Politics, Motherhood, and Politics

As most of us know, the shaping of a child’s mind begins at home. It begins by deciding which books, toys, television shows, music and other forms of media are in their lives.  As they age, you learn their preferences and realize that sometimes they are being shaped by outside influences. Also, the ideas of right or wrong, moral code, religion (or not), and social norms.  Granted after the birth of my sons, our goal was the same, but for me, where politics are an obsession, civics, political thought and perspective are a large part of raising my sons.  Politics, like other parts of life, are important in the kind of world citizens that I want to raise for the next generation.  I plan to accomplish this goal by teaching them to question everything. (So far the 9 year-old appears to have this skill mastered. The 10 year-old always appears deep in thought, as he is keeping his question to himself and answering them on his own.) Both of my sons are in elementary scho...

Over the last few decades, I have lost the meaning of the word conservatism in American politics.  On the political spectrum, the right wing consisted of conservatives (high level of moral code) and traditionalists (those that took the Constitution literal and were not flexible).  This definition was what was taught to me as an undergraduate student in Political Science.  Before I began to write this, I performed a quick Google search to get an idea where the current conservative movement is, the definitions that I found included “reactionaries” and “fascists”. I knew these definitions a long time ago, but after 25 years, I forgot them.  I am not going to be alarmist and cry out that we are headed toward fascism because of the current political climate. I believe that Americans are not headed toward fascism, as some leftist like to proclaim. (Though it was just as laughable that many on the right thought Obama was a communist.)  However, I would argue we are de...

On the Matter of Veterans vs. Refugees. A few days ago, while at Walmart , I saw a man wearing a T-shirt that stated the following: VETERANS BEFORE REFUGEES As a human rights activist, this T-shirt sort of shocked me.  I should say that being in my mid-40's it takes me a lot longer to look away and tell myself that I need to put on a poker face.  So, the man, who was probably in his early 30's, saw me stare at his shirt and noticed that I did not put on a poker face. Surprisingly, he did not stare back at me or say anything.   After I became aware of my stareing issue, I composed myself and shook my head. He went his way and I went mine.  The only question I asked myself (and wished I had asked him) was, "who made that a choice?"  What idiot decided to put two groups who are affected by war the most, veterans and displaced people (refugees) against one another?  Now, I have seen these words prior to this T-shirt. Unfortunately, it was from fami...