Elizabeth’s Journal

Participating in an Adult Activity

This afternoon Jessica and I (and Kayleigh) went to the Texas Union Ballroom to hear post-election analysis by Hendrik Hertzberg, one of my favorite New Yorker writers. I would like to quote a bit from his column in this week’s magazine. He writes, “The moral values that stirred them seem not to encompass botched wars or economic injustices or environmental depredations; rather, moral values are about sexual behavior and its various manifestations and outcomes, about family structures, and about a particularly demonstrative brand of religious piety. What was important to these voters, it appears, was not Bush’s public record but what they conceived to be his private soul. He is a good Christian, so his policy failures are forgivable. He is a saved sinner, so the dissipations of his early and middle years are not tokens of a weak character but testaments to the transformative power of his faith. He relies on God for guidance, so his intellectual laziness is not a danger.” All the evidence available seems to point to his description of most Bush voters as accurate, and I find that nearly inconceivable, that a thinking person could be so intellectually lazy. And, of course, he points out the hypocrisy that a party self-described as being for getting government out of people’s lives is so concerned about what people do in their bedrooms. Somewhere (perhaps in this week’s newspaper column by Leonard Pitts, Jr.?) I read the obvious argument that if Republicans are so concerned about the state of marriage in this country, they should be making divorces harder to get, not preventing people from making commitments to each other. I would really like to see how many of those who so revoltingly ooze talk about “family values” in their election material have had divorces themselves. Just as though who are so concerned about the rate of abortion in this country would be spending their time much more effectively by making sure that accurate contraceptive/STD information is available and by promoting adoption as a viable alternative. How can they possibly be so naive as to think that criminalizing abortion means it’s going to stop? Women have always sought to end unwanted pregnancies, always. The thing to do is to help them not get pregnant in the first place—treat the cause, not the symptom.

But I digress—back to the talk. Actually, I didn’t actually get to hear all that much of the talk as Kayleigh was delighted to be awake, so she and I spent much of the time examining the New Yorker political cartoons on display in the hallway outside the Ballroom. I did get to try out a new hold in the sling, though—the kangaroo carry. She likes it a lot.

While waiting for Jessica to get her copy of last week’s New Yorker signed (the first time in their history that they endorsed a presidential candidate), I noticed that a professor of mine was there. He taught the best writing class I’ve ever had (Rhetoric 325M), and he was also the second reader for my Plan II thesis. Unfortunately we had a strong disagreement over the content of it, and we ended up not speaking to each other. Too bad. I didn’t go say hi.

Afterwards we went down to the Cactus Cafe to have a chat while waiting for Jessica’s husband Archie to come pick her up. We even talked about non-baby things, like communal living arrangements and . . . well, I can’t remember what else, but I’m sure it was good.

I wouldn’t have been able to go to the event if Joy & Brian hadn’t arrived yesterday; they stayed with Jonathan, since we left about 3:30 to head towards UT. Many thanks! It’s very nice to have them here again. We had a relaxing day today, sitting on the deck in the beautiful weather having coffee while Kayleigh nursed. Later we went to the grocery store . . . tomorrow I’m actually going to make a new recipe for dinner. I can’t remember the last time I did that! It had better be worth it.