Teaching Good Citizenship

Returning home from my dog's evening walk, a kid in his late teens or early twenties trotted by with something white tucked under his arm. My dog growled quietly. I told her to shush and said hi to the kid; the kid said hi back and kept jogging. When we got home, I noticed two of my neighbors' Obama signs were missing, as well as a "Stand With Women" sign left over from the Walker recall; it dawned on me what the kid had been carrying. The dog and I did a second lap around the subdivision; I wanted to see if we could cut the kid off and find out where he lived. All we found were two of the signs, mangled and stuffed in the branches of some small trees. I took them home, wrote a note for my neighbor, snapped this pic, and put the signs in his yard and my note in his paper box.

I'm sure there are Romney signs out there that have been vandalized, too. Republican or Democrat isn't the point.

The point, simply, is this: parents need to teach their children to respect the views and property of others. Don't feed your kids hate; teach them to think rationally and behave kindly. This kid was clearly old enough to know better, but has no doubt been influenced by months of political vitriol and weak parenting.

Your kids are America's future. If you want that future to be better, use this election and the rhetoric that goes along with it as an opportunity to teach civil behavior.

These days, they certainly won't get that from television.