Parents of teens...what are you hearing from your kids?

[BleedingHeartPatriot]

My 17 y/o (in a few days) daughter is horrified by the current state of affairs in the WH. She still remembers the Clinton era...it was a good time for our family personally and there was a sense that our president was on top of international situations...

She says most of friends are anti Bush, but the military recruiters find plenty of engaged listeners at her high school.

She is afraid Roe v. Wade will be overturned, that global warming will continue unchecked and that there will be a draft in her near future.
I don't think she fully comprehends the effect of the deficit yet.

These are the young people that need get involved NOW...what are you seeing? MKJ

edited for grammer

[ayeshahaqqiqa]

1. More young people

are showing up for the Dances of Universal Peace, especially in Springfield MO. They especially like the dances directly referring to peace. They don't talk much, but I have a feeling that they are all anti-Shrub and anti-war. They, like many of us, are looking for spiritual comfort in doing the Dances.

[Jazzgirl]

7. Ayeshahaqqiqa, are you in Springfield?

I ask because thats my home and my Mom is still there. Never heard of the Dances of Universal Peace.

JG

[ayeshahaqqiqa]

10. I'm in Springfield the first Saturday of every month

Actually, I live over 125 miles south, but my husband and I lead the Dances at the little Unity Church on Hwy FF on the west side of town. For more information, please visit our website at:

http://www.ozarkdancecircle.us

You'll see where we go (a different venue every weekend) and there are links to the Dance Center, so you can find out more about them.

[Sticky]

2. My kids are disgusted w/ bush

They can't believe he was elected and are sickened by his anti-gay stance. My daughter's boyfriend's parents are both Catholic, both lawyers and both are against bush policies- when my daughter goes off on bush they shake their finger and say "hate the deeds, not the dude". Oooooohhhhh...that makes her so mad!
Haha

[proud_Kucitizen]

3. Before the election

my 6th grader told me they had an assembly which included a movie. When * appeared in the movie almost all the children booed him. An astronaut was sitting on the stage and my son said he smiled when the children booed the pres. However, the principal scolded the kids for not respecting our supreme leader.

[Davis_X_Machina]

4. Lots of support for the war...

...specifically the prospect of being able to legally blow stuff up and kill people, among the males, in the high school where I teach.

No one believes there will be a draft, and even when it comes, the boys believe it will be easily dodged, taking only the poor and colored. They have important lives, and make contributions to the country, and are going to university, so they can't be drafted -- they're too valuable.

The racism and xenophobia are palpable.

Lots of enforcement of conformity. My daughter -- 7th grade -- and her best friend can't eat lunch in the cafeteria without being baited a 'Jewish communists' -- also obscene phoncalls calling us 'nigger Jews'. (We're white, and only my daughter is Jewish.) They were vocal Kerry supporters, and opponents of the war.

After the intervention of the school's civil rights team, things got worse, not better.

I suspect the cantaloupe-sized stone that took out the back window of my minivan over Thanksgiving, was designed to show us it does no good to complain.

No point in mentioning the paintballing of the house during the 2000 election, I guess. And we've had a total of nine lawn signs stolen in the 2000, 2002, and 2004 campaign cycles.

[rman]

11. what do those RW anti-semites think of Bush's support of Israel?

cognitive dissonance anyone?

[Davis_X_Machina]

12. It's the Other...

....doesn't matter which flavor of the Other, that they hate.

CommieFagJewNiggerArabLiberals must die, for they are the Not-Me.

[Nordic]

13. wow. Where do you live?

I can't imagine that happening where I live, but I live in a liberal rich enclave on the west coast.

[Eric J in MN]

16. Maybe you should move to another town? (nt)

nt

[maxsmom]

5. my 19 year old son caught the first and third debates

and couldn't believe how poorly * speaks. His words were, "He can't even speak proper English, and he's our president?!? He sounds like a moron!"

My 17 year old is very politically aware, and wrote the following poem prior to the election, which he handed out to many of his classmates. The * supporters were furious and said it was all BS, and others debated him endlessly and wanted to know where he got his facts, because they had never heard the points he brought up, but wouldn't be surprised if what he was saying was true.

Truth 2004
It all started in 1776
The birth of a nation unlike any other
A land of freedom
For any and every color
But behind the red, white and blue
Are things unheard of by the average Joe
‘Cuz it’s not on your television news
If you recall in the year 2000
G. W. Bush ran against a winning Al Gore
But Big Bush couldn’t let his son lose
So the Republicans decided to settle the score.
A recount demanded in the southernmost state
People came to count the country’s fate
When Bush seemed to be ahead
The Supreme Court stepped in, and they said,
“Stop the polls, what are you recounting for?
We declare Bush President, not Al Gore.”
But the Supreme Court
Doesn’t have that given power
But no one contested or rallied in the streets
So Bush was made man of the hour.

In 1941, pre-WWII, when Japan attacked us
Do you know the facts behind the fuss?
We cut off the oil supply to Japan
Of course they’re gonna be pissed, thus,
In retaliation they bombed Pearl Harbor
A Naval base, unprepared, unarmored.
But the Government knew what was going down
We just needed an excuse, to become war bound.
“I hate the Japanese, Germans, Russians”
The ignorant citizens slurred down the street cussing.
A perfectly devised government plan
To fight all the superpowers of the world
To gain control, U.S. was now “The Man”.

