My 7 year old Granddaughter & Bush

My family was talking about the election and how dreadful it is that Bush won....my 7 year old Granddaughter told us to not talk bad about him "cause they might come and take me away"...This is not come from "us"... I reassured her that this is America and we don't get taken away for talking negatively about our government...but inside, I was thinking, it could really become this way!

I agree with you LadyV

Sadly enough my son asked me where his Uncle Matt was, and I told him he was at war in Iraq. He asked me who sent him to Iraq, and I told him our President did.

His teacher at school told him that his uncle "wanted to go to war, and it has nothing to do with the President" WTF?

Maybe that came through some 6th sense way...
Children are sensitive so maybe she felt something going on related with all these NWO, police state conspiracies.

Originally posted by LadyV
My family was talking about the election and how dreadful it is that Bush won....my 7 year old Granddaughter told us to not talk bad about him "cause they might come and take me away"...This is not come from "us"... I reassured her that this is America and we don't get taken away for talking negatively about our government...but inside, I was thinking, it could really become this way!

I don't want to sound confrontational at all, but she got that idea from one of three places- TV, school, or her parents. I'm leaning towards the latter two. Either her friend's are telling her this, or her parents talk about it too much with her around. I'd suggest telling her parents (your son or daughter, I assume) to watch what they say. We don't need a 7 year old growing up in fear.

I'd say the same to parents who talk about terrorism too much. Both sides of the same paranoid coin.

EDIT: I am in no way bashing her parents, I cannot fathom how it will be for me raise my kids. I just think she's got the rest of her life to live in this screwed up world, let her have her childhood.

[edit on 11-3-2004 by Esoterica]

Originally posted by LadyV
My family was talking about the election and how dreadful it is that Bush won....my 7 year old Granddaughter told us to not talk bad about him "cause they might come and take me away"..

...but inside, I was thinking, it could really become this way!

Kids interpret things in ways that allow them to cope. I think it is a pretty good bet that your granddaughter picked up negative feelings from the adult conversations in your house, and she is now afraid.

As for you thinking that it could really become that way, well...

from deeprivergal
His teacher at school told him that his uncle "wanted to go to war, and it has nothing to do with the President" WTF?

I would have been much more pissed off if the teacher had told my kid that it was the president's fault that his uncle was in Iraq. Once again, kids cannot process adult information, so we must be very careful what burdens we lay upon their little heads.

I'd suggest telling her parents (your son or daughter, I assume) to watch what they say. We don't need a 7 year old growing up in fear. I'd say the same to parents who talk about terrorism too much.

Know what? The truth is the truth. I don't see any point in hiding it. And we DO have 7 year olds growing up in fear because this administration breeds fear and fearful things. The sad thing isn't what the child heard or thought. The said thing is that there may be truth to it.

My son.....they live with me, because we were going though a custody battle that my son has just won! She is hearing this at school.....she is also worried about her daddy and uncles going to fight....she was actually crying last week that her daddy would have to go fight and be killed....this is sad to say the least.

Dealt with the second part already, so I'll just reply to this

Originally posted by Losonczy
Know what? The truth is the truth. I don't see any point in hiding it.

Except that isn't the truth. It's a thought, perhaps correct, perhaps not. People around here don't seme to be able to see in to the future. Bush will be President for four more years. That's it. After that, the job is going to be up for fresh blood. Look at history, did the US remain the police state it ws once the Civil War was over? No, things went back to normal, even though we elected an alcoholic meatgrinder war 'hero' as President. Be it one year or ten, Iraq will be worked out. Terrorism will either become a non-issue and fall to the wayside, just like communism has. Things are going to change, that's the one thing you can count on in the USA.

1984....its coming

Originally posted by LadyV
My son.....they live with me, because we were going though a custody battle that my son has just won! She is hearing this at school.....she is also worried about her daddy and uncles going to fight....she was actually crying last week that her daddy would have to go fight and be killed....this is sad to say the least.

Sorry for the custody battle, glad that your son won. By fight, do you mean fight in Iraq, or the uncle and father fighter eachother?

Fight in Iraq....she is hearing that there is war and our people are fighting in Iraq...she is worried about her father and uncles, my other sons...

Originally posted by LadyV
My family was talking about the election and how dreadful it is that Bush won....my 7 year old Granddaughter told us to not talk bad about him "cause they might come and take me away"...This is not come from "us"... I reassured her that this is America and we don't get taken away for talking negatively about our government...but inside, I was thinking, it could really become this way!

You never know, they just might take her away cuz u voted for Kerry!!!!

Originally posted by michael9_cs


You never know, they just might take her away cuz u voted for Kerry!!!!

Very poor attempt at humor? And just so you know...no one will/would taker her away...I'd kill them first and if you read correctly...she said "take" you" meaning "me" away...not her!

