Should I Just Find a New Country?

Dear Americans that do not want Obama talking to their children,

I recently discovered that you are in an uproar over the very idea of President Obama (note, I said president...not Hitler) speaking to your school-aged children. This, in my opinion, is completely ridiculous thing to be up in arms about.

First of all, I want to clarify that President Obama has a very important message for your child, and he is not trying to hide it. He wants to tell them that education is important. That they need to study hard and not complain about learning. To me, these are things children should hear on a daily basis from you. But we all know children sometimes block out such things. So maybe hearing it from someone else will do some good. Especially the President. Remember the days where every kid wanted to grow up to be the President of the United States? It was a high ambition. Perhaps you should be telling them again that it is something to strive for instead of shutting out the very idea of such a man talking to them.

Second of all, have a little faith in the teachers and principals who take care of your children (and their education) on a daily basis. They are not trying to brainwash your kid. If they decide a presidential address is worth spending class time on, then watch them.

You would not have an issue with a child watching a recording of JFK speak about (choose topic at random) in a history class because that's educational. You would trust the teacher to not pick a speech about something inappropriate but instead about something actually important to a well-rounded education. So why do you not trust them to show a speech, meant directly for your children, about the very education that they are there to receive?

Now, I have heard that some people are only upset because they merely want "the option." You want to be able to choose whether or not your child sees this Presidential speech. You don't want to be told "your child must watch this."

In one sense, I appreciate this idea. I don't want the government telling me what to do either. However, I think this is blowing things out of proportion. The government isn't mandating that every child in the country watch this speech or else they'll be hanged. It's simply happening.

Schools, however, are saying children will watch the speech in class. How is this different from a teacher saying a kid must read Romeo and Juliet or must complete x number of science experiments? That's what schools do. They teach and they give students things to do to further their education. Listening to a president speak fits in there, I think.

Of course there are some things that must be regulated. A 13-year-old cannot be forced to watch a rated-R movie for school. They aren't old enough. But this is not a rated-R film. It's a simple message about being the best person you can be.

I don't want to generalize, but I feel many of you are conservatives who for some reason have decided that since Obama is on the opposite side of the political spectrum, everything he has to say is dangerous.

Well, I was on the complete opposite spectrum as Bush, yet, if he wanted to come sit down with my child (even in person) and tell them that education was important, I would welcome it with open arms.

No, I don't want Bush sitting down with my child and talking about gay marriage, but that's not what he asked me to do. He just wants to talk about education. Obama isn't asking to talk to your child about controversial topics. He won't bring up healthcare or the war. He just wants to say "stay in school."

Perhaps if we were brave enough to let our children listen to our President's words directly from his mouth (rather than clips on a biased news program) they'd have a much better understanding of what he believes.

I hope to post about vacation this weekend, but for now a quick something.

I've been swamped at work. But I'm officially moving to the Adult Ed department and have taken over as content lead on my two books. So it's a good busy. Things are delayed but none of it was my fault, so it just meant I didn't need to stay late.

I get really annoyed when I give someone a task that would take me X about of time and they take twice as long. But I shouldn't get annoyed because there's actually no time for me to do it myself, so it's good it's in someone else's court.

Back to school means back to super awful traffic. Seriously, it's been a nightmare. I just have no patience for stop-and-go. Especially when I see people rubber-necking over a fender-bender. It's just not that excited people! Or when people are not courteous. When a long line of cars is trying to merge into stop-and-go traffic, each car lets in one car, then life is happy. Also, if your lane is ending, do not speed up, drive along the shoulder, then cut off multiple people in order to get as far as you possibly can. Just wait your turn and merge politely. Seriously, my week traffic-wise has been unpleasant. 1.5 hours to get home last night. Thank god I'm at home today.

My garden became a jungle while we were on vacation. I was worried it wouldn't rain enough and something would die (well, a lily did, but it was already on its way out). The backyard garden is nuts. I need to get back there and trim some stuff. If you want a pepper plant, strawberry plant, or basil/oregano, please come take some. I think everyone is going to get dried herbs for Christmas :)

While on vacation a group of us had a discussion about a woman's cycle. (turn away now if you don't want to hear this) Some complaining was done about changes (apparently every 5 (or was it 8?) years you change and new symptoms come and go. For example, you may have never had cramps before, then suddenly you hit 30 and you have them. I appear to have inherited period headaches with turning 25. (along with caffeine and thunderstorm headaches-though I've had those before. I should get my head checked).

Note, this was in a conversation about getting pregnant. Who will be the first in our Outer Banks family to get pregnant? John and I were not voted as number one, I'm too young! haha.

I've been posting random things to my new Wine Blog. I don't know what I want this to be yet. I don't want to seem to be on the Julie and Julia bandwagon too much, but I would like this to be a book of some kind. My life around the wines is not too exciting and I have no 365 day goal. So I was thinking of just writing microfiction around each wine, though so far I have not been inspired. And that brings about the issue of-do I post the pieces on the blog or just collect them for a book. And, do I want it to be about the same character (road tripping?) or will each state/wine have a new character?

I read two books on vacation. The Glassblower of Murano and The Lost Hours. I recommend both.

Also, our 3rd anniversary is fast approaching. I need to come up with something fun to do (though we will likely just end up going out to dinner) and a good gift. I feel way behind as these are usually August tasks-Sept has always been too full of school. But I guess I have the time.

Post Vacation Blues

I'm currently in that sad state that comes when you return from a spectacular vacation. I'm home safe and sound, I'm sort of unpacked and caught up with the internet world, and facing work tomorrow. John and I have spent a lot of time decompressing but that just leads to sadness as there is no beach within walking distance any more.

It was a great trip, more details to come later, but here's a bit of a tease. The Sound, at sunset.