BIRTHDAY BLOGGING (AND RAMBLING)

Today is my birthday. I started out trying to forget it, but people keep reminding me. Even the TV is doing its bit -- celebrating the 35th anniversary of man taking steps on the moon.

I remember that birthday very well. My entire family (even two uncles, two aunts, and their children) was gathered around the television set to oooh and ahhh Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin. As I've mentioned before, I come from a military family. You could also say I come from a uber-patriotic family, and one with a sense of history. I was allowed to stay home from school to watch John Glenn's historic orbital flight into space. I was allowed to take my portable TV to college in the fall only because my parents thought it was important that I watch the presidential race of that year (we always stayed up late together on election night to watch the coverage). We always made a big deal out of the Fourth of July. My sisters and I were Girl Scouts. I was Americanism Chairman of the Student Council my junior year in high school and led the Pledge of Allegiance over the P.A. system every day, accompanied by a patriotic quote that I dug up from somewhere in my reading. I was a D.A.R. Americanism essay contest winner. I dated the Air Force Academy freshman class president. My dad gave me a reward for memorizing the Declaration of Independence. We were, and are, an American family.

Today we're a divided family, somewhat like the American people. Half of us are Democrats dismayed, even appalled, by the damage George aWol Bush and his cronies have managed to inflict upon our nation and the world these past almost-four years. Half of us are Republicans, supporting the pResident because he's a "godly" man and opposes abortion, gay rights and talks a tough military talk.

I can't help watching the historical coverage of the moon mission and reflecting on a passage in James Michener's nove The Drifters. A young Norwegian girl is commenting on the moon landing and says to her American friends something like this: Centuries ago Norwegians discovered America. But they had no idea what to do with it and when they came home to Norway they said, "Hey, guess what we found?" And their countrymen said, "So what?" Centuries later Columbus went to America and when he went back to Europe others followed with an idea and something wonderful was born. You Americans are like we Norwegians. Today you go to the moon, but tomorrow we'll say, "So what?" Years from now somebody like the Japanese will go to the moon with an idea, and then we'll see something.

The best things the U.S.A. has contributed to the world are ideas. Ideas are the font from which progress flows. The Republicans controlling their party today have no ideas, and that's why they keep harking back to something they know, like the Cold War. They haven't a clue about the world as it exists today, no ideas for how to confront modern problems, and so demand we roll back the progress of decades. John Kerry and John Edwards, like Bill Clinton and Al Gore before them, are our best chance of rekindling a debate of ideas for the future, ideas that might actually benefit mankind and do honor to our God-given talents, intellect, and humanity.