Because I Taught Them

Lately I have been attacked for my views on the economy, the President and my OCD about spelling and grammar. Well I am tired of it. I will say this one last thing about my political views, let you know where they come from.

I grew up being told that people who were different than me weren't worth my time. Basically that was the point. It wasn't worth my time to be friends with them, worship with them, swim with them...get the picture? And by people who were different than me, I mean Blacks, Hispanics, homosexuals...anyone that was not a white anglo-saxon protestant, yes a WASP. But that WASP had to be heterosexual. That was important.

This was preached, yes preached, to me from a pulpit. My family was always in the pews. My family had been attending that church and listening to that preacher for MANY years before I was born and for MANY years after. Our church building sat in a predominately black area of town and if one of the neighbors who was black walked in the church, services were over. Lock the doors and go home over. It got to the point that when we were having services, the front door was locked...heck all the doors were locked. It didn't end at the color of your skin or your sexual preference, friends who were brought to church and happened to be, say, Catholic were publicly criticized for their beliefs...from the pulpit. I finally got real.

When I was 17, I realized that I didn't have to listen to this anymore. The preacher died, but one of my uncles who worshipped the ground the man walked on took over. I wasn't listening to this crap anymore. I wasn't going to be told any longer that people who I thought were friends weren't good enough to be my friend. I wasn't going to be told any longer that belonging to another religion was wrong. I knew better. It was time I did better.

It was time I stood up and said that all these years, everything this man said was wrong. I never went back to that church. I started making decisions for myself what was good for me. I guess that was where my political views started differing from my family. My family still wants someone to decide for them, like Republicans do when it comes to a woman's right to choose. My family still wants someone to decide for them which health insurance they have to use, and to that end let someone else decide which doctors to use. My family still wants someone to decide for them. I don't.

I want to decide for myself. If I needed to, I would want to decide whether or not to end a pregnancy, not have some law that some Republican, Christian coalition member made decide for me. I want to be able to decide which health insurance I can afford and which doctors I want to use. If that is the definintion of Liberal, then stamp it on me. All I know is, I keep getting quoted the Bible every time I state my opinion. But I know that God gave us all a conscience. That is free will...to decide what I think is right for me and it is for me to get it right with God.

I don't know a lot about economics. I have never taken it in school. I have not graduated from college like my sisters, I don't have two degrees like they each have. I just know that I have kids that I have to raise to the best of my ability and that I have to show the right way to treat people and the right way to behave. It is my responsibility to raise them to have a moral compass. It is my responsibility to teach them ethics. I think I am doing that. James and I are doing that.

I don't have a college education, but I am always learning. I take pride in the fact that I can spell. What is wrong with that? I take pride in the fact that my kids have friends who are of all races and religions. I love seeing Nicholas sitting in his room playing with Nicholas (who is black), Dason (who is Filipino), and Josh (whose mom is white and dad is black). And Nicholas doesn't see the difference in them. That makes me feel like I am doing something right.

I like that none of my kids has never used the n-word and probably never will because they know, because I taught them that it is unacceptable. They will never first look at a person's skin and form their opinion just from that because I taught them not too. They will not tell a woman that she doesn't have a right to do what she wants with her body, because I taught them that it is her choice. They will never tell anyone that being a Catholic or a Muslim, a Baptist or a Methodist, theat they are wrong for it because I taught them that everyone has a right to worship as they choose.

Because I taught them.