Politics, Motherhood, and Politics

Lockdown is a term usually associated with prisons.  For those of us not directly exposed with the prison system, we usually hear it in movies or TV shows. However, since the killing of 20 children at Sandy Hook Elementary 2012, many states have enacted these drills, much like they do fire and tornado drills.  I get calls, texts and emails letting me that these drills take place, but for some reason, as if my sons dying in a fire or tornado isn’t bad enough, the lockdown is what shakes me to my core.   My 10-year-old was in kindergarten when the 1st graders at Sandy Hook Elementary died. When I would see their angelic faces flashing across the screen, in my selfishness, I think of my sons. When I see any child victim, whether that is in these mass killings or the ones pictured on my local news, I cry and then hug my sons. That is what I do, I put myself in and feel the pain of others.  The word is called empathy, which I try to pass to my sons. Those speci...

When I was in 4 th grade, my teacher, Mrs. Guess, once said to the class: “Any time you point the blame at others, you have three other fingers pointing back at you.”  I cannot remember the circumstances in which she told our whole class this little bit of wisdom, but as a 10-year-old child, I thought this was very profound and made a lot of sense. (Most likely the circumstance fit the meaning of the saying, some child or children blaming each other for something.)  Of course, when she said it, I had to extend my index finger pointing at the kid in front of me and actually see the “other” three pointing back at me.  This verified that this was very true and made a lot of sense to me. Mrs. Guess saw me, smiling, and then asked me stop pointing. I went home and told my Dad this new found wisdom. He laughed and said it made sense to him, too. As my childhood went by, I never gave that saying a second thought, until I heard it again at the age of 16 in Heal...