Honor for the office

My earliest memories of “the president” aren’t of Dwight Eisenhower, then at the nation’s helm, but of the solemn reverence my father, a World War II and Korean War veteran, passed down as stern behavioral code when speaking of the office.

The patriotism residing within our household trumped religion. It was our religion.

The degradation of a nation’s idealism and subsequent abandonment of conventions (Geneva, for one) that set us apart, that held America’s bar so admirably high, and that welled tears of pride in each of us while pledging allegiance, are in the best position for a comeback since 1963.

Rather than making more polarizing noises, rather than deny what’s going on – that young people are enlivened, that old ideals and idealists are being reinvigorated – rather than endless cycles of unappealing arguments that keep citizens young and old from participating in our democracy, let’s turn the page. Let’s get behind President Barack Obama.

Just think back to your own childhood, and remember how good it felt to believe in something, to trust, to “hail to the chief.”

Maybe naysayers could give it a rest, and give the new president a chance.

Susan Hobbs

Ione, Wash.