I had just finished my weekly column at about 5:30 last Friday. It was the September 11th one, it may have been pretty cheesy and sentimental, but, you know, it’s an emotional holiday. Poit is, it left me in a pretty patriotic mood. This set the stage…I gathered the Cheer squad to get in the van to drive to an away game but I left my keys on a table in my classroom so I ran back across the street to school to get them.
As you know, Iowa still has the first in the nation primary elections, so as I came back out the girls were all excited because a Presidential candidate was stumping on a neighbor’s porch across from the school. Some of the volunteers asked if the cheerleaders would like to have their picture taken with the candidate. I knew it was a cheesy photo op for him, but I figured it was exposure for us too, so I let them do it. I took a picture too and it got in the local paper here, the Dunlap Reporter, and we’ll probably use it in the yearbook too.
I walked up to Democratic Senator John Edwards from South Carolina, shook his hand and told him I thought he’d done a good job on the debates in Albuquerque the night before. For some people that would have been no big deal, others would have refused to shake a Democrats hand, but it was kind of fun for me just because of my background as a political new junkie.
Sen. John Edwards and the Boyer Valley Cheer Squad
Did I ever tell you about the time I met Republican Senator John McCain? I was on the staff of the weekly high school supplement to the Phoenix Gazette as a Freshman in high school. He had just gotten elected to Congress for his first term. Strong handshake, but he’s one of those people who grabs ya at the knuckles and doesn’t let you shake palm to palm- at least he was them. Anyway, at the time I didn’t trust him, maybe because of his handshake and decided I didn’t like him. Of course now, I have a lot more respect for him, he’s one of my favorite Republicans. I’d like to think we’ve both matured a lot
Say, that reminds me, did I ever tell you that Arizona Diamondbacks pitcher Curt Schilling was a Senior at Shadow Mountain when I was a Freshman? Yeah, I guess I have huh? What? “like a million times?” Oh, okay, sorry. Is this too much name dropping?
Edwards, right. Well, I thought it was kind of funny, his people said that MSNBC was coming and asked if we’d do a cheer, well the zipper on one of the girl’s skirts had broke, so I had run back into school to get a bunch of safety pins when this request through another girl into a moral dilemma of crisis proportions.
“Wait, wait, Mr. Mallory, shouldn’t we find out what some of his positions are before we do a chant for him?”
I was thinking, “Uh, you’ve already posed for a publicity photo with him, this is a little late, kiddo,” but I didn’t say that. I suggested cheering for Boyer Valley and not customizing it for him, dilemma solved.
This wasn’t good enough apparently, as debate continued while we pinned the skirt the best we could.
“How about this,” I suggested, “Yell ‘Hey VOTERS, Get Fired UP!’ that way it’s pro-participation, yet bi-partisan, how about that?”
This idea appealed to the whole squad, but of course by this time Edwards had started his speech and we were faced with another dilemma- not one of politics or morals, but of manners. They didn’t want to interrupt, but they also didn’t want to make our exit too conspicuous either. We listened patiently for several minutes and snuck off to our van quietly. Fortunately we made it to the game on time.
The next day in Yearbook class one who’s notoriously Republican told the one who had had the hang up, “It would’ve been Okay, I found out he’s a Democrat and Democrats are against abortion, so it would’ve been okay.”
“Uh, actually,” I tried to explain, “generally Republicans are more likely to be Pro-Life and Pro-Choice advocates tend to get more support from Democrats.”
“But I talked to Jen (a former cheerleader who now attends Georgetown University), and she says she’s anti-abortion and she’s a Democrat?” she said.
“Sure, I oppose abortion and I’m a Democrat, that’s why you have to be careful of making generalizations and assumptions, but Jen and I are kind of unusual, generally you’d expect more Republicans to be more strongly opposed to abortion,” I explained.
“Oh,” said another student, “all I know is my whole family is like totally Republican.”
“All my family is like- ‘huh? Politic? Duh, huh?’” said the notoriously Republican cheerleader.
All I know is that I doubt Edwards stands a chance against Gebhardt or Howard Dean in the primaries, so it barely matters what he thinks about anything. I did appreciate that he’s the first and only Democrat to take a stand and say that he thinks that Bush’s “No Child Left Behind” program is bad for public education and should be eliminated.
Sigh, then again, I would have wished that 17 year olds would be a little more aware of what’s going on in society. That does make me miss teaching U.S. History. At least I’m trying to help them be more aware by teaching Journalism.
Well, another Friday night, another football game. I hope no Presidential Candidates show up at this one.
6:28 pm, gotta go, talk to you next week.
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