I picked up Katherine from school and headed off for our semi-regular Wednesday errands: a stop by the comic book store, and picking up a take-and-bake pizza from Papa Murphy’s.
“Yay! I saw an Obama-Biden!” she proclaimed from the back seat as we wended through neighborhoods.
“Yay!” I agreed.
“Boo!” she said, as we passed by a house whose lawn was festooned with McCain-Palin and local race GOP banners.
A moment to ponder.
“Y’know,” I said, “I think it’s okay to cheer for my candidate. But I don’t think it’s nice to boo people who support the other person.”
A pause. “Okay.” Another pause. “A bunch of people at school were saying bad things about the people for president that they didn’t like.”
I think for a moment. “It’s a real temptation to say that a candidate you don’t like is stupid, but I think it’s better to cheer for your candidate than to say mean things about the other candidate. It’s okay to say that you disagree with what a candidate says. Or that you don’t think a candidate is the best choice for president. But you shouldn’t be mean to other people.”
It’s tough being partisan in a positive, constructive fashion, or to focus on issues rather than just taking shots at the opposition. I am very painfully aware of that, even as a profoundly Nice Guy.
My hope is that, whatever political beliefs Katherine develops for herself, she’ll remember that the expression of those beliefs is just as important. We cannot be a society of Us vs. Them, especially when They are only a few percentage points of the populace away from Us. It’s okay — expected, even important — to differ on the issues. But I’m not comfortable with name-calling in the Third Grade, where Katherine is, let alone among adults.
For some reason, this reminded me of our Bowling league, where the teams actually clap and cheer for good throws even if the person who did it is on the team you’re playing against. It’s great to throw a strike, isn’t it? Or just to watch a pretty throw. It is.
There are teams that don’t do that, who act like you’d expect, but we don’t like them very much.
Truly, it would be great if everyone applied that kind of fair-handedness to more than a silly amusement game. Kudos on steering Katherine that way.
Which seems no less natural than complementing someone on making a nice shot at golf, even if you’re also feeling competitive. It’s called “sportsmanship” and “politeness” and “social graces.” Opponents don’t have to be enemies.
🙂
Well, I was brought up well. 😉