Early this morning at my family's home I began prepare for the service project I had vounteered for. It was the 2nd year that Suspeckted had convinced a few of his family and friends to participate in the city's Rake-A-Thon. The Rake-A-Thon is a day that is set aside every October for volunteers to go rake the yards of those who are unable to clear them by themselves due to their age, disability, etc.. My team this year consisted of myself, a kid that attends the program I work for who comes from a difficult family situation I try to help out from time to time, my father, brother, mother, a co-worker and her son.
I informed my father and brother on the way to the place where we were meeting my coworker to caravan to the yard that my coworker's brother had recently been deployed to Iraq, or maybe I should say "redeployed" since he has already served in Iraq in the first Gulf War, and that my coworker and her husband met while they were in the army positioned in Alaska. I shared this information with them to offer a little perspective into their lives in the context of our current election fiasco so as to avoid any emberassing/disrespectful discussion topics.
Currently only my father and brother live in my childhood home. My mother, currently in the process of being divorced from my father, has her own apartment, my little sister is in college, my older sister lives with her husband, and I share a 2BR apartment with a couple in Minneapolis. My father has always been historically conservative across the board from my impression, though I know that he occasionally reads my blog and I welcome him to refute this here on in private. My brother has been somewhat difficult to read as he comes of age in the political sphere as to where he stands on any particular issue. I know he has ctiticized my beliefs ascribing me the title of "hippie" among other less than flattering labels. But I generally figured he was doing this for little beyond the desire to be a annoying little brother at the ripe age of 15. As many of my political blog entries may lead people to believe, I am definitely on the other side of the spectrum from my father. However, my father remains to this day, my favorite conservative and I hope that I am his favorite liberal.
This is not the point however as I get back to the day's events...as we began to rake heavy leaves in the dreary drizzling rain the morale of my crew quickly declined. The kid who attends the program I work for gave up working after about 20 minutes of raking. Though I was very annoyed with this, it was my brother who took it upon himself to lecture a boy who is 5 years younger than him. I told my brother to help my coworker behind the garage who was raking leaves into the woods where my father and I proceeded to drag tarp after tarp full to dump them.
On one particular trip back from dumping a tarp full of leaves I noticed a small soiled American flag under a bunch of leaves. In my coworker's presence I reached down to pick it up out of respect for her service as well as for the service currently being undertaken by her brother in Iraq. As I reached down to pick it up my coworker told me "yeah, don't touch that, your brother just spit on it."
What the fuck is wrong with that kid? I really didn't know what to say, I was so emberassed of him. Shocked really is the appropriate word. Those who know me know that I'm the last one that's going to hang an American flag outside of my home, or even have a USA Pride bumper sticker. In fact it's probably fair to say that in respect to the shape America has been taking in reforming what an American is and represents, I am "anti-American." It's even possible that during a demonstration I might very well hold an American flag upside down or even stand idly by while others' burn them, though I have actually never seen this nor am I convinced I could directly engage in this behavior myself. But these behaviors have a time and place where they can show a large number of people my dissatisfaction with my country. These behaviors have no place where the only audience member is someone I care about who is taking up her Saturday morning to join with me in helping out someone in need. I know that my coworker has a pretty good idea how I feel about the war, and an even clearer idea on how I feel about GW which are in perfect contrast to her's. But I have never targeted her with my views because I know she is sensitive about them, especially as her brother's life is, as we speak, on the line.
My father made my brother apologize, which was pretty useless at that point. The damage had been done and I could tell she (as well as everyone else) was really upset with him. I think my first clue was when she said "I think I'm going to kick your brother's ass." I was more than prepared to hold him while she punched because my brother seems to be on a tirade of selfishness right now where he is unable to acknowledge others' feelings and emotionally charged views. Instead I asked my mom to take my brother and the kid from my program home so we could keep working away from my brother's ignorance. Unfortunately he seemed more than happy to leave, pointing out earlier that he was only there because my mom had forced him to help me out. Fortunately the rest of the day went pretty well in spite of it all.
Don't get me wrong, under the current administration there is barely a patriotic red blood cell left in my body. But there are many veins flowing through me that carry a lot of common decency and respect that help me avoid offending others with my views when there is nothing to be gained from it. Instead, actions like this, or harassment like this, simply anger all parties more driving us further apart making us more stubborn and all the more unlikely to meet each other half way.
Hope your Halloween festivities this weekend keep a smile on your jack-o-latern,
-Su(spook)ted
