As a child, did you know you were headed toward Liberalism...?

[bliss_eternal]

...activism, or just outright hell raising? If so how?

My first inclination was that I was punished as a child for speaking out in my home against Nixon. We were in the throes of the electricity crisis (yeah, the first one--many years ago) and I said something completely smart assed. My father yelled at me and told me to never speak against our pResident in his home. I told him it was my home too, that I hated Nixon and asked what my punishment was.
:rofl:

In highschool I attempted to organize a demonstration against the idiotic tardy sweep system. We did a sit in in the main quad. Sadly, the administration turned the sprinklers on us. After threatening many with 'the permanent record' threat, my wet cohorts abandoned me and our cause. :cry:

There was some other stuff in between, mostly boring, others just too embarassing to admit to. But you get the gist.

So, what about you guys...?

[fudge stripe cookays]

1. No clue.

My parents were both "Don't raise my taxes" Republicans. My mother hated Carter; called him "that stupid peanut farmer." I can remember us visiting with a friend of hers when I was about 10 or 11 who was saying she just couldn't vote for a Republican, and thinking, "Hmmmm...she's going to vote for the stupid peanut farmer."

I parroted them for ages. During the 1st Gulf War, I was dating a guy in Austin with "dude" roommates, and we all sat around watching the stuff on TV with them cheering. I was completely ignorant of exactly what was going on with Anita Hill. Hated politics. Didn't pay attention.

I'm actually glad it took me awhile to wake up. If I'd started voting in 84 when I hit college and saw all the college groups trying to get people interested, I probably would have voted for Reagan, since I didn't know any better.

It took a slap in the face in 94 to wake me up to the direction choice was headed, and that the Religious Right were becoming a HUGE problem. I turned instantly into a Democrat on one issue. The rest of my opinions followed little by little. The environment, the welfare of others, etc.

FSC

[hippywife]

2. When I used to get mad

at the reports about Vietnam on TV and argue with my dad over them.

And when people would see the rare inter-racial couple back then and think they were being liberal by saying stupid stuff like, "Well that's fine but they shouldn't have children."

:mad: :mad:

[LynneSin]

3. Age 10, Jimmy Carter

Peanuts were a sign from a divine being that I should be a liberal. Which is pretty good knowing I grew up in Pennsylbama

[Dervill Crow]

4. I went up against my second grade teacher over a spelling word.

I put "theatre" on a spelling pre-test and she marked it as incorrect, to which I took exception. At age 7 I didn't understand preferred spellings versus alternate spellings. The whole class ended up spelling it my way because it was the only way she could get me to shut up about it.

Yes, I was the baby of my family and a bit spoiled. Now I've found my life's calling and work as a proofreader, where I can be paid for being a smartass know-it-all. :evilgrin:

(That does NOT ensure my DU posts will be typo-free, however.)

[bigwillq]

5. Kinda of in junior high

more so in high school.

I always cared about issues i came to find out that DEMS cared about.

Environment, education, civil and human rights.

I use to volunteer for projects like "Clean the Sound" (The Long Island Sound in CT) and I use to help out at a local nature center.

I always cared about people that were less off than I was. Always wondering where they would eat at Thanksgiving, Christmas, just people off the street that I didn't even know. It made me upset that they were homeless.

I guess those were early signs that I would one day become a DEM, a mostly liberal DEM.

[ThomWV]

6. Depends On What You Call A Child

I was a child when I first knew. I had just got out of the Army after having spent 3 years out of my 4 year enlistment as a grunt, on the ground, in Viet Nam. I had come to know a lot about myself, what I was and quite clearly what I was not. I did not mind what I saw and realized how lucky I was in this world. I did not see any reason why others could or should not share in my luck and the opportunities available to me. That is all a liberal is you know, someone who whats for others what they have found for themselves.

