I recently read about a mother who told her young daughter that if someone hit her, to hit back. That second child is no longer welcome as a friend at school. I don’t know if that’s the cost of political correctness but I do think it is the cost of the long-lost art of language.
When colleges and employers laugh at literary arts majors, that undermines our culture’s language skills, which are needed in this technological and terrorist age.
Yes, I equate bullies with potential terrorists, because if they are allowed to get away with this behavior it will continue into adulthood. Bullies are insecure so will use their tactics in the workplace and in the home. These are our home-grown terrorists. No, they don’t make bombs, they just create dysfunctional families that perpetuate the activity because the kids don’t know a better way to communicate.
My aunt is a retired English teacher. There was a dictionary in her powder room and every time I used it I had to open a page and look up a word and tell her what it meant.
When I was a child my allowance was fifty cents per week. So was my sister’s. If we called each other dumb or stupid we were docked a nickel every time. That was a candy bar. We stopped that and started talking. Of course we fought all the time but never, ever laid hands on each other. We wouldn’t even think of hitting one another.
In the end there were four siblings who ended up smart, didn’t hit each other or anyone at school. There was one incident where some boys took my winter hat off me on the bus and ripped it in half. I was sobbing so was brought to the principal’s office where I promptly identified the wrongdoers. I was eight years old and very shy.
To identify them was a watershed for me. It was short-lived (they had no phone and no principal’s note ever made it to their parents) but the kids on the bus protected me from then on. No-one ever fought, it was just made clear that this would never happen again because there were more good kids on the bus than a family of bullies.
Language skills are key. OK, if someone wants your purse and has a gun or knife, just give it to them, but it is key to teach children to talk through issues.
That’s where we get to politicians. Yes, it’s time for political ads and most are negative. If I were to want a political office, I would focus on what I could do for my neighborhood, town, city, state or country. All we hear today is how so-and-so voted against this and for huge bailouts et al.
These politicians are out at the flagpole at 3:00 ready to fight. The American people deserve better. I don’t want someone voting on budgets or health care who only wants to hurt his/her opponent publicly. I want to know their policy ideas and voting records and how they’re going to help my family.
I want someone with language skills who will state the platform, tell what party he/she is with and what will be done if elected. Is that too much to ask?
Right now I see one party that’s exclusive, one that’s inclusive and that’s been the battle for decades. I didn’t see that many years ago but then again I was only a committee analyst, never a politician.
If we don’t force change on the negative tactics of our politician wanna-be’s and incumbents, it’s We, the People, who will lose. Going for the pretty face or hard core party loyalty, gone.
Right now all these politicians who have no platform except negative attack ads on their opponent are bullies, pure and simple.
Bullying is what we teach our children every day. Let’s put a stop to it. Language skills. Thanks AL and J, my English mentors, Dee
Cooking with Dee 