get peoples' attention these days. I don't agree with Obama on everything but one thing he does that impresses me it that he doesn't reduce his arguments down to simple emotions. McCain used to be that way too, but he's guzzled the neo-con Kool-aid.
wow. got me too.
great post.
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