My daughter Summer and I didn’t watch the Presidential “debate” last week. First, we know who we are voting for (OK, she’s 15, she can’t vote yet), and secondly, 90 second press-conference style questions without interaction isn’t a debate to begin with. But something tells me neither of us would have enjoyed watching anyway, given that politics in this nation rarely has much to do with consistency or truth. And that drives both of us nuts.
I asked Summer to find a few moments to write up her thoughts concerning her letter to President Bush and the fact that her teacher has refused to give her any credit for writing it. (Here is the original letter). She has done so. It follows.
Modern thinking. Modern writing. Oh I would love to see an area in which there is more cause to rebel than these. Beliefs without cause run rampant under the banner of “free thinking” while these brilliant minds look down their noses at those who dare infuse opinion with reason. What a tragedy it is that one might not be so caged as to have convictions as to the weight one’s words must hold!
This lesson is taught everyday, and taught to the most dangerous of minds. The premise that your opinion is the ultimate truth, regardless of how unfounded, will be the demoralization of this nation; and it is being preached on every street corner, every bookstore, through every television set, and in one form or another in the majority of our classrooms. The dangerous minds that are swallowing this fallacy whole are none other than the next generation of America: our adolescents.
When assigned to write a letter to the President of the United States, in scarcely a heartbeat I knew what I would be writing about: homosexual marriage. My class was barely being introduced to the format of the letter when I was forming sentences in my mind concerning this issue, conjuring up the most powerful words in my vocabulary, and scratching out brief notes on my paper so as not to forget to do research. I was wholly inside my own mind as the class was throwing out possible topics for the assignment; thankfully, one voice brought me crashing back down into my seat. The subject of stem-cell research, and it’s need to be more widely funded, was introduced. [continue with this article]
