Is a Peach pie the same thing as a Chocolate cake? Is America the same thing as Communist China? Are two men (or two women) in a sexual relationship the same thing as a married man and woman? Is tofu the same thing as filet mignon?
"One of these things is not like the other"....as our cute little friends on Sesame Street used to tell us. I could sing the little introductory song for you right now...thinking back to those sweet days with my children when they were little. Teaching children to discriminate between objects is a way to help children learn to understand the world they live in. Hot is not cold. Hard is not soft. Red is not white. Up is not down. Critical thinking is a tool for people to make choices. Children need critical thinking to learn how to decide what they need and like in life. They need lessons in critical thinking as they grow up in order to see how things work and why. That was then and now is now. Last time I checked on Sesame Street the message has changed to "diversity." My kids are grown now and over the last few years I have only seen a couple of episodes of Sesame Street by chance. Those couple of episodes opened my eyes to how the left has taken a good thing and turned it into slimy twist of indoctrination to suit the messages of social engineers. One of the episodes I happened upon featured a furry puppet neighborhood lecture on acceptance of our new Spanish speaking friends who have come to live with us. It was not encouraging the Spanish speaking friends to learn English and assimilate into American culture, but rather telling American children to learn Spanish and celebrate the Mexican culture. The premise of the show was tolerance, inclusiveness, and diversity, but only as a one way street. Not the Sesame Street my kids grew up with.
Many generations of children have now been socially engineered to ignore critical thinking of facts and history. Children are not allowed to explore questions such as; Are Muslims different from Christians? Are Americans the same as Chinese? Is American government different from the Iranian government? Do the Swiss think just like the Pakistanis? Can you tell the difference between right and wrong? Do peaches belong in a chocolate cake?
Now we get; Shouldn't Heather have two mommies? Why shouldn't the Prince marry another Prince? Isn't Ché the same as Thomas Jefferson? Isn't Fidel the same as George Washington? Isn't Mao the same as Benjamin Franklin? If someone else commits a crime, shouldn't we all be punished? Does your life belong to you or does it really belong to the world? Doesn't God want you to use compact fluorescent light bulbs? And the left indoctrinators answer those questions for your children who are not allowed to think for themselves, ask critical questions, or rely on their parents for answers. Once we put the schools in charge of sex education, we gave the schools carte blanche to tell our children all kinds of things in every subject, things incompatible with our own history, doctrines, and thinking...including personal lifestyle decisions. Does anyone, seeing the results of this, still think that was a good idea? (By the way, the topic in schools used to be hygiene, not sexual preferences.)
Seems to me there was once a world where peoples were different and they collected themselves into like-minded groups, created cultures with idiosyncrasies unto their own. For a time, Americans had the choice of discriminating between friends and enemies. Trade with other nations was a good thing because we could enjoy Irish lace, Belgian linens, Chinese porcelains, Swiss chocolates, French wines, and Peruvian wools. At the same time, we didn't allow trade with those who were incompatible with the security of our nation. We used critical thinking to draw lines between useful trade and detrimental trade. The idea was to enjoy the products of the world, but only to the extent we did not damage our sovereignty. Where did that criteria go?
Even within America we enjoyed the disparate cultures and products across the continent. Texan beef, cheese from Wisconsin, steel from Pittsburgh,PA or Birmingham,AL, glass from Corning, NY., textiles from North Carolina, pottery from the river clays in Ohio, Amish quilts, Napa grapes, etc. The commerce clause was used to facilitate trade between the manufacturing sectors of the states. This was the delicious melting pot. Now the commerce clause is used to force Obamacare down our throats and will be used to force same-sex marriage on every state. Critical thinking for you is out the window. Now the Federal government is hell bent to make those decisions for you, including what you can and cannot buy, eat, and do.
The American idea of the "melting pot," which conjured up a delicious stew of compatible ingredients, is now a pot full of incompatible entities at odds with each other. People are no longer allowed to discriminate on what is real and what is fake, what is legitimate and what is not, what is moral and what is not, who owns what and who doesn't, who is a victim and who isn't. More importantly people are no longer given the responsibility and opportunity to critically think their way through these decisions. The leftists in our Federal government are making those decisions for you now. Give it up...don't try to think. Just go eat mud.
(a side note: Way back in my youth, several decades ago, two female teachers lived together as a "couple." One was the algebra teacher. The other taught English composition and English Lit. No one said a word except to say they were a "couple." No one bullied them. No one made a big stink about their arrangement. They had salaries and benefits the same as all of the other teachers. They had their own network of family and friends. They owned their own house and lived about two blocks away from my house. These two teachers did not proselytize their ways to the students. Neither did they come on to students in any sexual manner. They just were good (though very strict, as I recall) teachers who were left to live how they wanted to live and we were all fine with that. This worked for everyone. I can think of nothing wrong with this. It was, I guess, a civilian version of "Don't ask, don't tell." Their estates were left to each other or families. They were not told they could not visit each other in hospital. They took care of each other just fine. No one minded. They were respectively left to their private lives, as they wished to live. No one was screaming about discrimination. "Live and let live" seemed to work for everyone involved. Novel idea, eh?
If tax law is the problem with supposed "inequality" in the marriage debate.....a 10% flat tax on every citizen with no loopholes or tax breaks for anyone would fix this. On health insurance, male same sex unions are still more risky than heterosexual unions, so let the insurance companies reflect that as they need to do. (insurance cos. are using statistics to punish other activities such as over-eating or smoking, whether I agree with that or not..which I don't...but with that premise, why not homosexuality?) Otherwise, leave marriage alone.)
