I am voting for……….

“If you don’t have anything good to say, don’t say anything at all”

“If I catch you lying to me, you will regret it!”

“Treat others the way you want to be treated.”

“If you can’t get along with each other, go to your rooms”

“Get that anger under control mister!”

“If you want to be an adult, take responsibility for your actions!”

“If you are honest, work hard and be a good person, you can become anything – even the President of the United States.”  (OOPS, I guess that idea pushes the boundary of reality)

I never thought in my lifetime that I would be writing an article on protecting our children from the electoral process. Once again, our children are the victims of adults behaving badly.  The very things that are at the bedrock of what we should be teaching our children, such as honesty, respect, integrity and morality are being destroyed by the very process that defines our country.

Before the last debate, my grandson told me that he could get extra credit in his civics class if he watched the debate and wrote a little report on it.  I thought about it seriously for about one second and said, “No, study hard and you won’t need extra credit.”  In reality, I was thinking that there was no way I was going to expose that very inquiring mind to an X-rated forum. Sad, isn’t it, that we need to shield our kids from the behaviors of people who want to be the leaders of the greatest nation on earth.

Consider what would happen if your children acted like these “great leaders.” They would get suspended from school for lying, interrupting the teacher, not doing their homework, bullying, and maybe even inappropriate sexual behavior. How can we expect good behavior from our children when we cheer on bad behavior from the adults?

I believe that it is important that our children (especially the teens) be exposed to the electoral process. The trick is to engage them with facts. Turn the TV sound bites off and let them discuss the issues that they feel are important to the future of our country. Then print out the position papers of each candidate, let them fact check their statements, and have your own civilized debate at home. We need to encourage rational decision-making, rather than an emotional response based on who has the most effective advertisement.

The fact is that the future of our society is based on the strength of the family unit. We haven’t done it any favors recently. So, for this election, I think I will vote for “TRICKLE UP MORALITY AND ETHICS.”