Sixty years later, its now 2001
The year the world cried, and chaos begun
Rewind on back to the “Terrorist Attack”.
Two planes crashed into the Twin Towers
Two monuments fell, right before our two eyes
So we rose our two fists in fury,
But we started swinging toward the wrong guys
And we blamed Iraq for the “Second Pearl Harbor”
But we didn’t send troops to fight terrorists
We just wanted the oil Iraq harbored.
And that is what the world is all about.
Whoever controls the black gold
Will be the ultimate force in control
So we decided to take matters into our own hands
Invade an innocent country to control the flow

Name one thing Iraq has done against us…
That’s right you don’t have one
So we armed 18 year-olds with guns
Let them run around, get shot at by patriots
Protecting their own country against intruders
While the U.S. Government laughed and had fun
While hundreds of families lost loved ones
Victims of a pointless war that had begun
Praying everyday for the day to be undone.

And no I will not stand here and tell you who to vote for
I am just one to show you a different door.
So while you’re standing in line to cast your vote
Think of the past four years, forget the lines I wrote
Were they the best? Were they the worst?
As an American that is your opinion
And the beauty of this country is you have a voice
Exercise it, by making the right choice
For you, your family and for your friends
And the future of your fellow Americans.


Vote November 2nd 2004.

[BleedingHeartPatriot]

8. I'm sure you're proud of son's poem; it's powerful and proud

I'm so thankful that there are young people out there like him and the other teens I talk with that are not buying into the faux macho stuff that gwb is selling.

Fight the good fight. MKJ

[cliss]

6. My kids despise Bush.

I've got 3 teenage boys. They have watched the Ascendancy of this Evildoer to power. (Of course, I could have something to do with it).

Nonetheless, they are old enough to think for themselves. They see what's been going on with the war, and of course the 2nd 'selection'. There's no support for this administration from anyone in their big extended family here in Oregon.

My middle teenager spent the summer in Europe. He says that everywhere he went, people were upset and angry about Bush. They hate him over there, he says.

Most of my kids' friends are very politically aware (who wouldn't be right now! as we're watching the fuse burning) and they know what's going on.

[kcass1954]

9. I have a son who's 18 and still in HS...

He's very worried about the war. He said he and his best friend would go skipping into the draft board holding hands if they got called. I told him that wouldn't work. They'd send him to Iraq first - IF he survived, then they'd give him a dishonorable discharge. We'll be working on getting both of us active in the local anti-war movement so he can be established as a CO - he's a pacifist through and through - never even had a fist fight!

He's aware of current events, made his own decision about party choice when he registered to vote, and is not easily influenced by peer pressure. He has seen right through that whole "moral values" crock, knowing that someone with true values also includes honesty and compassion among those values. He hates how the repugs have turned our whole society into "class warfare" between the haves and the havenots. We're very much middle-income, but it's tight making ends meet sometimes. He's got a prepaid college fund, and we pray that he gets to use it.

[Digit]

14. My daughter has been ingesting some kool-aid while at college

Her boyfriend gives it to her.
She informed me before the election that WMD's had been found in Iraq. I was incredulous, of course to hear her say this. Come to find out, she is watching FOX.

[SillyGoose]

15. My son is only 7 but ...

my nieces and nephews are all democrats (or future democrats based on their commentary). My 13 year old niece is still asking us how * got elected since everyone she knows voted for Kerry. Out of the mouth of babes...

[latteromden]

17. I'm only fourteen, and my high school election was 60-40 for BUSH, dammit;

unfortunately, I didn't get to vote in it, because I was out rallying the troops in Minneapolis, door knocking and phone banking. I was an intern for the campaign - I was definitely involved, will definitely be involved in the future. I met a 5 year old who came to work in the campaign headquarters sometime in October - and she didn't remember Clinton. She only knew what Bush had done, and that's the world she was growing up in. Unfortunately, that will be the world she grows up in for the next four years, as well.

I have a great many concerns about the future. My family was hit hard by the job losses, and even now that both parents are employed again, we can hardly pay our bills. I'm certain that Social Security will no longer be around for me when I retire. My generation is the one that will be paying for this administration's fiscal irresponsibility, and we'll be the ones dealing with the backlash from the Iraq War and whatever else Bush & Co. decide to start up. I have draft age siblings and friends; education in my community has taken a dramatic turn for the worse, with classes being cut and quality declining; all of that without adding in the fact that I'm a lesbian, and if it's not hard enough to grow up gay in this current society without the added gay marriage difficulties, it's even harder to imagine that the Republicans would like to take my rights away.

It's frightening, but I'm going to start speaking at schools around the area and encouraging other students to be more politically aware and more politically active. How anyone my age can think that they can't afford to pay attention to politics is just beyond me.

[BleedingHeartPatriot]

18. Good for you latteromden, your passion is inspiring

Don't get cynical and keep up the good fight. Grassroots is the way to make changes, so all your work, along with others, will turn the tides.
You are the best hope for our future. MKJ