(12) Notes from a {prole} writer in Minneapolis (or my 3rd grade trauma)

2/2/26

My 3rd grade trauma.

Now, as is customary of re-telling of past traumatic experiences, a trigger warning should be placed. But as the abrasions to our decency this past decade has left visceral chips into the void of “hell”, it raises the question of what will be tolerable in the next forty years from now?

3rd grade. ‘88-‘89. Nintendo: the true start of my musical journey. Horror movies. Calvin & Hobbes comic strips. Innocence. Those days will never come back again and I’m fine with that.

The 3rd grade South Tama County Intermediate School curriculum had the whole class do a mock election. It was George H Bush/Dan Quayle vs. Mike Dukakis/Lloyd Bentsen for the U.S. Presidency. The teacher explained to us, as a civics lesson, about the voting process and we would participate in it.

It sounded harmless in 1988. It sounded like a good idea for small town Iowa kids to learn how the process went. We participated, and immediately, I saw Lord of the Flies vibes as other kids were asking each other who they were voting for. The popular kids and the loudmouth brat(I can’t remember his name but I remember the face…he said the F word…) said they were voting for Bush.

I was thankfully raised in a well-informed household thanks to my grandpa. I was surrounded by newspapers, National Geographic, encyclopedias on the book shelf. The conservative movement was flying high as jimmy swaggart, the disgraced televangelist who was busted for adultery, was parading the chinks in the armor of “The Moral Majority,” even back then. The SNL skit was the funniest thing I had ever seen.

I knew “The War on Drugs” was just a code word for red-lining and Black oppression. These were my guidance posts, as it were, that showed that republicans were full of shit.

I can still remember my grandpa shaking his head with a lemon drop candy in his mouth, “Gah…Republicans are no good.” (Haha!)

So, at the mock election, I voted for Dukakis. Surely I wasn’t alone, I thought. I said my piece and was instantly picked on. I remember telling them my grandpa said that Dukakis was the best pick. Smirks, sneers, and tribalism began—and then recess happened. Fuck…The Lord of the Flies came to life.

I do remember some fisticuffs between some boys from another class. I remember a republican kid grabbing a boy’s shirt and almost ripping it off. A girl was getting picked on like I was. I remember her saying who she voted for and the boys started throwing rocks at her. I still remember the look on her face, but she never backed down.

I do remember thinking that—maybe I made the wrong choice?

Then the results came in. Bush/Quayle won by a landslide, me and the girl who had rocks thrown at her were the only 2 votes for Dukakis.

So, this taught me a valuable lesson. I picture the sneering loudmouth brat trying to downplay this experience.(Evil-looking brown-haired white kid, I will look him up to see how he turned out! :-D) This was trauma and not hyperbole. I think about it every time I see another republican say something heartless, bully, storm the capitol, violently invade and occupy my city, read about their crimes in the epstein files. It never surprises me. But almost 40 years later, when is enough really enough?

How’s that for Groundhog’s Day?

I do feel we are at a point in our history that we can change all that. Minneapolis just got nominated for a Nobel Peace Prize. We’re doing something admirable. I have never imagined that I would achieve anything like that. But life is full of good fortune if you stick to it.

At the end of the day, it makes me think of the trauma of today’s children that is exponentially worse than mine as a result of republican “family values.” It is and always was the dark web—the dark underbelly of American society.