Day: September 13, 2012

As my nine year old daughter gets older, she craves more freedom at conventions. Even large ones like Dragon*Con. If she needs to go to the rest room and it’s across the hall, she doesn’t want to feel she needs to be escorted. If I’ve a table in artist’s alley, which is a completely contained area with guards at the exits, she wants to be able to walk around without my holding her hand. Think of it as monitored independence.

But she thinks ahead.

When we were getting her her badge for Dragon*Con, she insisted on a name other than her own on the badge. Not a gaming or character name, but just a simple, ordinary girl’s name that wasn’t hers.

“Why?” said my wife.

“Because,” replied my daughter, “if I’m walking around and someone runs up to me and tells me you sent them, and they call me by the fake name on the badge, I know they’re bad people.”

I think that’s freaking brilliant for ANY parent who has a youngster of any age at the convention. The broader rule is that dressing your kids in clothing that has their name on it is a risky proposition. But convention badges is another good place to avoid ID’ing your child or, even better, mis-IDing her to red flag anyone with bad intentions.

PAD

Whenever Republicans are called on unscrupulous behavior, their response is always the same:

“Yeah, well, the Democrats have done the same thing!”

There’s never any statute of limitation on any alleged act. Doesn’t matter if the allegations refer to something that happened last year or last century. “Democrats did it too!” is the constant refrain. Express outrage over their concerted nationwide voter disenfranchisement, and they’ll excuse it with allegations about the 1960 Presidential election.

Here’s the thing: I think Democrats should aspire to be better than the GOP. It would literally never occur to me (at least) to seek cover in the craptastic behavior of conservatives as some sort of excuse for my party’s missteps (real or imagined.) To hold up the GOP’s attempts at blocking voter rights, gay rights, women’s rights and say, “See? They’ve done worse!” Because that…what? Makes Democratic misdeeds okay? Serves as a blanket pardon? Why does one group’s immoral behavior somehow validate similar actions by the other?

The GOP has made no secret of its hatred for liberals: on Fox, on line, in bookstores. So it’s bizarre to me that “Democrats have done the same (or worse)” is remotely an appropriate response. I don’t know about you, but if there are people I hate, I want to be nothing like them rather than seek excuses for my own douchebaggery in their actions.

I suppose what they’re attempting to do is invalidate any criticism from liberals by endeavoring to paint liberals as hypocrites. Those annoying liberals, setting high standards for ethical behavior and then failing to live up to those standards with their own actions. There may be some validity to that. On the other hand, which is preferable? To have standards set so high that sometimes one fails to live up to them, and thus come across as hypocritical? Or to have standards set so low that there’s nothing to live up to and thus come across as an ignorant áššhølë?

You don’t get to act like you’re better than the other guy if you embrace his own alleged failings to pardon your own.

PAD