Friday, July 06, 2012

Can you trust kids to think their own thoughts, or are you so insecure that you insist on them thinking only the thoughts you want them to have?

In preparation for surgery on July 10 to remove a cataract from my right eye, I had a pre-surgery appointment on July 5. The kids were with me. We had gone to Denver's famous Tattered Cover bookstore, where I bought each of them a book to read, but a large screen t.v. was on in the waiting room of the doctor's office, with CNN's anchor Wolf Blitzer and some very pretty anchor babe talking to each other. When I returned from the exam, the kids were nowhere to be seen. I found them playing out in the large lobby of the swanky building.

As we drove to our next stop, Jon asked me if I planned to vote for Romney. I said yes, and I was glad I had kept my mouth shut to the extent that Jon did not know who I was going to vote for (although he surely must surmise that I will not vote for Obama). Jon had recently said, "Do you know what I hate?" "No, Jon, what?" "I hate it when kids talk politics, and you just know they are just parroting what they have heard their parents say. They haven't really thought about it in depth, and then made up their own minds. I want to make up my own mind after asking questions and thinking about it." I want to respect that independent thinking on the part of my son, and be ready to ask the questions that get him thinking about things.

Then Jon said this, "I was watching CNN in the lobby of the doctor's office. CNN is trying to make people believe that Romney will outsource jobs overseas, while Obama will create jobs for people right here in America!" Then Jon went on to tell me how his teachers in Santa Fe constantly preach about global warming and other facets of liberal theology. I love how this kid sees through the b.s.!

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