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Public schools?
Today I was thinking of a book read to us in the third grade in Maryland. I cannot remember the name of the book or the main characters name. I have thought about the little girl in the book, and her family, for 51 years. Her parents were sharecroppers. She had to work in the fields alongside them. She had to move a lot. She could not attend school regularly. She loved school and hated missing it. I vividly remember her getting a dress made of sacks. In little girl world, a dress of ones own is magic-world, so I am not surprised that I remember that.
The girls story was cool, although it was a few years before that word came into use among children. We were not made to feel sorry for her, but to walk in shoes and experience a bit if her life.
Our teacher, Mrs. Gambrell, was from North Carolina and I got the distinct impression she wanted her mostly Yankee students to know about Southern children.
Was Mrs. Gambrell, beautiful and cultured and a woman if her time, a secret Marxist? Likely not. But the book she read to us imprinted something in us. I never pass a field without thinking of the lives of children and families who work there.
In 8th grade, we read Roots in American history. In Georgia. With an African American teacher.
The repugs are right to fear the public schools, I think.
Glamrock
(11,802 posts)I attribute my liberalism to 13 years of Catholic school (k-12). While I may have lost the faith at 16, the teachings of Jesus Christ informed my world view for life. Feed the hungry, clothe the naked, heal the sick, welcome the stranger, as you do unto the least of my brothers you do unto me.
MaryMagdaline
(6,856 posts)I cant be a Christian because I dont believe in the divinity of Christ (its a dealbreaker I am told) but Jesus is my prophet. I call myself a mathesisn Christian. The book of Matthew is liberalism 101.
My handle is a bit confusing. I would change it but I dont want to lose my frequent flyer miles here (joke). First I misspelled Magdalene. I should have fixed that immediately. It sort of rolled out since my real name is similar. Mary Magdalene was a gnostic. I am closer to her way of thinking. She was also a feminist who was a disciple and equal intellectually to Jesús. Unfortunately I forgot that some people were taught she was a prostitute (the church started that in the 4th century) and the name leaves a bad impression with those familiar with the Magdalene baby-snatchers in Ireland.
So, I am culturally very catholic but I have absolutely no idea how a catholic can be conservative.
Glamrock
(11,802 posts)Recovering Catholic here. I lost my faith two years prior to graduation. And sat through two years of religious classes. But you are so right. I'm continually puzzled by conservative Christians. They're obviously balancing their checkbooks when the Gospel is being read....
MaryMagdaline
(6,856 posts)gopiscrap
(23,765 posts)rurallib
(62,451 posts)have stuck with me as the very basis of my beliefs.
They were never called that, nor were they presented as lump of material when I was a kid. Throughout my elementary education we learned about the dignity of work, the need to treat all humans with respect and dignity, the worth of everyone despite circumstances.
It sure wasn't a big leap from that to the Democratic Party. Plus Roosevelt and the Great Depression was still a very clear memory for my parents. Roosevelt was still deeply revered in our house. We lived a stones throw from Hoover's birthplace but he was garbage to my parents.
And of course Kennedy...... I was @11 when he ran and won.
Like you I have long since left Catholicism behind. Most I ever knew never really practiced the Teachings on Social Justice. I thank Catholicism - or maybe more accurately the sisters for that very sound basis.
MaryMagdaline
(6,856 posts)I thank the Jesuits for teaching my parents about social justice. Social justice was a phrase I heard almost daily in my life. LBJ made my mother jump to the Democratic Party. There was real social justice in action then.
gopiscrap
(23,765 posts)Christ;s preferential option for the poor
MaryMagdaline
(6,856 posts)DBoon
(22,399 posts)About justice and charity being more important than wealth and power
genxlib
(5,542 posts)Thomas Jefferson edited a version of the bible that carved away the supernatural and the commentary. What remains is a pretty solid moral code.
I confess I made it to the age of 40 without ever hearing about this and then it was only due to the Unitarian Universalist Church which basically follows that thinking.
