A Pragmatic Toy

My grandchildren do what I did when I was young.

In our family, my dad always laughed about the fact that I played in boxes more than the toys that were so expensive, and I did that, but I also liked the toys that came in those containers.

Now my grandchildren like boxes, but they also find other things occasionally that brings them lots of fun. Storage bins like this one becomes a spaceship, and Jack looks into his screen to look for enemy fighters.

The biggest problem with this was the day I found three grandchildren about to set out for a dive. Now an imaginary one would have been alright, but taking a ride down a flight of carpeted steps was not my idea of acceptable fun. It was a moment that makes grandchildren scatter as Pop Pop cries out passionately, just before the launch.

And I keep a careful eye out for them continually, not because they make trouble, but because I was a little boy once. Writing good poetry means remembering what it was like to see things like a child. I know things about being childish. My wife tells me that all the time.

But pragmatism is like a storage bin, contrary to the sparkle in a child's eyes when riding in a box or a plastic bin, this way of looking at things is not necessarily a good thing, and most importantly, it is not an excuse for poor leadership.

In times of economic problems, there are always excuses for things.

Politicians, certainly not all but mainly those who really don't like giving anything to poor people who have limited power or influence or money for re-election campaigns, begin slashing necessary programs that either create jobs or support the types of people who suffer the most during those times.

Now these men in expensive suits wave banners celebrating how they cut certain wasteful things, but there is always a motive behind it, and usually it's something they never liked even in good times.

The Germans have a way of addressing the dilemma this creates: "Man muss immer hinter den Kulissen shauen." For those readers who can't understand German, it basically means you always have to look behind the curtains.

It's a figurative statement. For example, right now in my state and across the United States, these pragmatists shout about socialism, but one of the louder voices gets over $400,000 per year in farm payments from the government for a "set aside" program, which means you basically get money for planting tillable land into grass.

Now, I have no problem with this situation. I have family who participate in this, but they do it because farms are in trouble. But this politician is different. He maintains he hates socialism, yet it appears to be a bumper crop for him, and to make matters worse, he spends three or four months per year in Boise fighting against anything that affects his property taxes.

Now that's the irony. He hates the socialism that means he has to pay taxes on land, but it's OK for everyone to pay taxes for his subsidies--or socialism if you are someone who doesn't get a check like this--on the federal level.

But the man probably never thought about it. Socialism for him is providing affordable insurance to people who have none or to people whose insurance pays nothing but collects high amounts of money for limited services.

Socialism for him is public education. Socialism for him is providing financial means to higher education, so that middle class Americans can actually afford to have their students go to school.

Another politician on the federal level uses the word too, and he comes from my hometown area. Now he hates this whole insurance thing, but here's the problem.

My son and daughter-in-law have a friend. Now this girl worked for Ted Kennedy, which is ironic, because she is very conservative. She recently told my son and daughter-in-law about meeting this man from Idaho. She's a lobbyist for insurance companies, and after 15-30 minutes, she handed him a $50,000 check for his services, which is his fight against insurance reform in the name of those wealthy insurance companies.

It didn't change my mind. I never liked him, although I voted for him when he served people in Idaho in Boise. Once in Washington DC, he immediately learned what keeps him in office: unlimited resources for his re-election campaigns.

A few years ago, the citizens of a U.S. territory donated just under $150,000 in money to create a tax loophole, and he did what they paid him to do. And he spends time golfing and having all kinds of fun visiting with lobbyists who love to entertain him.

Pragmatism sounds so good, but Charles Dickens hated the taste it made in his mouth during his lifetime, and he even wrote a depressing book about it called Hard Times--interesting considering that it is something we face right now: exploitation of the masses by people who have an agenda they hide behind good intentions. The funny thing about this statement is the fact that Dickens hated things at that time, because powerful people were doing the same thing.

It's nice when you have money. It's not nice when you don't.

I live within a budget, and I understand the need for wise decisions, but cuts are not always prudent.

My grandchildren however are smarter than the politician from Bone, Idaho, who represents us in Boise right now. I shouldn't mention it, because the guy from Bone is not a rocket scientist by any means or any wild stretch of the imagination. I don't like belittling anyone, but I grow impatient when something like this happens.

Now Hollywood would a different ending. Forest Gump would solve all the world's problems and watch a feather fly about letting everyone realize how random life is, but unfortunately, life never happens like directors and actors hope.

In the late 70's and early 80's, people moved into Idaho from many different states, and one former citizen from California organized a movement called the 1% Initiative. It passed. Schools and universities were never the same after that.

I watched it happen. I was a Republican then, but I knew what it would do, and I didn't support the agenda; however, education was never the same, and in some cases, the system still has not recovered. After the passage of that movement, 33% of the foreign language teachers in Idaho left. Some programs died, and others suffered, because it was difficult to find replacements.

It once was affordable to become educated. Tuition in 1979 was under $200 per semester. Pragmatism changed all that. Cuts in support at state and federal levels puts tuition costs where they are right now.

So when it comes to my grandchildren, I refuse to let them take the ride down the steps in a plastic bin or sled or even a cardboard box, and I certainly will not sit idly while politicians hand them the cheap toy, help them get inside, and give the whole bunch a push.

I've always lived in Idaho, but now I look forward to the move we hope to make within three years. It's one I hope to make before I have any grandchild in an Idaho classroom any longer than I have to have them there. It's not about the teachers. It's about the lack of support for those dedicated people who are at their wit's end already.