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Crowson: Reasons For Hope

Richard Crowson

These days, I take hope from whatever small corners of my world I can find it in. After all, we live among folks who can easily get outraged about a former vice president who has two accusers who say he made them feel uncomfortable. One woman says he kissed the back of her hair and the other says he rubbed noses with her.

The president’s leading cheerleader, Kellyanne Conway, has deemed the former vice president “Creepy Uncle Joe” because of the two accusations. That’s right. Leading cheerleader for a president who, depending on which news source you want to believe, has between 19 and 23 women accusing him of much worse than “rubbing noses.”

It all can just depress the heck out of me. So I look for signs of optimism among my fellow humans wherever I can find it. Recently I found it in two places.

I entered the annual swap meet at Wichita’s Century II Convention Center with some degree of trepidation. I braced myself for an onslaught of red “MAGA” hats. After all, we were a bunch of mostly middle-aged-to-senior-citizen guys at the event. And you know what? I didn’t see a single red hat! I was giddy about it.

Then more recently, I posted a photo of my big labradoodle, Perry, stretched out in a funny pose on an ottoman. It received the most “likes” of anything I’ve ever posted. All that politically partisan stuff that I’m always putting on Facebook couldn’t hold a candle to my dog’s hundreds and hundreds of “likes!” Dog-love, or at least dog-likes, triumphed over politics!

There are reasons for hope, my fellow Americans! MAGA hats are not yet mandatory men’s wear! We still love dogs! I might cut my dosage of antidepressants in half!

Richard Crowson is not only a editorial commentator for KMUW. He's also a cartoonist, an artist and a banjo player.