Politics and Religion
Hat? Hat? Come back here, honey...I'm not going there. Oh, honestly, where did she go?
Politics
"Mom, today we were talking about elections and stuff. I knew how many years a representative serves before they have another election and how long a senator serves. 6 years, right?"
"Yep. Good for you"
"And then, Mom, Mr. D. wrote '01-20-09' on the board and asked if anyone knew what that meant and I shot my hand up and I was waving it and waving it and Joe was too but Mr. D called on me and I said, 'That's the last day Bush is in office' and you know what happened then, Mom? Everyone started screaming and cheering and it was like Mr. D had just announced that there wasn't going to be anymore homework for the rest of the year".
Those of you counting down the days (440) will no doubt appreciate that little tale but here's what I found significant.
As you know, The Child attends Catholic school. Now, Catholics are as mixed a bag as any other denomination...you've got your no-war-social-justice-care-for-creation-dialoguing Catholics over here and you've got your you-can't-vote-for-a-Democrat-and-be-Catholic-I'm-so-pro-life-that-I-could-kill-you Catholics over here and then, as should be expected, a nice little hodgey-podgey all up in the middle here.
Having said that, in our small school I would wager that easily half of the families hover somewhere in the camp that I don't hover in. Thinking only about The Child's class, I would definitely say that is true. Which is to say that the cheering and stomping over Bush finally leaving the White House was not coming from a gaggle of kids being raised by pot-smoking-hippies or something like that there. And it either suggests that a) even the more conservative families have grown troubled by the direction of this presidency and/or 2) even if the parents still support Bush, their kids don't. And it'll be 5 years before any of them can vote but hey, they are paying attention. I really, really like that.
The Child, all full of poly-sci-ish fervor wanted to accompany me to vote. She asked questions about precincts and polling places and how I was going to vote if I didn't have my registration card and seemed very impressed that I knew they couldn't prohibit me from voting because I didn't have it and actually even more impressed when we walked into the polls and I went straight to my precinct table. ('K, I was too. I can't actually tell you the number off the top of my head but I know it when I see it. A 3 is involved).
She watched me sign for my ballot and go into the booth and then she said, "This is boring," and took her soda out into the hall so she could slurp on it without me shushing her.
Voting was easy. The Spouse and I had discussed everything and he'd marked the voter's pamphlet while he filled out his absentee ballot so I filled out all my little circles in record time.
I have a strategy when it comes to City Council, Port Commission and School Board. It is a very simple system, developed over years of watching Seattle/King County politics: always vote for the challenger. If the day ever comes when there is someone sitting on one of those bodies who ever does anything but natter, I'll support him or her. As that is not the nature of politics in this hippy-dippy consensus decision making, "let's commission a study to review the results of the bi-partisan panel that proposed a survey to see if we should limit our latte consumption" town, it's safe to say that the challengers will always get my vote.
Religion
There was a 30 minute period of bad juju in our house last night. I'm not naming names but 2 people were over the top hysterical and/or passive-aggressively ridiculous while 1 person was trying really hard to get everyone to simmer (and that person did raise his/her voice once but it was only to be heard above the din). It was embarrassingly stoopid. But before the night ended both of the other 2 people came to the 1 person and apologized for the bad behavior and that made the 1 person feel very good about the power of love and the strength of forgiveness. Because if it all doesn't come back to that what the h-e-double hockey sticks are we doing?
Politics
"Mom, today we were talking about elections and stuff. I knew how many years a representative serves before they have another election and how long a senator serves. 6 years, right?"
"Yep. Good for you"
"And then, Mom, Mr. D. wrote '01-20-09' on the board and asked if anyone knew what that meant and I shot my hand up and I was waving it and waving it and Joe was too but Mr. D called on me and I said, 'That's the last day Bush is in office' and you know what happened then, Mom? Everyone started screaming and cheering and it was like Mr. D had just announced that there wasn't going to be anymore homework for the rest of the year".
Those of you counting down the days (440) will no doubt appreciate that little tale but here's what I found significant.
