Elections

When Josh got home from school on Monday I could tell that something was bothering him. When I asked him what it was he proceeded to tell me about the election that the first graders at his school were holding. They were going to be voting on a class president on election day. The candidates were Clifford (yes, the Big Red Dog) and Duck. I don't know how many of you have read the book Duck for President. I have never read it myself, but a couple of years ago I was helping out the librarian at the school when she read it to a class. It is basically about a duck who gets sick of Farmer Brown telling the animals what to do and the duck was tired of doing his chores, so he decided to run for president of the farm. Duck wants Farmer Brown to do all the work so all of the animals don't have to. Josh was very concerned about having to make a decision. He thought that Clifford would probably be a better president, but thought it would also be nice to have Duck. Duck promised to be kind to the animals, and wouldn't make them do any work. That sounded kind of nice to him. He doesn't like to do his work at home. Luckily, yesterday it was announced that Clifford had one the election. I think he ended up voting for Duck because he seemed a little sad about the outcome, although he would never tell who he actually voted for.
I was rather shocked last night at dinner when Morgan was in tears telling us how much she didn't want Obama to win the election. At school yesterday there were children at school telling her that Obama told women who were pregnant that didn't want any children to kill the baby. She was very upset. I never thought when I sat down to dinner last night that we would end up having a lesson on abortion. Morgan had an even harder time this morning when she found out that Obama had won the election and that she now had a future president who in her mind went around killing babies. I spent most of the evening last night and part of this morning telling her that Obama didn't actually kill the babies, that it was doctors who made bad choices, and mothers who made bad choices. Obama only makes it easier for them to make those choices. Our job is to be a good example and tell people not to make those bad choices. There are a lot of people who would love to adopt those babies that aren't wanted for one reason or another. That made her sad too because she has several friends who are adopted. She was very grateful that their birth mothers had made a good choice when they were in a bad situation. I think it is very sad that we live in a society when 9 year olds have to even know about abortion. It is amazing what our children pick up. I sometimes think that they are more aware of what an important issue is than some adults. I'm grateful that I have them in my life to keep my priorities in line.
On a much lighter note, The kids brought home their school pictures yesterday. They always crack me up.