[I Have A Dream]

11. I like your definition of a liberal. Very succinctly states the truth.

n/t

[I Have A Dream]

7. I've been a liberal my entire life.

I remember arguing with my uncle from North Carolina about how black people were the same as us when I was 7 or 8 years old. I was always lecturing everyone. I may have been annoying, but my siblings tell me that I really changed their lives and inspired them to be better people.

I may not be a lighthouse, but I can at least be a candle in the darkness.

[agingdem]

8. My parents were Holocaust survivors

so liberalism was a given.

[SarahB]

9. Yeah.

I attended parties as a child at the homes of Democratic state senators.

I voted in the 1972 Democratic Primaries (at the age of 3 months). My mom has visual evidence.

I got into a fight in the third grade about Reagan.

Nearly every activity in high school that I did (not related to drama/chorus geek stuff) was about a liberal cause.

I probably did MORE as a kid than I do now. :(

[jrthin]

10. As a kid, I always had a soft

spot for the underdog and always hated to see injustice.

[ikojo]

12. I was very class concious as a kid....my mom became poor

after she and my dad divorced. I noticed how we struggled and lived versus how well my dad and his new family lived when we visited him on an occassional Sunday.

I knew how hard my mom worked for what little pay she received, while the boss lived very well.

I knew I'd be a radical not a liberal.

[two gun sid]

13. I grew up in a Union family...

I have always been a progressive. I have been an active union member my whole working life.(Except for the 6 yrs. I was in the military).I have attended pickets and demonstrations and battled with the police.So, yes, I knew I was heading for liberalism.

[sasquatch]

14. My mom and dad are republicans, but my grandparents are democrats

So was my German immigrant great-grandfather. When I was a kid I was told to hate the democrats and Clintons so I did what my parents told me to do. As I grew up I saw through all the bullshit and came up with conclusions that are based in truth.

[wellstone dem]

15. Who knows when it really started.

I come from a family with a long line of democrats. I worked at democratic headquarters when I was 12. When I was in high school, during the Viet Nam war I didn't stand up for the pledge of allegiance. The Dean of Students came and ordered me to stand, I told her, "I will stand, when I have the freedom to sit." (I didn't remember this but someone reminded me of it at a class reunion.)

My daughter has me beat though, in 4th grade (I adopted her when she was in 3rd grade) she came home and said, "Some of the kids told me that being gay was wrong. I told them they were the ones who were wrong."

[bliss_eternal]

17. What a brilliant little girl you have!

:applause:

[wellstone dem]

19. She is truly amazing

She spent about 5 years of her life in foster care and the 4 years before that were what caused her to be placed in foster care.

She is now 17, so she is no longer my little girl :-( but I could not be more proud of her. She has a generous heart. She is judgmental only of those who cause harm. And she gives back. (She is now giving presentations to people who are thinking of adopting older kids.)

[bliss_eternal]

30. She sounds like she had a pretty great mom, too!

;)

I can see why you are so proud of her!

[deadparrot]

16. John Ashcroft was my governor for the first several years of my life.

A few viewings of him was enough to send me running for the left.

And, of course, my entire family is liberal.

[bliss_eternal]

23. Ashcroft--how scary!

I sometimes forget that's how he started out...

[deadparrot]

24. 'Twas quite terrifying,

especially to a kindergartener. :scared:

[bliss_eternal]

18. I also used to defend other kids from bullies

--having been bullied myself in elementary school. I hated to see others pushed around or teased for being smart.

It was kind of ridiculous that I did though--I was a very skinny kid. Not at all big enough to physically defend anyone. But at the very least, people knew to leave me alone and not talk shit about others in my presence.

[salin]

20. I walked out on a graduation speaker

it wasn't my graduation - but a class ahead of mine. The U invited an undistinguished senator - the faculty voted against giving an honorary degree and the president told the faculty that important people had to make their schedules far in advance, and that the promise of the degree had already been made. So in objection to the rubberstamp action - I walked out during the speech.

