Goodnight Moon.
Goodnight Zoom.
Goodnight Sense Of Impending Doom.
I saw a meme float through my news feed. And hours later, the words were still swirling in my head. 2020 has sucked! For me. For you. For everyone on Earth. Could our “new normal” be our “forever normal”? Gosh, I hope not.
I began to question why I had this verbiage repeating in my head and yet…impending doom about summed up the feeling in the pit of my stomach. I thought, maybe it’s because the Presidential Debate is coming on tonight, but maybe it’s something else. The state of the country, everything just feels so off.
The Great Debate
And then I watched the debate. The debate was the biggest disaster I have ever seen. I am embarrassed for our nation. But more importantly, I am scared for this country. The sitting President of the United States, when asked if he would direct white supremacists to stand down, instead said, that they should “stand back and stand by”. The President is inciting insurrection.
What is worse than the fact that this is the person sitting in a seat of power, is that a huge portion of our country has accepted this man as their leader, a man that represents who they are. And they even want to re-elect him. There has been more hate and violence since he has been in office than I have witnessed in my lifetime and I’m sure than you have seen in yours.
Innocence Preserved
As I sat here following the debate gathering my thoughts, the first thing to cross my mind was that I was glad I said, “no” when my daughter asked to stay up to watch the debate with me. Imagine being 8 years old and this is your first experience watching a Presidential Debate and what do you witness but what appears to be two overgrown toddlers lashing it out on TV. They over talked each other, name called and told each other to shut up, ignoring the moderator and choosing to debate the moderator at times. In a way, it doesn’t matter which of them did what because I am speaking on seeing this through the eyes of an 8 year old. Adults should be just that, adults. Truthfully I expect better of my 8 year old than what I saw last night. Across the newscast came a story of a 6th grader walking out of her living room crying, because she could not stand to watch the debate anymore. Had I let my daughter watch the debate, she would have seen the sitting President of the United States attack a man’s son, whom had been sick with a drug addiction that has plagued many people in this World. But she would have also been able to see Biden defending his son. She would see that a good father would still tell his child that he is proud of them despite their shortcomings. But the children of America and those watching overseas should never have seen an adult act in that manner. I am grateful that I made the choice to put her to bed and preserved her innocence for another day. To the Mom and Dad of the 6th grade girl that was spoken of on the news last night, I am so sorry that your daughter had some of her innocence stolen from her last night.
I can not imagine that anyone could have been living under a rock this past year, as isolated as we have all been, dependent on social media for some type of connection. But in case you have, I hope the debate was a wake up call!
Turn Those Thoughts into Actions
If your children were watching and vocalized wanting to do something to help, make sure you listen. Please don’t ignore the fire inside our youth. They are the world changers. Feed that fire and help them find some ways to make a difference. Some of these ideas could also meet their community service requirements for school or other organizations!
1) Vote Forward: send letters to unregistered and infrequent voters, encouraging them to vote. https://votefwd.org/
2)Get involved in local campaigns because they may be more accessible than the national campaigns. The National Conference of State Legislatures provides a list of Internship Programs that can be found here, https://www.ncsl.org/legislators-staff/legislative-staff/legislative-staff-coordinating-committee/states-legislative-internship-programs-and-coordinators.aspx
Youth Service America shows how to start and follow through on service projects in your community, which can be found here https://leadasap.ysa.org
3)Kids are texting anyway, why not do it with a purpose? Most people don’t have a landline anymore so what better way to reach voters, than to text and it is free!
Democrats, sign up for Text Out The Vote at https://democrats.org/text-out-the-vote/
Republicans, sign up through the Republican National Committee at https://www.gop.com/rnc-invests-additional-25-million-toward-midterms/
4)You can always reach them through the old-fashioned personal phone calls!
If you’re Progressive you can sign up through Mobilize America at https://www.mobilize.us to find phone banks or other events in your area.
If you’re more Conservative, sign up through the GOP at https://www.gop.com
Create a World Worth Living In!
I am sure that there are many more ways to help. But if you offer suggestions, I am sure they will find one! Remind your kids that, “as a girl (or boy for that matter) thinketh so is she/he. (While I write this blog to share how I encourage my daughter, I know this is the time to encourage every child, no matter who they are. We always should! I just don’t have a son.) Right now we need to encourage our young people to create a World that they want to live in because I would dare to say that the older generations have screwed it up, something fierce! And always, always, teach your children they don’t have to just sit down and accept things as they are. Their voice matters.
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