By Pat Alther
DailyProgress.com blogger

It often seems there is a consensus that the world of the 1950s, particularly the world depicted on popular television shows of that period, has little relevance to the world of today. However, that is not necessarily the case as you will see here.

Being on a bit of a warm nostalgia trip for some of the culture of my childhood, I was delighted to see that one of the Fifties era’s most beloved TV shows had made it onto DVD. Ah, you will say, what relevance can the whitebread, perfect world of the Cleavers of “Leave it to Beaver” have to our present condition? The family of Ward and June, living in their perfect neighborhood, has no relevance, no connection to today’s reality, you will say (and perhaps point out correctly that it did not reflect the actual life of many people in the Fifties).

But an episode from the second season that aired in 1958 had as its theme an issue that is highly relevant to us today. A family from South America who had almost no knowledge of English had moved into the Cleavers’ neighborhood. The Beaver had become close friends with their little boy, despite the language difference. But a crisis arose when Eddie Haskell, the older kid who is very much a “rat” in Beaver’s brother Wally’s words, thinks it would be funny to play a trick on the younger boys. He teaches Beaver a phrase in Spanish which he says means “you’re a swell guy” and tells him to say that to his friend, Chuey. The phrase is “usted tiene una cara como puerco,” or, “you have a face like a pig.” When he says it, Chuey flees the house in tears, his parents, the Varelas, arrive to find out what happened and leave angrily. Their lack of English and the Cleavers’ lack of Spanish don’t help matters.

Of course, it all ends happily. Once Ward learns Eddie was to blame, he writes a letter of apology to the Varelas with the aid of his old high school Spanish textbook. Chuey arrives with flowers for June, Beaver and he run off to play, friends again, and the program ends with Beaver wishing his father “good night” in Spanish—“buenas noches.”

Yes, this has a lesson for us, in handling conflict and respecting each others’ differences. As more Spanish-speaking people move into our communities, it is easy to imagine a similar situation arising today. Could we handle it as well as Ward did? Granted, the Varelas appeared to be a middle-class couple like the Cleavers, not impoverished migrant workers, but the issue of ethnic and language differences is still present. But here we learn a valuable lesson about tolerance and respect for each others’ humanity from a time long before concepts like “diversity,” “multi-culturalism,” and the like had made it into our discourse.

The Cleavers did not need a sensitivity training workshop to know that you treat others with respect and kindliness, regardless of certain ways they are different from you.

Bob Gibson
Daily Progress political blogger

As a political blogger of all of about four months, I am only somewhat surprised at the stridency and self-assurance many partisan bloggers display.

Something about the blogosphere gives those willing to throw their opinions and analyses up for the world to read a feeling of edgy omniscience.

Young and certain of universal truths, they are, as a Republican consultant friend observed, kind of like rap music artists. “They spend a lot of time bragging.”

Blogs are heady stuff. I’ve grown four years younger and 44 percent more sure of things myself just by blogging.

Actually, I still have doubts and see many shades of gray, but my testosterone levels are seriously elevated, red meat consumption is up and head butting and hockey are new favorite sports.

Partisan Democratic bloggers have mounted a strident bid to push U.S. Senate hopeful James Webb across the finish line in his June 13 Democratic Party primary clash with party rival Harris Miller.

There may be a couple hundred political bloggers in Virginia and of those who are Democrats about 90 percent appear to favor Webb.

Not only are they pushing Webb with enthusiasm as the challenger more likely to defeat U.S. Sen. George Allen, R-Fairfax County, a number are trashing Miller with some gusto.

The D blogosphere is yellow-dog certain that Webb is about to kick Miller’s nether regions and then give Allen the boot.

As a political blogger with all the edgy certainty I can muster, I’m thinking “horse hockey.”

Webb may be a fine guy and a great author, a good and charismatic thinker and a war hero. He may even possibly be the candidate who could attract the most support from independents and so-called Reagan Democrats to challenge Allen.

He just has not shown anyone south of the D blogosphere that he can win that strangest of political animals — the low-turnout June Democratic primary when no one but a pure party activist is paying much attention to November’s off-year elections.

Miller may be beating him like a mule among those very voters who think there is such an animal as a yellow-dog primary.

Do yellow-dog Democrats vote strategically with the odds and temperatures of November in mind?

Or do they vote for a Democrat they consider reliably one of them?

Do low-turnout primary voters warm quickly in June to a Republican-turned-Democratic hopeful running as a bit of a celebrity they don’t really know?

Just as Webb’s blogger brigade is branding Miller a technology industry lobbyist who favors outsourcing American jobs abroad and who gave some big bucks to Republicans, the Miller campaign is trying to define Webb as an unreliable Democrat.

The text of a Miller campaign robocall this week is typical of the traditional Democratic insider’s branding of Webb.

“Hi, this is Sue,” says a recorded and somewhat strident female voice.