The idiot, within six years, was elected as (dopey) vice president. He remains the one high figure that to this day is debated as whether he or W is the bigger dunce. Wanna guess who the speaker was?

[bliss_eternal]

22. OMG! Mr. Potato-e head spoke at your school?

I'm so sorry! Good for you for walking out!

:woohoo:

[salin]

28. that is the one

while I had held liberal views prior to then - this was the first "actual action" I had ever taken. It wasn't organized - but I wasn't the only one who got oup and left at that same moment (and didn't return til he was done talking.)

The Key speaker was my Dad's not-very-beloved Boss (the president of another U) I was so glad that this wasn't the lineup for MY graduation. Would have made my parents want to demand all of their tuition money back!

[indigo32]

21. Oh Hell

I grew up listening to Free to be You and Me,
voted for Carter against Reagan in our mock election at school when I was 10. Yeah I was a liberal from the start. Got busy being an on again off again activist as soon as I was voting age.

[Wapsie B]

25. Not at all.

I was raised in a VERY republican household. Dad cheered when the Kennedy's got whacked. MLK was a dirty commie pinko who got what was coming to him. He was just stirring up those blacks as my parents would say. Although I watched the Watergate hearings in high school at home I heard the standard line of the day,"Well,he was the only one who got caught." Then there'd be the usual diatribe about how crooked Joe Kennedy was and on and on we'd go.

It wasn't until college that I began to question the indoctrination of my parents. I felt more at peace with that part of my life when I started looking at the Democratic Party. I knew I made the right decision. I was tired of seeing the world through all that hatred and anger and fear-mongering of the gop.

[Deja Q]

26. Read my blog. I've no idea why I retained my sense of goodness...

but I had.

[lateo]

27. No...but...

I can remember when I was 3 or 4, I was at a birthday party where kids were singing "Jesus Loves Me" and thinking to myself..."who the heck is Jesus and why does he love me?" This started me down my road of doubting most everything I hear...which made me analytical...

[WCGreen]

29. I organized a walk out of my Junior High

On May 4, 1972......

I got suspended....

Looking back on the whole thing, I feel kinda sorry for the principle at the time. He was retiring at the end of the year, 20 years as a Jr High principle.

And here comes Chris Green, organizing an anti-war walk-out on the aniversary of Kent State.....

We had a dance the friday before, I got up and announced the Walk-out for Monday...

Monday morning everyone tells me I'm in deep shit, they got on the PA and told us that if we walked out they would suspend all of us...

So at two minutes to 11:00, the sceduled time, I went out, the only one, I was walking up and down the street yelling at the top of my lungs, stop the war...

One minute later all hell breaks loose as three hundred kids come rushing out....

Thank god my frined Steve Lisenby was there, a calmer head. He yelled let's have silence for the four dead in Kent...

Pretty savvy for a fourteen year old...

Sawed the day. We all just stood there silently, arms in the air, and then, when five minutes were over, we all walked back in...

Even before that though I was headed toward liberalsim...

We made the news.....

[MrSlayer]

31. No. I was heading toward revamping the Waffen SS.

But I awoke politically in my early 20's thanks to my best friend's mom. She's an old hippy from back in the day and smart as a whip. I did get the last laugh on her though when she was supporting the war on Iraq and me and my buddy argued her to sputtering silence. At that point I hit her with the "You changed me into a liberal and now you're going to back these lying Neo-Con Nazi maniacs? Do you know how you sound?" line. The look of realization on her face was priceless. My buddy's father, her ex-husband, was a PA state rep back in the day and he was drinking the Kool-Aid too. 9/11 scared those old hippies out of their reason for a while but they are back on track now. Anyway, I was not anywhere near a liberal when I was a kid. I had a very ugly outlook on things but I've mended my ways.

[liss681]

32. My parents are pot smoking hippies

it was inevitable.

[ALago1]

33. I was 10 during the '92 Election...

Our 5th grade class held a mock election to inform us of the electoral process.

