Many Moons Ago There Were weB LOGs: I Voted Today
With each new advance in technology, the world becomes a more manageable, intimate place.
In the late 1990’s and into the years beyond 2000, I wrote a popular homeschooling blog that had thousands of readers. Back then they were called “weB LOGs” which later morphed into “BLOG”.
Our BLOG was called Traveling With The Kid. No longer online.
I began writing it in 1999 and the last post was in 2009, just before “The Kid” went to college.
What made me go digging through those old posts was an entry where there was an old story a father told a daughter about being a Republican and being a Democrat.
It was a humorous back then. This sort of story was OK to be humorous, many of us then weren’t so easily offended…..
So, in celebrating the passing of this year’s election season, a blast from my past.
Welcome to our weB LOG - BLOG!
Sunday, June 06, 1999
How you feelin?
"Irie!"
We learned the meaning of this word in the West Indies. It means nice, right, cool in Patois. Patois is a Jamaican language but it is spoken all over the Caribbean.
Irie is one of our favorite words.
At our house, it starts with an idea from a book, a video, junk mail, a movie, a photo.
It goes something like this.
"Let's go to the Amazon."
The look from The Kid…
"Well, how about a remote island that you can only get to by boat?"
Google is our friend.
I have a travel budget and I fund that pot early in the year, so if this sort of request comes early enough in the year, we may end up in the Amazon or Bora Bora. If this suggestion comes when the pot is almost empty, we may end up on a local lake.
We have travelin' feet and it doesn't take much to get us on the road.....
Welcome to our blog spot.
Travel is an important element of our homeschool, it adds the depth to the extensive reading we enjoy. Travel also adds to our knowledge of society and culture, here in the USA and abroad. With each new advance in technology, the world becomes a more manageable, intimate place.
The kids we are homeschooling today are the leaders, entrepreneurs and inventors of tomorrow. They need to be comfortable in the world, they need to recognize that people are basically the same everywhere and what better way to help that along than to make the world your classroom!
Happy Trails!
Many posts later…
I Voted Today
Thursday, November 09, 2006
The place where I vote is a Catholic church situated on the Ohio River. I haven’t ever understood how they got such great real estate, and it is beautiful. But, there it is on the mighty Ohio river, up high, yet right on the banks, away from flooding. It is a beautiful building, and for a country that believes in separating church from state, quite a statement to The Kid who is currently studying the US constitution and related documents in depth.
Voting Tuesday in Southern Ohio was rainy, so we weren’t assaulted by the usual mob of campaigners, who, by the way, I am sick and tired of.
As we approached the Gothic structure, The Kid reminded me of The Virginia Statute for Religious Freedom co-authored by founding fathers, Jefferson and Madison, repeating this quote out loud, “No man shall be compelled to frequent or support any religious worship, place, or ministry whatsoever...”.
I often wonder why he can’t remember his multiplication tables.
I told him it was actually the bingo hall that was our destination, so it really wasn’t a religious worship place. The Kid continued, he wanted to know why the rest of us had to go vote on gambling and slot machines (we were voting at the time to have casinos in Ohio), but this place was allowed to have bingo...sigh... the trials of mentoring this sort of human being.
The Kid, is in general, very Liberal in his politics -- who wasn’t when they didn’t have any money or assets to call their own?
The Kid takes great delight in harassing his Grandfather (who harasses right back, it’s friendly fire and one of them always learns something) and anyone else who speaks of anything conservative.
A friend recently shared this story, which I shared with The Kid:
Subject: A FATHER DAUGHTER TALK
A young woman was about to finish her first year of college. Like so many others her age she considered herself to be a very liberal Democrat and was for distribution of all wealth. She felt deeply ashamed that her father was a rather staunch Republican which she expressed openly.
One day she was challenging her father on his beliefs and his opposition to higher taxes on the rich and more welfare programs. In the middle of her heartfelt diatribe based upon the lecture she had from her far left professors at her school, he stopped her and asked her point blank, how she was doing in school.
She answered rather haughtily that she had a 4.0 GPA, and let him know that it was tough to maintain. That she had to study all the time, never had time to go out and party like other people she knew. She did not even have time for a boyfriend and did not really have many college friends because of spending all her time studying. Furthermore, that she was taking a more difficult curriculum.
Her father listened and then asked, "How is your friend Mary?"
She replied, "Mary is barely getting by,"
she continued, "all she has is barely a 2.0 GPA"
adding, "and all she takes are easy classes and she never studies."
But to explain further she continued emotionally,
"But Mary is so very popular on campus, college for her is a blast, she goes to all the parties all the time and very often does not even show up for classes because she is too hung over. "
Her father then asked his daughter, "Why don't you go to the Dean's office and ask him to deduct a 1.0 off your 4.0 GPA and give it to your friend who only had a 2.0."
He continued, "That way you will both have a 3.0 GPA and certainly that would be a fair equal distribution of GPA."
The daughter visibly shocked by the father's suggestion angrily fired back, "That would not be fair! I worked really hard for mine, I did without and Mary has done little or nothing, she played while I worked real hard!"
The father smiled and said, "Welcome to the Republican Party."
The look on The Kid’s face was classic and the backpedalling was interesting.
But to get back to our adventure, in general, I take The Kid with me when I vote so he can see what goes on and understand the process a little.
This day, The Kid accompanied me because I was certain he would be able to figure out how to use the new electronic voting machine, even without reading the instructions. These kinds of things escape me and frustrate me to no end and that’s why we make such a great pair.
I enjoyed those early days of blogging. I still get more views on my blog than on the website that I pay for, despite not posting in the last year and infrequently for a long time before that. Interesting antedote about the father and daughter.
being liberal is great when you have nothing, but when it is you that have lots from hard work and someone suggests you give it all away, you suddenly understand that it is not fair.
That is not to suggest we should not be charitable to those who do not have due to the uncertainties of life, but it should be of our own free will and only to those who are not needy because they are lazy.