A year ago today

Early in the morning on November 3, 2004, we were learning that George W. Bush had won the presidential election. The rest of that day was a weepy, angry, disbelieving, despondent one for many of us. I co-hosted a panel discussion about the election results in the history department, to which most of the faculty and graduate student population came. I went to choir practice and started crying during the sharing of joys and concerns (I still don't know what anyone there thought about that). And like many others who had thrown themselves into supporting the Kerry campaign, after several days I decided that I would take some time off from following the news and trying to be politically active.

A year later, that time should be up. I returned to following the news quite awhile ago--at least, the major stories. I haven't returned to any real effort on the issues that mean something to me, though. As always, I struggle to figure out what I should do--where to jump in, what constitutes an appropriate effort.

And of course, now I'm a parent. It's easy to feel that there's no time for anything more. And that the work I'm doing now in raising my daughter is important enough on its own. But there is much I don't like about the world we're offering Edith and her peers. And focusing all my energies on choosing new foods for her, worrying about what she's wearing on her feet, and providing her with a loving home isn't going to be enough to shield her from that outside world.

I never quite liked the line, "Well, now it's your generation's responsibility to fix it." As if generating offspring gave people the right to give up. I am more appreciative now of just how considerable is the work of raising children. But raising them ought to be done on multiple scales. So we can research which shoes will be best for Edith and plan which vegetable to introduce next. We can expose her to new people and places and songs. But we also better continue to keep a hand in the issues swirling outside our apartment. That's part of being a parent--and a citizen and a human being--that we can't afford to ignore.