Politically Incorrect

I was appalled to watch the news this morning and listen to a candidate in next week's elections tell the President of the United States to "shove it." What is even more shocking is that this person is a member of his own party.

This only goes to prove that, when it comes to politics, any shred of courtesy, decency, morality and respect has gone the way of the dodo bird.

In a world of 30-second sound bites and a "do whatever feels right" mentality, civility may well be on the endagered speicies list. Nowhere is that more apparent in the world of politics. Political ads today do not tout the merits of a particular candidate, but instead are designed only to slander the oppostion.

I heard a commerical recently that claimed "since Fred Smith has been in office, unemployment in his area has gone up 80 percent." Can someone please show me somewhere in this country where unemployment has not gone up 80 percent?

But candidates today assume that people who are polarized toward their particular party are not going to stop to think about such a statement. Unfortunately, they are correct. The ad could probably blame this guy for everything from the Chernobyl nuclear disaster to Hurricane Katrina, and ignorant people would be calling the candidate's office (because they of course publish a phone number) to accuse him of being everyting from a communist to an evil, tree-worshing wiccan who can control weather systems.

Even worse is that we are grooming the next generation behave exactly like us. My daughter was recently volunteering at a water station for a road race with some of our other youth group members. Two girls tried to convince her to state that she hates President Obama because "he needs to die." The worse part is that these fine young representatives of our church were saying this within earshot of other volunteers from a protestant church who were mainly African-American.

Fortunately I have groomed my children to handle political incorrectness like this by simply stating that they are a Christian and do not hate anyone since that goes against everything for which our Lord lived and died. You would be surprised at how quickly a statment like that shuts the mouths of supposedly "good Christians."

It's obvious these children are learning from their parents that inflammatory speech is perfectly acceptable when it comes to politics. Not only are they grooming ignorance, but they are teaching an entire generation to follow a narrow-minded path wihout instilling in these children any compassion, common sense or the ability to think for themselves. Certainly we want our children to follow our moral examples, but should these examples include racial and religious insults and death wishes?

As for me, I am proud to be a dinosaur who believes that the President of the United
States deserves the respect to which his office entitles him regardless of if I agree with his politics. Taunts and name-calling should be left on the playground with the rest of the pre-schoolers. And freedom of speech does not mean we have a right to behave like a bunch of uncivilized baboons whose opinions come only from advertisements, political pundits and "unbiased" news sources.

God blessed each of us with a brain and the ability to think for ourselves. Let's not insult him by refusing to use it when it comes to politics.