PROBLEM CHILD GETS ALL OF THE ATTENTION

The problem child is only a problem if they grow up to be problems for others.

And themselves.

Who wants to be a Problem Adult? No one.

And yet, here we are.

What’s the best way to deal with a problem child?

One way is to ignore the presence of a problem.

I knew parents with grade school aged kids, a girl and a boy. The boy wasn’t potty trained at ten years old.

Not a problem for the parents because they’d read that, “Girls mature sooner than boys.”

What happens when mature girls grow up to be mature women? That’s when they hand it over to the immature boys who grow up to be immature men.

Immature Men? Is There Such A Thing?

What’s the best name for the guys who poo-poo wearing a mask, getting a covid vaccine, and voting for political candidates running to make a better world?

Is there a name for men who believe in hard work, paying dues, and standing up to injustice, who fall under the spell of a leadership figure who cheats hard workers, skirts paying dues, who sees injustice as inconvenience?

Dupes? Marks? ‘Doing their own research?’

Early on, American history shows what happens when colonists chafed under the law of taxation without representation. And they were right.

(I did my own research here, which includes a college degree in American History. I had to read books written long ago, attend classes that included testing on the subject material. It felt like higher education, school, not comments on facebook or information shared by some radio screamer.)

What happened? America revolted against the King’s rule. And, by the way, America won.

Between 1776 to 1860 the new country worked it out. Then a section of the new country decided they needed more say in how things were done.

This time the revolt was internal, or civil. America won again. Go America, go.

The important part to remember was not everyone was on the same side during the Revolutionary War, or happy with the outcome. Not everyone was happy with the results of the Civil War, either.

What makes America great in the world of nations is that it’s resilient enough to hold contradictory feelings without going to shit.

The Resiliency Of A Problem Child

Too often in modern discourse, current issues are debated like a parent trying to correct a problem child.

Do children know they have a problem if nothing changes? Or do they just let it all fly and hope someone comes around to clean things up before they get a rash, an infection, or worse?

Cleaning up the body politic is more difficult the longer things proceed unchanged.

The Revolutionary War changed things when the dirty diaper of foreign rule was taken out.

A Civil War changed things with help from the Emancipation Proclamation.

Although the Emancipation Proclamation did not end slavery in the nation, it captured the hearts and imagination of millions of Americans and fundamentally transformed the character of the war. After January 1, 1863, every advance of federal troops expanded the domain of freedom. Moreover, the Proclamation announced the acceptance of black men into the Union Army and Navy, enabling the liberated to become liberators. By the end of the war, almost 200,000 black soldiers and sailors had fought for the Union and freedom.

Between 1865 and 2021 you’d think history was settled; between 1973 and 2021 you’d think law was settled.

Who Stirs The Pot Of Unrest?

In 1776 the English King was the bad man; in 2021 a man who would be king enjoys his rule.

There are those who champion the man who would be king, but lost his election.

They peg their identity to his.

Time is moving on ballot by ballot, but there are a few things undecided. There’s a man still accusing state election officials of cheating him out of his biggest day. Other men use the same ploy.

All candidates can raise funds on the claim if they do one thing: Agree.

At the same time more is revealed about January 6th, a haunting day that can’t go away.

How can decent people be swayed by what seems to be obvious: Bitter old men fighting against the dying of their light.

Have they ever seen a baby before?

I’m changing into my Granddad uniform and looking into a baby’s face.

One is barely walking and seems thrilled to know their legs work.

Another has barely born and still adjusting to the new room.

The third baby is in between, getting ready for their first roll-over.

In the big picture of world events and national movements, these are small things. These are the same small things happening in villas and mansions and farm houses and ranch houses and apartments and sheds and tents and caves. 

The progress of life at its most vulnerable happens everywhere on earth occupied by us.

Bitter old men pump their fear and hatred; people confused by reality back up to the pump.

While they know these bitter old men are past their expiration date, they still attach for one more taste.

Problem Child Solutions

We all share the same concerns about babies:

Don’t wander off, don’t let the head flop; don’t worry so much.

I’ve looked into these baby-faced faces and saw the same thing: ‘Give us a chance and we’ll do things that need getting done. We won’t carry forward hate and fear.’

Readers, your faithful blogger thought the Boomer generation would do the job of putting hate and fear away. What happened?

Now we hope our kids don’t secretly carry hate and fear forward.

So far the babies are cooperating on the work to be done. Their personal identity is strong.

How about your identity?