The video of the
four-year old crying conveyed how I feel.
“I’m tired of all the fighting between Barack Obama and Mitt Romney,”
the precious girl stated on CNN. The
tears forced many to ask why a four-year old would be so emotional about an
election.
It’s enough to make all of us cry. This election has unveiled a pitiful display
of conduct that forfeits the things we try to teach our children. We forget the babies are watching. Young folks have sense enough to know when we’re
not practicing what we preach.
Civility has been thrown out the window. Forget about being honest. In the game of politics we are teaching our
children lessons that contradict everything we claim as central in defining
strong character. We are teaching them how
important it is to win. We are teaching them
to win at all cost, and that lesson will come back and bite us in the rear end.
Children are listening as their parents
relate their hate for a candidate. Yes,
they are listening to racist garbage related to immigration, stereotypes
involving people who receive food stamps, and assumptions regarding women who
need an abortion. Our children sit in
church as ministers spew homophobic hate. Yes, the babies are listening.
They watch attack ads aimed at convincing
voters the opposition has an evil agenda.
We teach our children to honor sportsmanship, to respect others and to
do onto others as you would have others do onto you. What happened to all that teaching?
What are we teaching our children? Does anyone care? Is the war more important than the children
God has given us to teach?
Where are the politicians who care about the
children? Is it more important to prove
you are right by revealing the wrong in others?
Where is the compromise? Where is
the respect for alternative views? Where
are the people who care more about what we leave behind than their getting elected
to office?
This is not a boxing match. So, I’m calling for a cease fire among those
running for local office. This war has
to stop. The children are watching. Your behavior is juvenile. Stop it NOW!
Are you listening?
For those who missed it, the Herald-Sun
reported that officials from the County Board of Elections were forced to call
a meeting to warn local political leaders to put a stop to recent instances of
disorder among campaign workers at Durham early voting cites.
Carol Anderson, board chairwoman, was forced
to tell those present to “remember the golden rule and remember what your
mother taught you.” Help me understand
why voters should trust this group of politicians to do the right thing when
they can’t abide by the lessons they should have learned before they entered
the first grade.
The fighting is reflected in the back and
forth bickering that shows up in the newspaper almost every day. These tattle tales have spent too much time
consumed with their competitions campaign spending and who gets paid to work
the polls. I’m tired of the
fighting. It says something about the
character of those running when they are overly consumed with things other than
the strategy of their enemy.
According to the report in the Herald-Sun,
competing campaigners got into a fight that required police intervention. Another incident was reported regarding the harassment
of patrons of a county library by poll workers in the parking lot.
Those called in for the meeting
included the heads of the county Democratic and Republican parties, Milo Pyne and
Tom Miller of The People’s Alliance and Keith Bishop of the Durham Committee on
the Affairs of Black People. Omar
Beasley, Brenda Howerton, Wendy Jacobs and Ellen Reckhow – County Commissioners
contenders – attended the meeting. State
Rep. Larry Hall, County Library board Chairman Allan Lang, Jacobs campaign
manager Jackie Brown, T.E. Austin and Lorisa Seibel also attended the meeting.
Most troubling is what is fueling
the fight. It isn’t the clash between Obama
and Romney that has campaign workers going after one another and those who vote
for someone else. The fight is over the
Board of County Commissioners. This
election has exposed what we can look forward to after all the smoke
settles. We can expect a fight, and
Durham deserve much better than this!
So, this I my warning to all of
you – Reckow, Page, Howerton, Jacobs, Foster and Beasley –stop fighting and
start serving. Get it together fast.
Don’t make the Rev-elution mad!
If you do, I may trade my pen for my name on a campaign sign. God knows I’m
trying to find a home in another state, but I love Durham too much to watch people
fight like children on a playground.
Voters deserve better than your
childish ways.
Fix it!
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