Some Wise Words

American Mythology– You Can Be Whatever You Want to Be

May 14, 2015 by Ben Witherington

When I was young (and foolish), I wanted to be Spiderman, or at least a reasonable facsimile thereof. I even once leaped off a large dollhouse in the backyard of a neighbor, to impress a girl. I broke my arm. It was a crystalizing moment for me at nine years of age. I realized there were limits to what I could be despite the Army poster then in vogue with the slogan ‘Be All You Can Be’. There were various things I couldn’t be, and one of them was Spidey, the old webslinger. Some fantasies die hard, and some, mercifully die a quick death in youth.

I bring this up because it’s clear enough to me that America has become rather delusional on the subject of ‘you can be whatever and whoever you want to be’. For example, on the news last night was a closing story about a family with a Downs syndrome child. Pictures have circulated all over the internet of this child apparently flying. Of course the photos were photo-shopped by dear ole Dad. He airbrushed himself out of the picture. The wife is shown saying ‘these pictures are meant to convey the message that our child can be and do whatever he wants to be and do’, even apparently become Peter Pan. Frankly, this is just not true.

Unless there is a miracle, or a sudden cure for Downs syndrome, this child cannot be and do whatever it wants to be and do. For example, this child will not be able to go to college and get a medical degree and become a surgeon. I don’t want to be Mr. Buzz Kill, and I affirm the positive spirit that might suggest ‘this child can be and do more than you might expect’. Fair enough. There is some hope of that. But there is not hope under present conditions of that child being and doing whatever they want to be and do. It’s important that parents have a better grip on reality than that when it comes to having such a child. Be positive, but don’t promise the moon to yourself or your child.

And this includes the parents who recently were on the news having informed their public school that from now on their eight year old should be seen as a girl and called by a girl’s name and allowed to use girl’s bathrooms, simply because the child enjoys playing with dolls and sees himself as inwardly a girl, despite all the biology and body parts saying this isn’t so. This child needs counseling not encouragement, and so do his parents. There are psychological problems here.

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