The World-Neighborhood

Last night, one of my students sent me a forward which I suppose was intended to convince me that I should vote for Bush. It was the story that a father tells his 9-year-old to explain the war, and he uses the metaphor of a neighborhood. The one I sent was littered with > > from being forwarded and, besides, I don't need to copy and paste it into my blog when I can just link to it. After you've read it, you may have some of the same thoughts as I did. Or not. I guess I'll share mine so you can know which it is. I'd like to give my thoughts, however, in the form of another story, another neighborhood metaphor:

The other day, my nine-year-old son asked why America was at war in Iraq. After a bit of thought, I sent him to look out the window and I began to tell him a story. "Pretend that our neighbor's house is the United States and its owner is George Bush. Now, every other house in our neighborhood is a different country."

My son wasn't raised to be a giggling idiot, so he just nods. "Down the street lives a man who we'll call 'Sam' instead of Saddam, because no one in our neighborhood is named Saddam. It is known that he and his wife don't get along very well. It's also known that the former owner of George's house, Ron, a good friend of George's father, once gave Sam a big stick to 'keep his family in line.' Sam really is a lousy person, and uses the stick Ron gave him quite liberally on his wife and kids. This really is a bad thing."

"Of course it is," my son interjects to break up the paragraphs.

"Some years ago, Sam and his neighbor Mr. Wait had a disagreement over their property line. George's father George had always been a pretty good friend of Sam, and had even given him new sticks every so often, so when George Sr. told Sam to 'take care of the dispute' because the neighborhood was getting nervous about the whole thing, Sam assumed that he was supposed to use the stick and he beat the crap out of Mr. Wait. It happened that George's father was facing eviction at the time, so he went over to Mr. Wait's house and kicked Sam's ass himself. George Sr. figured no one would evict a hero like that. But it happened that they did."

"That's too bad," my son says.

"Yeah, well, don't shed too many tears over it, son. Some years later, as you know, George's son George managed--just barely and under questionable circumstances--to get the house back. Now it happened that shortly after George moved in, some punk kids broke into George's house and killed one of his children."

"That's terrible!"

"Yes it is. George didn't wait for the police; like his father, he was a hero. He knew that some of the punks were Stan's kids, and since Stan wouldn't admit it, he went and kicked Stan's ass and killed his kids. The police more or less looked the other way, although they were nervous that George rushed in, but they chalked it up to grief."

"Okay." 

"Everyone also knew that Sam's other neighbor Lawrence's kids had been involved in the murder of George's child, but George was really good friends with Lawrence and appreciated some of the nice things that Lawrence gave him. But he really didn't like that Sam fellow after the incident between Sam and his dad. Everyone knew that Sam beat his own wife and kids, so he wasn't exactly a popular guy. Besides, Sam had some really nice stuff, rather like the stuff that his friend Lawrence gave him. So George told the police that he was sure Sam and his kids were involved in the murder. The police continued to investigate because police aren't the same as posses. George wanted things done now though. So he went around to his neighbors and tried to get them to help. They knew Sam was a royal jerk, but that didn't mean he'd murdered George's child. So George started telling them that Sam didn't just have a big stick anymore--now he had a big gun and was planning on murdering them all! And if the police wouldn't act, then by God the neighbors had to take action."

"Gosh, that's terrible what happened to his family, but he seems a little crazy about this, dad."

"Maybe so, son. His neighbors kind of thought so, especially when he refused to wait for the police to do their job. People muttered that maybe George just wanted Sam's stuff. Undaunted by his neighbor's refusal to form a posse, George went over to Sam's house with his own gun and killed some of the kids and dragged off Sam to lock him in his basement. George spent a lot of effort protecting Sam's stuff, which of course it would be wrong to steal, and he made the remaining kids do what he told them even though he wasn't their father. Some of Sam's kids were glad that Sam couldn't beat them any more, but when George beat them a lot too, they weren't entirely thrilled."

"I wouldn't think so!"

"George wasn't really concerned, and there were rumors that he didn't protect some of the dangerous stuff that was in Sam's house (probably because they weren't the gun George said Sam had). But he did protect Sam's stuff that he liked so that it could be sold off at auction where George would be sure to get it for a good price. But he insisted that he didn't go in so that he could get Sam's stuff. Definitely not. Unfortunately, George couldn't find that Sam actually had a gun. Maybe some gun catalogs here and there, but where was the gun George knew was in Sam's house? That was okay, though, George said, because wasn't the neighborhood better off without Sam in it?"

"Sure it was, dad. But if he was guilty, wouldn't the police have gotten rid of him eventually?"

"Not according to George. Besides the police take so long."

"But dad, don't the police have to have evidence and do things the right way?"

My son's so smart. "Yes, they do. And which way do you think is better?"

"Well, George took care of it quickly, but if there wasn't that much danger, what's the hurry? And who's to say he won't decide that we're bad next? Most parents argue, and parents and children don't always see eye to eye on things, what if he likes our stuff or his dad didn't really like us and he decides we need to be run out of the neighborhood? Or what if other people in the neighborhood start doing the same thing instead of letting the police do their job?"

"That's right, son, what if that starts happening?"

"The neighborhood becomes like the wild west!"

"Well, George did like to wear cowboy hats."

"I'll bet the neighbors weren't too happy with George."

"No, they weren't. He made them all very nervous. He didn't really care what they thought after they wouldn't help him take the law into his own hands and he was pretty rude to a lot of people. He just closed the blinds, though, and refused to talk to them. And kept repeating to everyone how bad Sam was and that is was okay to ignore the law and due process if you knew that someone was bad. When people disagreed with them, he said that they were on the side of the punk kids who killed his child. To justify himself, he told over-simplified stories, in which the motives of each neighbor were always clearly black and white. In which things like giving sticks and lying about guns and wanting access to other people's stuff weren't important. Stories that would convince some nine-year-olds that he did the right thing."

"Not me dad!"

"That's good, son. I'm glad I raised you to think, to see the world as being as complex as it really is."

tags: political  

links: digg this    del.icio.us    technorati    reddit