95% of the class voted for Perot because they got a kick out of him
4% voted for Bush because they were influenced by their parents

I was the only one that voted for Clinton. There was something about him and the way he presented himself that struck me then. I truly belive he awoke my innate "liberalness"

[Bouncy Ball]

34. Well, I was born to a dad who was a Democrat, raised by Democrats

and all of them were union factory workers and believed in labor, in the people.

My mother's family were better off, but still Dems.

Then there was my redneck hippie stepfather, calling Reagan "that sumbitch" for eight years, taking care of every stray animal he found, and making us pick up aluminum cans everywhere we went, so we could turn them in for recycling and a few pennies. This from a guy who was making six figures in the late 70s. He believed the more you had, the more of an obligation you had to give. We collected our change to give to the ASPCA and the Sierra Club. He believed capitalism left unbridled, without some government checks and regulations was a recipe for disaster for human beings.

Plus, I have a strong "thinking for myself" streak and was taught to engage in critical thinking and ask why? why? why? why? why?

It's served me well. I was taught to have true compassion for other living things--people and animals, taught to want to care for our environment, taught that elected representatives in government are supposed to work for WE THE PEOPLE, not their own financial self-interest, or lobbyists, or big corporations, etc.

THEN to top it all off, I went an incredibly politically conservative university, which turned out to be good for my blossoming liberalism. I saw the seamy underbelly of conservatism up close and personal, I heard their arguments, saw how flimsy they were, strengthened my own arguments, became more sure of how I felt, saw every day for five years how dangerous and crippling lock-step thinking is.

Honestly, and I've thought about this, I don't see how I can NOT be a liberal. Truly. It goes against my deepest convictions NOT to be liberal. Liberalism encompasses the very things I was taught as a child: take care of others, root for the underdog, do good in the world, never cause harm if you can help it, stand UP for the good guy and against evil, etc.

[merh]

35. My fourth grade report was on ecology

When 18, I challenged the diocese and one of the largest banks when they tried to force my parents to include the cost of raffle tickets in the tuition loan.

Yes, always have been a liberal activist, challenging the corporations and the righ.

[NMMNG]

36. Some

I remember taking this guy in my high-school (a transplanted redneck) to task over his obscenely racist views. This was New England and he seemed to think he could spout off like he used to wherever he came from.

In college I was a member of Amnesty International, albeit for a brief period of time.

I also worked in human services, which in my particular field often involves advocacy for individuals who have very limited ability to assert themselves. Therefore I've often had to go to bat for them with other professionals, family members, various agencies, insurance providers and others who may or may not have their best interests at heart.

Additionally, being a lesbian I've always had a tendency to be an activist for gay/lesbian rights in any way I can since my teen years.

[clyrc]

37. No

I grew up in a very conservative Democratic family. I was brought up to be conserative and very racist, but as I got older I rejected both ways of thinking, and now I'm so far from both of them I can't even talk to the rest of my family about certain things.

I was also extremely shy and my parents were authoritarian, so speaking up about anything is still hard for me. I've done it, though. I've been to protests, and I've given speeches supporting political candidates. I did it wishing I were more agressive and less shy (and more effective) but I did it.

[Anarcho-Socialist]

38. I was 7 and a half years old and it was early 1990

Margaret Thatcher was Prime Minister and Britain seemed to be on the brink of Class War. In the local community I grew up in everyone seemed to hate that woman and I picked-up on it. Britain was probably more polarised at the point than at any time since the 1920s.

It wasn't until I was 9 years old that I called myself a Socialist and appreciated the basic facets of the philosophy: equality, collective-ownership, fairness, community and human dignity.

Although the question you ask is about Liberalism, I am socially very liberal but I am more Social Democratic than liberal in my thinking. I do appreciate Liberalism and liberals, indeed it has influenced Socialist thinking from the late-nineteenth century and throughout the twentieth century.