So, I'm officially part of the most liberal hometeaching companionship in Shelley, and possibly all of Eastern Idaho (or at least north of Pocatello).
I suspected as much when I found out my hometeaching companion works for the Idaho Falls Arts Council, and when he continued to show up to church with a non-conformist color of shirt (non-conformist in Idaho, at least). But he's confirmed it.
Now, if I can only get out of primary so I can attend some of more ridiculous classes that sometimes happen in our ridiculously conservative small town, if only to support him and his wife. Like today, where the subject in joint PH/RS was "how is today different than 90 years ago." His wife answered "women can vote." Apparently many in the class grumbled about that answer (most likely because it was a positive answer and they just wanted to spew negative ones). Me? I would have asked, right out of the gate, "Are you asking how are things better or how are things worse?" Because honestly, there's a lot of both. My second question would have been "why 90 years instead of 80?" I'm glad I wasn't a young man during World War I, the Great Depression, or World War II. Or for any of the other wars with a draft. And a number like 90 is, quite frankly, cherry-picking. In fact, according to Wikipedia, for the U.S. the 1920's, 1950's, and 1990's were the three decades with the most economic prosperity in the U.S. in the last 100 years.
Had I responded with actual answers, to combat the wave of negative answers (all except "women can vote" were negative), I would have discussed the plummeting of childhood diseases and death rates. Or I could have talked about how horrible conditions were in Germany. My great-grandfather (effectively my fifth grandparent, as I was one of the oldest great-grandchildren and he lived a long life, with a healthy mind until the end) was serving a mission in Germany in 1923, 90 years ago. Let's just say the end of WWI had not left Germany in a very good state, and things were entirely miserable. Far worse than the Great Depression here. Had things been half-decent there, it's unlikely Hitler would've been able to gain the popularity to rise to power.
Or I could have mentioned all kinds of other things.
In any case, it's good to have an ally (with his wife, two).
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I could also point out: racism.
Or how the kind of selfishness and hatred we held toward the Germans in 1920--where we let them suffer in abject poverty while we prospered--no longer happens to that degree. We now go in and help those we've defeated rebuild. We're intent on avoiding the next Hitler and helping our neighbors, instead of getting revenge on entire countries even after we've won the war. I'd call that progress.
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