AUGUST 19, 2021 – I never, ever thought I’d say, “Make America Great Again!” Whether I’ll don a red “MAGA” cap remains to be seen, but having learned never to say, “never” . . .
“Really?!” you say.
Really.
With great nostalgia I recall when every kid at school was given a Mantoux test for tuberculosis, an inoculation against smallpox, and a medicated sugar cube to prevent polio. Not for a moment did my conservative, Republican parents raise a fuss; nor did any other parents—smart, dumb, liberal, conservative, or otherwise—in . . . the community.
With similar sentimentality I remember the “Don’t Tread on Me!” flag, but only on a glossy page in the encyclopedia—set among the other flags of Colonial America. The #MeNow movement was a fringe concept, vastly overshadowed by . . . the common good.
Likewise, I recall the good ol‘ days following JFK’s razor-thin victory over Nixon, when our Republican neighbor across the street took down his Nixon yard sign—and the day after LBJ’s landslide win over Goldwater, when the same neighbor removed his GOLDWATER/MILLER sign. (My dad, being a public servant, thought it inappropriate and unbecoming to display his own conservative political views.)
I miss listening to the proceedings of the Ervin Committee, and the immortal words of ranking Republican Senator Howard Baker: “What did the president know, and when did he know it?” The question was intended to protect Nixon, but after the witness, special White House counsel John Dean, gave damning testimony, and the White House tapes were later revealed, Baker followed . . . the truth. Back in those good ol‘ times, when the president was caught in a big lie and his own party saw the writing on the wall, he didn’t force Congress to impeach and try him and didn’t fan the flames of a sycophantic base. He resigned.
I even harbor nostalgia for the days when white racists acknowledged overtly their racism. Rather than pretend they were passing “anti-fraud” legislation, they came right out and stated the truth: They didn’t want [the N-word] to vote. And you never heard a clueless white guy say indignantly, “I’m not racist. I have a friend who’s Black!”
My favorite animal in those good ol’ days was Smokey the Bear. Every year in grade school we got lectured about forest fires and how to prevent them. I remember licking the stamp for a letter requesting a “Smokey the Bear” fire prevention kit. A short while later I received a badge, a button, a small poster (with Smokey’s paw print), and a list of tips on how to prevent forest fires. Little could I (or Smokey) have imagined forest conflagrations fueled by climate change.
If only we could return to the days of the Cold War when America was unified in fear of thermonuclear war—not hopelessly divided by falsehoods, denialism, and cynical politics, all flying in the stony face of science.
Now that I’m all revved up, maybe it’s time to wear that MAGA cap. Never say . . . “never.”
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© 2021 by Eric Nilsson
