Charlie, my five-year-old, has become interested in the presidential election. The only thing I've told him about it is that President Bush wants to fight bad guys, and John Kerry wants to talk to bad guys, even if the bad guys just want to hurt people.
"Does that mean people who vote for John Kerry are bad people?" he asked.
"Not necessarily," I replied. "It does mean they're making a bad choice."
My words seemed to have had more than a slight effect on him. Yesterday, when the kids were out trick-or-treating, my wife reported that Charlie saw a yard sign and sounded out the words on it. "K...eh...r...ee...Kerry. Those people are voting for John Kerry!" he exclaimed.
Meanwhile, all the kids he was walking with started walking up to the front door. "Hey, don't go up there!" Charlie yelled. "Those people are voting for John Kerry!" My wife tried to explain that this really wasn't the time for arguing. Besides, wouldn't he at least like some candy from them?
"No," Charlie said. "It might be poisoned!"
And we wonder why this country is so polarized...why nobody can compromise on any issue, no matter how unimportant. Neither side of the aisle can see anything good from the other side. I am not saying eithr side has to settle for the other side's beliefs, but this anti-liberal or anti-conservative hatred and suspectness starts at a young age.
From my boyhood memories:
In the early 1970s, Britain and Iceland fought two "cod wars," basically disputes over fishing rights near the coast of Iceland, with Britain refusing to recognize Iceland's unilateral declaration of territorial waters and fishing restrictions, and Reykjavik claiming overfishing and depletion of one of its few sources of GDP. The Icelandic Coast Guard began cutting the nets of British trawlers, and then the Royal Navy intervened, sending frigates to escort British fishing vessels (Iceland has no armed forces). Some shots were fired, and there were a few injuries from vessel rammings. AFAIK, this is the only case of two NATO countries actually firing on one another (I don't think Greece and Turkey ever actually did more than maneuver and posture over the 74 invasion of Cyprus).
Anyway, this is happening on and off for a few years and I'm watching it on the news. I begin reading about World War 2. And apparently (I have no memory of this exchange), I asked my dad whether Britain has the atomic bomb. He said we did. Does Iceland? No. And I asked, "so why don't we just drop it on Iceland like America did to Japan to end the War." My dad said he told me that Britain and Iceland are actually friends against the Russians, we're just having a quarrel and it's not a life-or-death war.
That is too cute... Kids are so perceptive today. I dont ever recall my folks talking politics when I was a kid!
I had my girlfriends 5 girls over SAturday Night so they could go see Therese. (so that's my 6 boys and their 5 girls =11 kids!)
Their 4year old mentioned all the signs in front of our house Bush, Keyes the big 4x8 ones. And she said, "Mrs B we can't vote for Kerry because he says its ok for a boy to marry a boy and a girl to marry a girl". WOW I thought.. and she went on,, "Kerry says too that its ok to kill babies in their moms tummies".
Then I jsut sat back to watch the 11 of em discussing politics, abortion and gay marriage.
Amazing the things that kids pick up from their parents conversations eh?
Yvonne
Ding-Dong....UNICEF calling...you know, the oil for food scam artists.
What a kewl kid!
That's just sad. Why does Charlie believe that the candy will be poisoned?
"You have got to be taught,
Before it's too late,
Before you are six, or seven, or eight.
To hate all the people your relatives hate.
You've got to be carefully taught."
Oh man, SOUTH PACIFIC lyrics?!?!?!
Is there no limit?!?!?!?!
O the humanity!
Yup, we shouldn't ever, ever, ever prejudice our children's thoughts by sharing our opinions with them. We should let them find out on their own that fire burns, that dogs with foaming mouths might just bite them, that the strange man in the trenchcoat standing next to the busstop might not be a nice guy, and that Democrats will tax them to the hilt in return for the privilege of permitting ensuring the freedom to suck the life out of our wombs with vacuum cleaners.
Oh for pete's sake. Eric, I for one am glad that there are parents like you, who actually take the education of your children seriously. Frankly, I wish I had grown up with a bit more of a healthy fear of the poisoned candy of Democrat households (though I grew up in Democrat household myself, and cuddled up in bed every night with a large red-white-and-blue stuffed donkey wearing a Muskie for President button).
My earliest political memory is of Tim Judd in the third grade singing "Ford, Ford--he's our man; Carter belongs in a garbage can."
Four years ago, my (now) 8- and 7-year-olds were rooting for George "Goven-der" Bush. Now there's two more and they're all cheering for 'W.
I was going to post some extra South Pacific lyrics, but the song is just so bad: why prolong the pain?
But what about this song:
There is nothing like a dame,
Nothing in the world,
There is nothing you can name
That is anything like a dame!
Victor, a point of correction: Iceland does have a military. It's provided by the United States. By treaty, we get basing rights, and in return we protect them from their enemies, such as, apparently, British fishing boats.
As I said, I never told Charlie that Kerry voters would poison kids. He inferred that on his own.
Now where O where might Charlie have gotten the idea that Kerry might be a lethal threat to kids. I tell ya, the crazy ideas young uns come up with..
Actually, Eric, Iceland more or less got its way because it threatened to withdraw from NATO and expel Alliance forces from those Keflavik bases. This prompted offers of American and NATO mediation and Britain accepted the 200-mile limit and Iceland's right to set quotas in that area in exchange for ... well, a sweeter quota for our ships than what Iceland had unilaterally decreed some years earlier.
The forces firing on our ships were definitely Icelandic, though -- basically fast armed yachts like the gunboats most American police forces in coastal cities have for drug interdiction.
John, would -you- go to Belbury for surgery?
You "poisoned" your child more than any opposing political party might have. Children are innocent until "taught" otherwise. Your child now knows how to hate.
Have you ever heard of "original sin," Kip?
I think I would like Charlie. He has great reasoning for someone who hasn't even reached the age of reasoning.
Why shouldn't Charlie care about politics and even take sides? He cares about injustice: nothing wrong with that in itself.