The US would be a better place if more people actually knew that an important founding father actually thought this way. I would venture to say that less than 5% of the public are familiar with it.
MaryMagdaline
(6,856 posts)Maybe from you. Good information.
3catwoman3
(24,054 posts)...are members of the UU congregation I became part of in the fall of 2011. The commitment to social justice and to saving the planet are taken very seriously.
MaryMagdaline
(6,856 posts)Docreed2003
(16,878 posts)"Living Buddha, Living Christ" by Thich Nhat Han. It's an amazing book, and I think you'll get a lot from it!
Glamrock
(11,802 posts)I'll have to check into it.
MaryMagdaline
(6,856 posts)Docreed2003
(16,878 posts)Especially if you have an interest in mindfulness/meditation/Eastern religions and tying that in with whatever western faiths you nave have or have been exposed to...it's one of my favorite books.
zanana1
(6,129 posts)I was trick-or-treating with my friends. We decided to go to a street about four blocks from ours because "rich" people lived there. We were excited about getting great candy from them. Instead, we got tiny pieces of candy. When we got back to our street, we got alot of candy (and plenty of smiles). Because of that, I reasoned that the wealthy were selfish. I turned into a Liberal on Halloween night.
MaryMagdaline
(6,856 posts)Poor people really are more generous. I used to clean up in our WC neighborhood in Maryland on Halloween.
Angry Dragon
(36,693 posts)MaryMagdaline
(6,856 posts)Curious if you dont mind saying
Tikki
(14,559 posts)Explained to me early on that repugs will never be on a single mothers side.
And they havent been, so.
Tikki
MaryMagdaline
(6,856 posts)Respect btw
lark
(23,158 posts)He taught us the difference between socialism, communism and democracy and showed us the good and bad of all of them. It truly opened my eyes. He played Joan Baez for us, the first time I had ever heard of any of this stuff, being raised in a fundamentalist Baptist home. He opened my eyes and changed my world. He introduced me to a whole new world that made so much sense to me. Within that year, I was marching against Vietnam, burned my bra, was part of the underground movement to help young women if they wanted abortions which were illegal in my state at the time, and was working with a bunch of others to form strategies to help our older friends avoid the war by getting rejected at the draft offices.
MaryMagdaline
(6,856 posts)Some of the Parkland kids have pointed to a great civics teacher as their inspiration.
Thats quite a young age for activism.
I remember our older cousin from Michigan came down to DC to March on Washington in 1968. It opened our eyes.
gopiscrap
(23,765 posts)"Revolution on Three Continents" he spent the first 6 weeks of class telling the predictable rah rah USA narrative, then he spent the next 6 weeks telling us about of the nations sins, specially those commited against other countries. It was an eye opener for me also.
jpak
(41,760 posts)yup
MaryMagdaline
(6,856 posts)My father never voted republican after that.
dameatball
(7,400 posts)when I was five years old. There I learned about separate water fountains for blacks and whites. Occasionally you would see a few Klansmen passing out literature on a street corner. I went to public school but we never had any black students until I was in tenth grade. Unlike many places, our school didn't have any real problems during this time. I got to know a lot of new people and realized we had similar attitudes and hopes for our futures. Sure, we still had some rednecks but they mostly kept to themselves.
In later years my dad and my older brother became increasingly conservative. Mom and I stayed the course. When I went off to a large state university, the increased diversity led me to become even more of a liberal. Still am.
MaryMagdaline
(6,856 posts)Ultimately, though, being in the intergrated schools in the south , where we were a minority, was a valuable experience
My younger brother was 7 when we moved to Georgia. He turned southern right away and has been a lifelong Republican. We got him back with Trump. Glad your mom and you agree, at least
dameatball
(7,400 posts)bottomofthehill
(8,348 posts)And a parochial school upbringing. We were taught that the greatest political speech ever given was the Sermon on the Mount. The Sisters of St Joseph were not fire breathing Bible thumpers but educators who tried to make us better people and they stressed this
Matthew 5-7
Introduction to the Sermon on the Mount
5 Now when Jesus saw the crowds, he went up on a mountainside and sat down. His disciples came to him, 2 and he began to teach them.
