Editor's Corner

The other day, my four-year-old daughter was telling the mailman about how Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama both want to be president. The mailman was amused and made a comment to the effect of ‘wouldn’t that be something.’ It occurred to me that what everyone is saying about this election being “historic” is true enough, though not for the reasons I had thought.

To adults in this country, the Democratic Primary race offered an intriguing set of possible firsts, set against the backdrop of change. And to be sure, the change is happening. To paraphrase Hillary from her concession speech, ‘The glass ceiling has a lot of cracks,” and regardless of the outcome of the election, we will never forget this historic contest.

The kids, though, unburdened by a lifetime of political status quo, have no notion of the glass ceiling. To my four-year-old, ‘Hillary Kinton’ and ‘Balack OObama’ are just two people, running for president, and they want to be “the boss of the United States.” It’s really quite a simple matter in her view, as it should be!

To me, this is the real historic event. And as amusing as it may be to hear your little ones cheering for Hillary or Obama, or even John McCain, who can blame them? There is a lot of excitement around these two people, and the kids are just taking it all in. To them, Hillary and Obama represent neither ‘first’ nor ‘change.’ They are the here and now. In fact, they are the status quo, and that’s a powerful change.

—Jessica Davis, jessica@nwkids.com