How do I explain to my children what happened yesterday?

[cynatnite]

How do I tell them we're a better country for it?

[MrCoffee]

1. I was up all night last night thinking the same thing...

I put my 2 year old daughter to bed and sat in her room all night. I still don't know what to say when she's older and sees pictures of Abu Ghraib and Guantanamo and asks me what they mean.

She's all I can think about. What on earth can I tell her?

[tfrancell]

2. How old are they?

What you tell them depends on how old they are.

[bunkerbuster1]

14. My first thought too. My 6 year old doesn't need to hear this crap.

Some might wretch and heave at the thought, but I've tried to bring her up with some respect for the office of the President, in hopes that when she's older we might have a real President.

[tfrancell]

15. Sounds like a good plan to me.

Hopefully, when the young ones are older, they will only have to read about how this jerk got to the White House.

[ScreamingMeemie]

3. You don't because you can't... I have explained the "politics" of it

all to my daughter (16). We have great discussions. With my 8 year old, I explain that even though the "represent" us they are not always "representative" of us and this is why it is important for him to grow and learn...and then work for change when he grows up. I don't ever try to explain something so wrong to my children. I tell them it's wrong and that political leaders are not Gods and are sometimes power hungry terrorists. :hug:

[cynatnite]

4. I think I'd rather talk to them about the bj Clinton lied about than this

:(

[angstlessk]

5. I was thinking the same thing...say...we kill and torture but at least it

is NOT a blow job! :grr:

I read an article that said...blowjobs feel good...torture hurts like hell!

[Fridays Child]

6. Geez, you act like it was a blow job or something.

:sarcasm:

Remember when the GOP's anti-Clinton meme was "What will we tell the children?" I know a woman who actually professed to be worried about that--nevermind the fact that she was a dope-smoking, wine-guzzling adulterer. Don't get me wrong: she can smoke and drink and screw until the last syllable of recorded time, for all I care. But, seriously, she was spewing the meme like a good little hypocritical Republican soldier and it made me sick to my stomach.

Now we have the biggest constitutional crisis in the history of this country and it's all the GOP's doing. I don't talk with her, anymore but I suspect she's oblivious to the danger that we're all in.

It's time to buy that "The United States! Was that a great country or what?" bumper sticker.

[niallmac]

7. and what will future generations say about my actions

now? How do I fight this as best I can without
putting my family in jeopardy?

[Parche]

8. explain

Once upon a time.................GW Bush is an idiot..............The end

[mom cat]

9. You can't tell them that we are a better country for it because we are

not!
The only fair thing to tell your kids is the age appropriate truth. They will need a heavy dose of reality for the days ahead. I do not envy them at all.

[EmperorHasNoClothes]

10. My son is only 2

yet I'm trying to decide now if I should teach him about the American Revolution, our founding fathers, and how our country is all about freedom, liberty and equality, and let him be disappointed when he finds out later on that it's all bullshit, or if I should just cut to the chase and tell him that although those principles once existed in this country, they are here no longer.

[Sinti]

12. Teach him with enthusiasm! Fill his mind with it when he's ready.

Start young, and he will demand it when he gets older.

[Sinti]

11. You cannot tell them we are a better country for it

What you can tell them, if they are of an age to understand, is that our country has passed through dark times like these before, and survived them. We, the American people, in our hearts must adhere to the founding principles, the rule of law, the notion of compassion, equality and fairness for all people, and strive to return the nation to these ideals. This travesty is the work of a relatively small group of powerful, power-mad individuals, and their enablers. It could actually be a great teaching moment for a teenager (12-18 or so), about core values, and the importance of not giving them up in an opportunistic/defeatist/go-along-to-get-along fashion.

[seabeyond]

13. i told mine we are worse for it. i had to tell my 11 yr old. his teacher

brings these up and she is republican, he is brave and speaks out, so i keep him informed. they are already aware of the issue though. torturing and bush breaking the law. that this bill is to protect bush from past laws broken. not how we work. and repugs now the party of torture. cant hardly say we are a christian nation today. what would jesus do?

also i told them they say it is to detain and interogate. we already detain, and we already interogate. just the repugs to embarrassed to call it a torture laws, such cowards. should call it what it is