Teach Your Children Well

Like most parents, I spend a lot of my parental energies thinking about the boundaries I set for my children, how to teach them to operate in the world, about the process of give and take and sharing, and how to lose gracefully. I have to remind Molly sometimes that other kids get to use the playground (it wasn't dropped in that exact location for her and her alone, much to her chagrin) and we all have interceded in a dispute about a truck, a doll, a puzzle, etc. So, we spend all this time teaching these lessons to our little ones and then, when they grow and up and become members of Congress, they apparently get to forget all of these life lessons, that someone hopefully taught them and, instead, act incredibly ungraciously.

I don't mean to be overly misty-eyed about our process of government (although, in reality, I can be), but reading about the conduct of some members of Congress during the passage of the health care bill over the weekend was disgusting. Seriously. Disgusting. I don't mean to condemn the passion that many of these people bring to their cause -- that's fine. It's great, really. But, if you lose, no matter how you lose, no matter how much the loss hurts, hurling insults as your colleagues (or your president, for that matter) is simply illustrating your own horrendous manners that someone likely took a long time to teach you. How do we teach our children to set boundaries when they see examples by our Congressmen and women that directly contradict our lessons? These are people who have chosen to serve and be examples -- they were not drafted, they were not magically elevated to their positions, and they are not there because of some un-asked for physical talent. They decided to become examples all by themselves, yet many of them gave up that responsibility during these debates just because they lost a (granted, very big) vote.

I know that our heroes let us down, almost daily as of late. I know that these are just men and woman who are allowed to make errors and I know that the opposition isn't blameless and not without many flaws. But, that this day and age, we have leaders who are egging on protesters hurling racial and homophobic epithets at their colleagues is unconscionable. I'm not saying don't go down without an argument, but it does make me wonder why I take the time to make my kids play fairly on the playground if these guys and ladies can't play fairly on theirs.

Now, if you'll excuse me, I have some nice kids who actually do like the playground around here.