Picking up DG from school today, thinking to myself that I was grateful it was Friday and wondering how the week had gone so fast and left me feeling so slammed by the end. Throwing herself in the car in a huff, she explains thus: “I cannot believe how STUPID some people can be. They just spout off what they heard on the news like it was fact without bothering to read or learn anything. Grrrrr.”

If every hair could have stood on end in all its curly glory to indicate her anger, they would have. I could almost see those tinges of red she’s got in it glowing. And because she’s at the glorious age where she actually likes to talk about what went on, I got the whole story about the political debate in PE class. As she told it in her own words, it occurred to me that really, it was a story all of us should read and pay attention to. Not because she was so absolutely right, or because she conducted herself so absolutely well, but because she gave me a glimpse of what the kids — the ones who really will be the ones affected by our choices today — are thinking and hearing. I asked her to guest-blog it over on the political blog, which she did, after posting it on her own blog, too. I hope you’ll take some time and read it and leave her a comment. I’m biased, but I was impressed with not just the dialogue, but the thoughts she had behind it, thoughts she describes as “the eyes of the voices that do not yet register as important.” Here’s a teaser for you:

Dear God, someone shoot me now so I can stop listening to this. “Are you kidding me!” It occurs to me that the people I’m standing next to all have no older brothers. “You don’t get it, you don’t get how serious this is, dude people are dying, DYING, over there and you’re joking about it–”

…damn, I wish I had her gift for writing out dialogue verbatim. That must be a gift that comes with NOT having ADHD.

But beyond the opinion and the conflict, there’s this: Most of the kids she was sparring with were parroting the opinions of their parents and the nightly news. We live in a very, very conservative area here. We are one of the true pockets of conservative politics. Despite the fact that neighborhoods less than five miles away are largely the domain of immigrant farm workers and the disadvantaged, here in our little slice of suburbia, we have manicured lawns, neatly planned housing tracts, and lots of overprotective parents who really have bought into the culture of fear, and lots of parents say things that they don’t expect their kids to pay much attention to, but the fact is, they ARE paying attention and they are forming their own outlook for the time in the not-too-distant future when they fill out their own voter registration.

If nothing else comes out of this year’s election, I hope the level of discourse improves, and the Rush Limbaughs, Bill O’Reillys and yes, the Keith Olbermanns tone down how they say the things they say, and parents consider that the tone they use when speaking of those who disagree does resonate with their kids.

Hey, a girl can dream, can’t she?

She’d love your comments. I hope you ‘ll leave some. Oh, and I hope she continues to lean toward being a Democrat, because she’d be a formidable debate opponent.

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