Before I was a registered Democrat and was merely voting in elementary school for class president, I fell in love with American History and Social Studies. I am guessing in the generation before me they may have called it Civics.
I think I may have to come out of the closet here and admit some things. The easy stuff is to mention that I was a (even then I was the "older") child of the 60's. In true rebel fashion I demonstrated against the war in Vietnam, marched and wrote for gay rights, reproductive freedom and anti-discrimination. I joined the War on Poverty for way too many years and ran the US Flag on my van antenna upside down. Seems like the generic biography of the times. What may not be so generic in the crowd I ran, danced and sang freedom songs with was that ever since I was a teenager I always owned, but often hid from plain sight (it not being a cool thing) an "authentic reproduction parchment copy of the US Constitution and the Bill of Rights". To this day the spirited genius of those documents remain awe inspiring to me. Those that knew me well enough back in the day could whisper to my face, "Ya know, ya got a little streak of John Wayne in ya" but they had no fear of me voting for Goldwater or walking in the Duke's funny way either (Remember always La Cage a Folle).
To say I've been sub-registered in the under the covers malcontent party for years is probably an understatement, but with and since the primaries, the fire came back and it all changed. I became a CNN junkie and was obsessed, and I do mean obsessed, with the game of politics. It was maddening and invigorating and hopeful and righteous and meaningful ... heroic and social. But that has changed too. And it changed for me when my computer and I took part in the White House Online Town Hall Meeting. It was the first live video stream from the White House using questions for the President devised and voted on by everyday folk or at least everyday folk with access to computers. Yes, I know that the Republican cohort will likely say that this was just as much a part of the political game of one-up-manship and I do get that point. But this event touched something much deeper.
It was the stuff of 21st century civics in the USA. Many may not remember, but those of my generation will remember an early television program, in black and white I might add, called "YOU ARE THERE". In this program the viewers would see a key event in history say George Washington leading the troops into the battle of Valley Forge or the Continental Congress getting ready to debate. The scene would be acted out in period costoms and an unseen TV narrator would interrupt the characters with probing questions that made history and it's meaning come alive for the viewer. Technology as well as the valuing of intelligence and education supported the idea that American citizenship was something that once was and could be lived in real time.
During that Online White House Town Meeting on the Economy, as President Obama listened and spoke to those questions that matter to the people, oh so intelligently explaining the underpinnings, focus, interelationships and goals of his administrative vision he became my new favorite civics teacher, right there in real time. And like all good civics teachers he invited us to take responsibility and think on our own about our country as well as ourselves. He encouraged us to be present for history in the making. But mostly he reminded us that We, the people are really still here.
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