Originally posted by deeprivergal
His teacher at school told him that his uncle "wanted to go to war, and it has nothing to do with the President" WTF?

He joined the military freely didn't he? Well if he joined freely then he knew that his Commander in Chief is the President. With that said this "uncle" should have been aware that if the President says go to war then he must go to war. He signed up for it freely, what did he expect to get paid and sit on his butt in a base in Germany for 10 years, retire and live off the governments penny for the rest of his life?

Bottome line if he joined he should have known that he could fight in a war whether he agreed to the war or not. So I say the teacher was right.

Teachers sometimes let their political bias influence their classes.

thankfully I'm in a majority democratic county
seriously now, my kids school had mocked debates and election process and they even voted. Surprisingly Kerry won in both 3rd and 1st grade classes and my kids seemed to show Kerry favoritism even though I never expressed it at home, seems teacher bias rubbed off there too.

Originally posted by worldwatcher
Teachers sometimes let their political bias influence their classes.

seriously now, my kids school had mocked debates and election process and they even voted. Surprisingly Kerry won in both 3rd and 1st grade classes and my kids seemed to show Kerry favoritism even though I never expressed it at home, seems teacher bias rubbed off there too.

Possibly, but I disagree with teachers allowing their political, religious, racial, or sexual bias into the young classroom.

Did you know what is a fairly accurate indicator of elections? The good old Weekly Reader. Here's their results:

Kindergarten - 9190 students voted
Bush 6404
Kerry 2702
Other 84
1st Grade - 30,017 students voted
Bush 20,946
Kerry 8550
Other 521
2nd Grade - 56,157 students voted
Bush 40,066
Kerry 15,948
Other 143
3rd Grade - 57,802 students voted
Bush 41,652
Kerry 15,900
Other 250
4th Grade - 57,725 students voted
Bush 36,953
Kerry 19,931
Other 841
5th Grade - 42,269 students voted
Bush 24,166
Kerry 16,960
Other 1143

Originally posted by LadyV
Fight in Iraq....she is hearing that there is war and our people are fighting in Iraq...she is worried about her father and uncles, my other sons...

Saying this towards all others' behalf, just to know my stance.

Mind you, I am a Veteran

They won't fight. Because I'll not let them fight a war of ignorance.
Niether of them will want to - but one I know would go. But I'll not let him.
I WILL put him in the damn car - because if the draft goes thru (don't EVEN tell me it's not being drawn up) he would go out of fear of "not" going. The other has just as much smarts, but will stick to them about "don't get in your neighbors house uninvited" (the ignorant war). The third, and oldest, is just as smart as those two, and will think about his kids first (over that same war of ignorance). He'll be telling me "fu*k the computers, let's GO!!".

K then, flame away. I could'nt give a damn less.

======================
Bush is the President
Think Patriot Act II
This outspoken dissident
In jail I'll be soon
======================

Misfit

I disagree with a few of you here, we need to teach our children what really happens in the world. I'll give you a recent example of what happened here, My daughter's class had an assignment, one of the questions asked who you would vote for adn my daughter was the only one in the class that wrote kerry and she got it counted wrong. Then she comes home from church and asked me why kerry killed and ate babies, something she had heard from adults. Another preacher here was telling his congregation to vote Bush or not to come back to church... If we don't teach our children what facism is, how will they know what it is when and if it happens? They think it is ok to have cameras on their school buses now as it is. Kids know who Squanto and Miles Standish is, but they don't learn about wounded knee or the trail of tears. I say hell yes teach your kids everything you can about corruption, if you don't they will grow up thinking its ok for a president to walk off a stage instead of answering questions about Ken Lay, etc.

Originally posted by BlackJackal

Originally posted by deeprivergal
His teacher at school told him that his uncle "wanted to go to war, and it has nothing to do with the President" WTF?

He joined the military freely didn't he? Well if he joined freely then he knew that his Commander in Chief is the President. With that said this "uncle" should have been aware that if the President says go to war then he must go to war. He signed up for it freely, what did he expect to get paid and sit on his butt in a base in Germany for 10 years, retire and live off the governments penny for the rest of his life?

Bottome line if he joined he should have known that he could fight in a war whether he agreed to the war or not. So I say the teacher was right.

Possibly he wanted to "defend his country"? That's a little different to "wanting to go to war". And the point was the stupidity of the teacher, talking to a child of less than ten in such terms.
If a teacher ever says anything similar to my (currently two week old) son I will be filing an official complaint and following it through all the way.
If US soldiers go to war it is always to do with the President. No-one else (from my understanding of their constitution) can declare war and no-one else can order troops to war.

People who want to go to war join companies such as Sandline and Executive Outcomes. Regular service personnel spend too much time constrained by laws and politics to fulfill a genuine desire for war.