I get to be divisive again!

Yay! (insert eyeroll here)

This started as a thought process on President Obama addressing the nations school children- and moved on in my mind rolling over and over in it until I need to get it out- jumbled mess of nonsensical thoughts that it may be.

Personally- I have no problem with the nations leader telling kids to take responsibility for their education- duh. I tell my five year old to take responsibility for her belongings all the time- her education is an extension of that. If kids are not going to be told that they have a gift, a talent, a something that should be developed- cherished and shared at home well someone should tell them that. Kids are individuals and special it is the collection of gifts that makes us great- not one of us.

If he pushed his politics or rhetoric on kids I may be more up at arms but from where I sit- he is taking the next generation of leaders and inspiring them to learn- to challenge themselves- to challenge that status quo- to expect better- which is how progress is made. Good for him.

So where is the divisive part? give me time grasshopper. So far I have been bombarded with 'opt out' slips and at least one phone call a night from a school district administrator. I appreciate wanting to protect my parental rights but I am aware of them and I do not need to have someone remind me over an over that I can choose to not subject my child to liberal speeches. This coming from a VERY conservative town.

So what? Then I came to think that the morals code that I have for myself is pretty conservative. But my voting record may not reflect that. Why? My morals are not everyone else's and I do not think it is my job to foist my morals on someone else (a key difference to understand in my head would be the difference between social mores/norms and moral conduct). I also happen to subscribe to the notion that morality cannot and should not be legislated. This is not to imply that I hate or look down on anyone. Far from it. Your life is your life- not mine. So where does that leave me? A closet conservative? A bleeding heart liberal? I suppose closer to the bleeding heart liberal. I hate the idea of others suffering because some would choose to abuse privilege- sure there are people who abuse the 'system' (and this pisses me off more than just about anything) but there are also people in genuine need- denying them because of the choices of others is certainly also not right. So quite a conundrum. One of the issues that I see is a lot of the people who are in genuine need are also some of the most helpless members of society who lack the means or ability to search out alternative methods of help- chief among them children.

Make any sense? didn't think so. What do you think??