Monthly Archives: September 2004

“Security Moms” holding America hostage

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Is it strange that it’s the Red States who are least at risk of terror attacks, while the very regions who are most
at-risk of terrorism lean Blue? It infuriates me to hear a midwestern
Security Mom get on her high horse about how we need to fight
“terrorism” (q.v. “Arabs”) more aggressively, when she and her family
are significantly less likely to be killed or hurt by an attack than
the New Yorkers protesting the Republican National Convention.

Actually, Red-Staters are more likely
to have children in the military, which begets a double irony: Bush’s
invasion of Iraq has actually put Security Mom progeny who are in
the armed forces at far more risk than the President had the right to
do. Nor does this risk come with it any justification, as the war in
Afghanistan had. Yet it’s the very policy that seems to turn Security Moms on, because, after all, we have to do something about those terrorists.

When you also consider that Red States are on the losing end (and
Blue States the beneficiaries) of federal tax cuts, it makes you wonder
whether anyone votes rationally.

Final Wedding Decision – a reader response forum

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Rachel & I were very grateful to have received some wonderful gifts
at our wedding, and we will be starting the storied process of writing
thank-you notes over the next few weeks, inshallah. Most people were aware that we had designated the Harvard Square Homeless Shelter as the near-exclusive “registry,”
on the principle that we didn’t really need all that much. Many people
did so, and we are excited that to date, our friends and family have
donated well over $2,000 to the shelter. (They are seeking $200K for
significant kitchen renovation, and every dollar helps!).

We did also receive very nice gift checks from several individuals
for which we are very grateful. Several of these were sent to us with
the explicit instruction to donate the amount to the shelter. Several,
however, were not, and some came from individuals who had separately
donated to the shelter directly.

It is equally true today as it was a year ago when we made the
decision about the charity registry that we are not in serious need of
any particular household items — not any more so than any couple ever
has, at any rate. We were also fortunate that the wedding was entirely
paid for by Rachel’s parents, so we do not need the money to cover any
wedding debts.

My questions to our readership (all 5 of you!) are:

  1. Would people who gave us cash gifts feel offended or slighted if we donated that amount to the shelter?
  2. If not, should we donate some or all of the amount to the
    shelter, for the same reasons as we had decided to designate the
    shelter as our charity to begin with?

I know it’s probably gauche to discuss these questions publicly, but.

Cars big enough for a house

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Back in 1983, when our family bought a new, brown Cutlass Ciera,
my mom stated that the car would be like another room of the house –
she could take naps or I could do my homework there. She was probably
trying to justify the impact the purchase would have on our quiescent
family budget, but as I was watching drivers applying makeup in their
cars this morning on their way to work, I realized she might have been
right about the meaning of a car to Americans. Maybe one reason for our
destructive attachment to large vehicles stems from the fact that they
aren’t just a way to get from here to there: they actually are living quarters.

Y.A.W. #2

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It
seems married life consists primarily of attending other couples’
weddings! We were honored to attend our good friend Theresa and Adam’s
wedding in New Hampshire. Rachel participated as a reader in the very
thoughtful ceremony (“Always the reader, never the bridesmaid”).

In some ways going to the wedding was like an extension on our honeymoon (which was itself built around Yet Another Wedding #1). And I will get around to writing about our week in England!