As you know, The Child attends Catholic school. Now, Catholics are as mixed a bag as any other denomination...you've got your no-war-social-justice-care-for-creation-dialoguing Catholics over here and you've got your you-can't-vote-for-a-Democrat-and-be-Catholic-I'm-so-pro-life-that-I-could-kill-you Catholics over here and then, as should be expected, a nice little hodgey-podgey all up in the middle here.
Having said that, in our small school I would wager that easily half of the families hover somewhere in the camp that I don't hover in. Thinking only about The Child's class, I would definitely say that is true. Which is to say that the cheering and stomping over Bush finally leaving the White House was not coming from a gaggle of kids being raised by pot-smoking-hippies or something like that there. And it either suggests that a) even the more conservative families have grown troubled by the direction of this presidency and/or 2) even if the parents still support Bush, their kids don't. And it'll be 5 years before any of them can vote but hey, they are paying attention. I really, really like that.
The Child, all full of poly-sci-ish fervor wanted to accompany me to vote. She asked questions about precincts and polling places and how I was going to vote if I didn't have my registration card and seemed very impressed that I knew they couldn't prohibit me from voting because I didn't have it and actually even more impressed when we walked into the polls and I went straight to my precinct table. ('K, I was too. I can't actually tell you the number off the top of my head but I know it when I see it. A 3 is involved).
She watched me sign for my ballot and go into the booth and then she said, "This is boring," and took her soda out into the hall so she could slurp on it without me shushing her.
Voting was easy. The Spouse and I had discussed everything and he'd marked the voter's pamphlet while he filled out his absentee ballot so I filled out all my little circles in record time.
I have a strategy when it comes to City Council, Port Commission and School Board. It is a very simple system, developed over years of watching Seattle/King County politics: always vote for the challenger. If the day ever comes when there is someone sitting on one of those bodies who ever does anything but natter, I'll support him or her. As that is not the nature of politics in this hippy-dippy consensus decision making, "let's commission a study to review the results of the bi-partisan panel that proposed a survey to see if we should limit our latte consumption" town, it's safe to say that the challengers will always get my vote.
Religion
There was a 30 minute period of bad juju in our house last night. I'm not naming names but 2 people were over the top hysterical and/or passive-aggressively ridiculous while 1 person was trying really hard to get everyone to simmer (and that person did raise his/her voice once but it was only to be heard above the din). It was embarrassingly stoopid. But before the night ended both of the other 2 people came to the 1 person and apologized for the bad behavior and that made the 1 person feel very good about the power of love and the strength of forgiveness. Because if it all doesn't come back to that what the h-e-double hockey sticks are we doing?
See, Hat? That wasn't so bad, was it? Oh. I think she's hiding under the table. I'll just leave this pie here...
Labels: fathers and daughters, I love the Hat, political theater, smells like teen spirit
cobbled together by Moi at 6:35 AM
29 Comments:
She gets pie for being a scaredy hat? Hell. Sign me up, please.
I really believe in your methodology. Even if that's not what methodology means, I believe in it, anyway, way more than I believe in questionnaires and polls. The children are like those circles that radiate in the water when you throw a stone in. I, for one, am glad to see them heading so quickly for land. (I only said that because I assume that's where those circles in the water are heading. What a horrifying anaology. Now, I really AM scared and I really DO deserve pie.)
Sounds like another telephone-only story. You know where to find me.
The pie is merely to coax her out of hiding, Booda. Once she comes out I will take the pie away from her and tell her not to be a baby. Then she will get the pie. Because we like pie. You may have some, too.
JP, I'll have 30 minutes to kill before the volleyball game tonight...
(chubby fingers scootch out from under the table...)
(gently smacks chubby fingers and says sweetly) "Here Hathathat Come out, little Hat".
most of the catholics i've known in life (my family and parishes included) have been very left leaning. at least politically they were left leaning...
i remember the first time i went to the polling place with my mother and she let me punch part of her ballot (don't know if that was legal or not) and i got to vote for my godmother's sister who years later became a senator. awesome. the child seems like a sweet kid.
She's pretty terrific, Monica. Most of the time.
