Issue link: http://hvparent.uberflip.com/i/742842
6 Hudson Valley Parent n November 2016 Publisher TERRIE GOLDSTEIN tgoldstein@excitingread.com Editor FELICIA HODGES fhodges@excitingread.com Executive Assistant to the Publisher BRITTANY L. MORGAN bmorgan@excitingread.com Media Advisors CHRISTY OLIVIER colivier@excitingread.com Community Liaison PAMELA PERRY pperry@excitingread.com Traf f ic Manager PAM SOSCIA psoscia@excitingread.com Intern MADISON BECKMAN Layout & Design ENGLE PRINTING also publishers of MY TripPlanner.com family MY TripPlanner.com family Hudson Valley Parent is published monthly by: The Professional Image Marketing & Public Relations Inc. 174 South Street • Newburgh, NY 12550 Phone: 845-562-3606 • Fax: 845-562-3681 hvparent.com This publication is copyrighted by the publisher. Reproduction without written permission of the publisher is prohibited. Hudson Valley Parent welcomes submissions, although we cannot accept responsibility for work submitted nor guarantee publication. W hen I was last in this editor's chair (in 1998), we did a story on the Sandwich Generation - folks who were raising children and also taking care of aging parents. I don't remember which local writer was pegged to pen the story, but I remember being totally awestruck by the article I got back. There was an entire struggle that so many people were experiencing that I knew absolutely nothing about. Because my mother passed away about a year and a half before my son was born and my father died suddenly several years later, the idea of figuring out eldercare ar- rangements while coordinating play dates and carpool schedules was a pretty foreign one to me. Although you might be reading this after Election Day, as I write it, we are still in the throws of the crazy that is the U.S. presidential campaign. Suddenly, I have a good idea of what the meat squished between those two pieces of bread feels like. The first election I voted in was 1984, so outlandish promises, politi- cal innuendo and the like are things I'm use to experiencing whenever national elections roll around. This time, however, there is a distinctly different vibe to the whole thing. There's been lots of vitriol and "we don't like your kind" rhetoric, punctuated by actual calls for vio- lence against people of color, wom- en, the disabled and anyone viewed as "different." It's all pretty shocking to this adult, so I can only imagine the toll it may be taking on the children. Sadly, it is also a bit familiar because it looks too much like the grainy black and white footage shot in the pre-civil rights era 1960s when peace- ful protests over denied rights turned very, very violent. All I keep thinking is "Didn't my parents al- ready do this? Haven't we marched this march and fought this fight before? At 23, my son is preparing to vote for only the second time in his life and is soaking this all in. He is fervent about reminding people (on social media and elsewhere) that the rhetoric isn't cute, but cringe-worthy and outright danger- ous. I see him rolling up his political sleeves and prepping to put in some serious work to get the word out that the agitation is ugly and dismis- sive, which is simply not good for anyone. If it were possible to roll the clock back 65 years or so, I'm think- ing he'd have been seated at a lunch counter or protesting in front of fire hoses and police dogs. That my parents were on the front lines so long ago and my child is now doing the same is an eerie feeling that I can't quite explain - mostly because I thought we had moved so far beyond this and it's to- tally disappointing to be here again. The saying goes "If you do not stand for something you'll fall for anything." My hope is that my son - and WE - will all keep standing. Stuck in the middle FELICIA HODGES Editor's Journal