Swickard: Delayed advice on the presidential election

Commentary by Michael Swickard, Ph.D. - Often I am tempted to give the younger generation, er, generations, the benefit of mistakes I made as a youth. But it is stupid to talk to youth today knowing I would not have listened when I was their age. I did some things right and some things wrong.

As a youngster I refilled my father’s Zippo lighter with fluid and replaced the flints. I emptied ash trays and absorbed eighteen years of second-hand smoke. Was I ever tempted to smoke? No, the women of my family did not approve of smoking. Specifically, there was my grandmother who shaped me in thought and religion. She made sure I understood her position against smoking.
My grandfather did not smoke but she could not stop her daughters from marrying smoking men. Did I know cigarettes were harmful? Yes, everyone knew smoking was harmful, but the harm was an abstract concept lacking long-term understanding.
As a young person I could not imagine the painful deaths of my father and Uncle Ralph tied to decades of smoking. With the benefit of age I see smoking for its entire effect, I get the whole picture and am sad when young people take up smoking.
Likewise I see the effect of politics in ways I could not decades ago. This presidential election reminds me of the Ford/Carter race of 1976. I was young and believed the hype of Jimmy Carter. I even had a Carter bumper sticker on my car. One of my relatives tried to tell me the harm that Carter was going to do to the economy but I would not listen. He was old, therefore, could not know anything.
Four years later I could not wait to throw Carter out of office for the damage he did to the economy, the military and our role in the world. I voted for Carter only once which is why I have trouble warning young people today of the harm that Obama poses for them. Read Column

Swickard: Delayed advice on the presidential election