Random Thoughts From Marybeth

Talk the Talk

Some of the talk blogging today is about talk radio. (Here and here.) I don't listen to the radio much, usually only when I'm in the car, and if I do listen to talk radio it's usually public radio. I enjoy many of their programs...the non-political ones but I should know by now to change the station when the show has a political theme.

I was driving to the store a few days ago, listening to a discussion on the radio about filibustering. One caller was the mother of two preschool children and she was telling about her worries (that without the ability of a minority party to block judicial nominations) that her daughter would grow up in a country where she wouldn't have the right to choose to have an abortion. My daughter is nine and I don't think this concern has ever occurred to me. I guess I just don't think ahead, coping with the immediate problems of child rearing that each age brings is enough for me to handle without dwelling on their future (one hopes fairly distant future) sex lives.

Her worries for her son were that he would be forced to fight in a war in which he didn't believe. It was then that I began yelling at the radio. Had I missed something or had she been asleep since the early '70s? Last I heard, no one was being forced to join the military. Again, this isn't something that I have stayed up nights worrying about even though I have two sons. If either of them chooses to join (an honorable decision of which I would be proud), I'll worry about their safety then...although don't you worry about the safety of all your children regardless of where they are or what they do? It's just that when they're in the military you have a better idea of where possible danger may come from. The parents of the 9/11 victims probably thought their children were safe in their offices.

Not that she mentioned that she would be worried about his safety, just about him having to do something he didn't agree with. I hope that parenting philosophy doesn't extend to the more mundane aspects of her children's lives...homework, brushing their teeth, showing respect for other people and their property. If it does, that's something she should really be worried about.