The Beatitudes
He said:
3 Blessed are the poor in spirit,
for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.
4 Blessed are those who mourn,
for they will be comforted.
5 Blessed are the meek,
for they will inherit the earth.
6 Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness,
for they will be filled.
7 Blessed are the merciful,
for they will be shown mercy.
8 Blessed are the pure in heart,
for they will see God.
9 Blessed are the peacemakers,
for they will be called children of God.
10 Blessed are those who are persecuted because of righteousness,
for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.
11 Blessed are you when people insult you, persecute you and falsely say all kinds of evil against you because of me. 12 Rejoice and be glad, because great is your reward in heaven, for in the same way they persecuted the prophets who were before you.
Salt and Light
13 You are the salt of the earth. But if the salt loses its saltiness, how can it be made salty again? It is no longer good for anything, except to be thrown out and trampled underfoot.
14 You are the light of the world. A town built on a hill cannot be hidden. 15 Neither do people light a lamp and put it under a bowl. Instead they put it on its stand, and it gives light to everyone in the house. 16 In the same way, let your light shine before others, that they may see your good deeds and glorify your Father in heaven.
MaryMagdaline
(6,856 posts)gopiscrap
(23,765 posts)"Give sight to the blind, visit the prisoner, free the captive, make the lame to walk, the blind to see, feed the hunger, clothe the naked, give drink to those who thirst and welcome the stranger!"
mulsh
(2,959 posts)grammar school. My parents and grandparents were liberals. My Irish grandfather grew up under British oppression in Ireland. He and his brothers and sisters were virulently liberal, and enthusiastically patriotic Americans. It was one of the reasons he and his brothers bought out some Japanese nursery owners and held their property in good shape until the end of their internment. They returned the nurseries and what ever profit they made during the war to the owners. I didn't hear about any of this until I was in my 20's. "We don't like bullies" was what one of them told me.
Going to Catholic Schools in the 60's & 70's helped form some of my political believers. Getting involved in the anti war movement certainly didn't hurt. I was one of the kids who formed the only grammar school chapter of SDS.
Growing up in Oakland gives one a certain attitude too. Although i'm shocked at a couple of friends who are completely embracing Trump.
MaryMagdaline
(6,856 posts)Its one thing to hear tales of oppression of your own people (my grandmother used to say that during the famine, something 45 years before her birth, they ate the buds from the trees, they were so hungry) to recognizing the oppression of others. Your familys aid to their Japanese neighbors is quite remarkable. Not seeing them as the Other ... That really is exceptional.
CrispyQ
(36,527 posts)was totally non-bipartisan, but a feminist! She pointed out how women were second class citizens, how black men got the vote before women, how the ERA still had not passed in Congress. As I got older & became involved in politics - I volunteered for the Gary Hart for Senate campaign my senior year in high school - I naturally aligned with the party that did more for women.
As people do better, they start voting like Republicans - unless they have too much education and vote Democratic, which proves there can be too much of a good thing. ~Karl Rove
You are right this is why they fear public schools.
MaryMagdaline
(6,856 posts)Even better I love the poorly educated. To think we came from Kennedys push for excellence to I live the poorly educated.
onecaliberal
(32,902 posts)His influence shaped my world view from day one. That kind of decency is LONG gone.
MaryMagdaline
(6,856 posts)Her father and mine, both WWII GIs.
onecaliberal
(32,902 posts)mitch96
(13,926 posts)Father, Navy... cousin Marines, uncle Coast Guard... All democratic liberals...One uncle stayed at home and made railroad wheels... racist republican...
Both my parents were union blue collar democrats and taught me well... So did Nixon.. As a Union shop steward I taped many a conversation with Hospital administration. They would lie like a sack of shit and then deny it...
m
MaryMagdaline
(6,856 posts)genxlib
(5,542 posts)And is especially pertinent to someone like me. I was raised in a deeply religious conservative southern family. I had absolutely zero influences to turn out the way I did. I am the black sheep of my family by a long shot.