The first time she ever went to the polls with us she was 3 and they had these little ballots for kids on pressing toddler issues of the day like the big Dinner Kerfuffle: chicken nuggets or mac and cheese. She was upset that her favorite candidate wasn't on the ballot, though. Choosing between Barney and Mickey Mouse. Come on. She was a huge Arthur supporter. Which is the moral equivelent of supporting Kucinich.
I'm digressing.
OH! My point was we taught her about writing in candidates.
I knew I was going somewhere with that.
I took both of my kids to the polls with me for many, many years. To try and impress upon them the gravity and responsibility of being a citizen.
As to religion- I'm 46 and still codifying what I genuinely believe.. So for the kids, merely try to teach them right from wrong and not vilify any particular system of theology and let them figure their own thing out. I have always sort of felt that in the end that's one choice they genuinely ought to make on their own.
No pie for the liberal agnostic??
Doralong, honey, some of my best friends are liberal agnostics. One slice or two?
One slice for the liberal agnostics.
Two slices for the epicurean hedonists.
One, if you please. Anything more goes straight to my butt. But a nice brandy with that would be great if it happens to be pecan..
Thanks Hat- that means I get three!
I remember the first time my mom took me with her to vote. I was mad at her becaused she refused to vote for Reagan.
Now I look back, and I realize that Mom cast the right vote.
Golly, Hat, you are dogmatic about your pie, aren't you?
And as it happens, D, it IS pecan pie. Let me just find the snifters...
Iwanksi, ah youth. We're all allowed to be stoopid when young.
Well I'm about as far from the left as a person can get...I'm pro-life and anti-death penalty. And yes that comes from years of my Catholic faith. So for me to vote for anyone who isn't agreeing with me would be a sacrilege.
And to not agree with me...brings the plague and pestilence to your house. I don't understand why people just don't get that!
Love,
Julie
Julie, well, sure.
I'll be having Julie's piece too thank-you.
'Cuz that's how we roll, Hat. Julie brings down plague and pestilence on those who don't agree with her...we eat their pie. It all works out.
PIE? I'll vote any way you want me to for a piece of homemade pie....
My parents resemble that so-pro-life-I-could-kill-you remark. Very, very Republican.
And yeah, being kidless, I've been wondering how the youth of the nation views the current resident of the White House -- actually, what I've been wondering is, how will they remember him when they're my age.
I think I was pro-Carter when my folks were pro-Ford but that's only because I liked peanut butter and he was a peanut farmer and I liked that.
But still.
Did someone say no homework for the rest of the year??..Woo Hoo!
Politics and Religion and Ju-Ju and pie.
This post has everyting!
Excellent, RoRo. My plan is working... Oh! And your kid and I are totally thinking road trip in May with The Child to compensate for the DC thing. Just sayin'.
Red! Welcome back from Hiatus! I hope you got a nice tan.
And yeah, if I were going to go there I would do a whole post on what "pro-life" means to Catholics vs how it is understood by, well, even most Catholics, not to mention everyone else and how an actual "pro-life" Catholic would, in fact, be against abortion but would also be morally obligated to be against the death penalty, against war, against anything in public policy that works against the health and well-being of all God's living creatures, end-of-life issues and such like that there. Which I won't do because I would end up pissing off EVERYONE and then Hat would never come out from under the table and hello? People have to fit their damn legs under there at Thanksgiving.
Anyhoodles, welcome back.
And there IS hope for the future.
Sling, we aims to please. Pie?
(proceeds to tie everyone's laces together)
Is this mince meat pie?
I am not a fan of the mincemeat, Anne, (likely because the first time I ever had it twas proper actual mince of meat in a pie with raisins and brandy and (lower lip starts to tremble in remembrance) but since it's virtual pie, if you'd like mince, mince you shall have. Let me just peek in the pie safe...(bump)...Haaaat?
NO MINCEMEAT!
blech
I just didn't want to jump into this conversation if it was that type of pie
You're a wise, wise woman, Anne. We call that "picking our battles". Key lime or Dutch apple? The cherry and peach pies will be out of the oven in a bit.
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