“Yesterday Democratic Senate candidates Harris Miller and Jim Webb had their first TV debate. I was shocked to see Jim Webb refuse to answer why he had supported George Bush and George Allen and eventually blew his top by telling Harris Miller to ‘shut his mouth.’ I want a real Democrat representing Virginia in the Senate. That’s why I’m voting for Harris Miller on June 13. Look for more information in the mail on why Harris Miller is the real Democrat we can count on. Paid for by Miller for Senate,” she concluded.

Is that a full or fair and accurate account of the May 21 televised debate between Miller and Webb?

Of course not.

Has Webb answered it on television, in the mail or on the phone to the likely Democratic primary voters who heard it?

Nope.

I doubt that any blog-bit by a bona fide geezer is going to change anyone’s prom plans, but it can’t hurt to lob it out there in great hopes.

There’s a bunch of the Big Dances coming up this weekend and in the next few as school grinds to a halt for a summer semester siesta. We’re talking expensive tuxedos and $400 dresses.

They go through a lot to look good for one night. They plotted and planned to pop the question in just the right way from juggling to dousing their intended with flowers and candies. Some have planned dinner before or after and others are arranging parties.

Some will be drinking alcohol.

It’s against the law, sure. But it’s what certain groups do to be cool. They haven’t figured out that whiskey ain’t rebellion, it’s just buying what they’re selling, to quote Cake. In some circles, from high school athletes to college fraternities and sororities, it’s a big deal. Jack Daniels is too cool – none of that green label, even though it tastes better, we want the real alcohol – and Miller Lite is less filling but tastes great.

It’s a culture, you see, partly fueled by you and me. Sure, they’ve got media pressure. Drunks were the running joke of shows like Bewitched in the 1960s, now available in primetime thanks to cable television. Sure, they’ve got peer pressure, but how much of that pressure comes from us?

Ask yourself: Do I party? Do I toss hoedowns with 20 of my closest friends, distributing drinks and getting a bit tipsy myself? Do my friends stagger a little on the way out the door?

What image am I setting?

Change your behavior. But first, talk with your kids about the prom, the parties, graduation. Tell them to stay sober, watch their back and the road. It’s not easy for some of us, believe me I know, but you have to make a plea. Perhaps it won’t have any impact. Maybe it will be in the back of their heads as they boogie out of the prom and into the night.

They’ve spent a lot of money on that tux and that dress.

It would be an awful shame to get it bloody in a car wreck.

It’s a pity. It’s a shame. We’re so sorry for your loss.

What do you tell a parent whose teen has been killed in a car crash? What words do you say to make it all better, to make the pain go away, to help
them through another day? There are none that I know of.

Nolan Jenkins, an Albemarle High School junior, bright and smart and talented in the class and on the field – in this case the lacrosse field – died in a car wreck, believed to be alcohol-related. He is the latest, but not the first.

I could give you the litany of those who have passed on in alcohol-related crashes, many of them the brightest and the best, many of them accomplished athletes. I could, but I won’t. There are plenty of familieswho live with the pain every day, who relive it every time the newspaper arrives with a similar account or when the television news goes graphic.

Besides, there are two high school students living in my house, two wonderful and intelligent human beings with wonderful and intelligent friends and I don’t want to attract the attention of the karma gods.

A few years ago the grieving parent of a teen killed in a wreck set up a free-ride program with Yellow Cab and even gave out his family’s home number as a way to avoid drinking and driving. He had the right idea.

So spread the word to your friends, your kids, your neighbors. Don’t drink. If you do drink, don’t drive. Call home or a friend and get a ride. And parents, if the kids are drinking but call home for a ride, praise them for the good choice they made while their thinking was impaired.

Be grateful you can chastise them later.

Go downtown, stop in front of city hall, look at the big chalkboard with all the scribbling on it and take a few pictures for posterity because it may someday come tumbling down courtesy of the Bush Administration.

Now, I’m not going to tell you who I voted for, but I will say that I have in the past and will in the future find myself renouncing a vote previously cast. I have renounced votes for Clinton, for George Allen and a host of other politicians for a host of reasons. Usually I wait until they do something so heinous according to my voter’s hypersensitivity that
I can do no less.

It’s happening again.

The Bush Administration has decided that, if they read existing laws very carefully, under microscopes and alternative English-to-Spanish-to-French translation dictionaries, they can prosecute news reporters for leaking
valuable information to the public.

The Iraqi Prison Scandal? Prosecute the reporters!

Secret Prisons? Jail the bastard media!

CIA agent names leaked by high-ranking administrative officials and later published? Lock the SOBs up!

Attorney General Alberto “Gonzo” Gonzalez also said that the government will track reporters’ phone calls in cases of leaks, but will not do so routinely like they do other Americans, a story that, by the way, would be grounds for criminal charges against reporters in the future.

The times they are a changing. Freedom of Speech may someday exist only a wall.

It’s enough to make you swear off voting forever.