If I had to guess, I would say my science education. I learned things that made it impossible to believe teachings like resurrection, the flood and 900 year old people. Once that thread got pulled, the rest of the sweater came apart.
I ultimately did a year abroad in England that further liberalized me. But I think there is something of a chicken and egg to that year. I think I sought it out because I was liberal and felt constrained instead of the other way around.
MaryMagdaline
(6,856 posts)GemDigger
(4,305 posts)I was always a split ticket voter until stupid came around. Then the do nothing congress cemented it.
MaryMagdaline
(6,856 posts)MaryMagdaline
(6,856 posts)She sealed it for Obama.
GemDigger
(4,305 posts)There was something about that woman (besides her word salads) that just raised red flags all around her.
yallerdawg
(16,104 posts)Then discovering that is where the liberals always are.
MaryMagdaline
(6,856 posts)The Velveteen Ocelot
(115,869 posts)in about 1960, when I would have been 11 or so. We drove from Minnesota all the way to Florida to visit my grandparents, who had recently moved there. This was before the days of freeways so we had to drive through all the towns rather than around them, and in little towns in the South I saw real poverty for the first time. And I also saw the signs marking drinking fountains and other things as "white" and "colored" and I didn't understand why they did that. My parents said it was wrong but that's the way they did things here. I got an inkling then of how absolutely unfair and wrong it was to treat people like that, and it stuck with me.
MaryMagdaline
(6,856 posts)What was shocking to us was just something to get used to for them.
Iggo
(47,571 posts)MaryMagdaline
(6,856 posts)Iggo
(47,571 posts)Sneederbunk
(14,308 posts)MaryMagdaline
(6,856 posts)elleng
(131,148 posts)MaryMagdaline
(6,856 posts)Fla Dem
(23,765 posts)My parents were Democrats. But not overtly so. Both of them served in WWII. My Dad was of Italian heritage, both his parents were immigrants. My Mom's mother descended from a long line of first settlers, arriving in Salem Ma from Great Britain in the mid 1600, while her Dad, my maternal grandfather, was the son of Irish immigrants.
Was it because I grew up in the Boston suburbs and became fully aware of politics I guess with JFK. While still young when he was campaigning and in the news, I was fascinated with him and his speeches always filled me with hope and inspiration. I was also struck by the civil rights movement and realized how horrendously wrong it was the way Black people had been treated in our country for centuries.
But I have to say, all my family and extended family just lived the principles of what defines a liberal; help one another, don't judge until you've walked in another person's shoes, and all are entitled to individual rights and liberties.
MaryMagdaline
(6,856 posts)N_E_1 for Tennis
(9,782 posts)12 grueling years of catholic education plus my parents who were decidedly liberal.
In high school our teachers were Brothers, if I remember correctly they were one step down from priests. Most of them traveled the world on missions and came back with stories on the beliefs and conditions in mostly third world countries. Very liberal and willing to explain why they were that way.
Left the religion when I joined the military, never had the use for organized religion since.
The lessons stayed.
MaryMagdaline
(6,856 posts)We took the good teachings and left the bad
DBoon
(22,399 posts)He was such a detestable character and the war in Vietnam was such an abomination, opposition was natural at the time
mysteryowl
(7,396 posts)When I think about it, it never occurred to me to be anything else. Maybe my family influenced it. I remember my mother would frequently say, "Reagan ruined everything. Reagan took it all away. Reagan destroyed America." My family also deeply valued voting.
It also just is my constitution. Everything I am about is the opposite of the corrupt party. I love nature, animals, clean air and water, unions, democracy... you get the picture.
MaryMagdaline
(6,856 posts)CentralMass
(15,265 posts)MaryMagdaline
(6,856 posts)Cousin Dupree
(1,866 posts)MaryMagdaline
(6,856 posts)Cousin Dupree
(1,866 posts)benld74
(9,910 posts)1/2 semester after crashing Algebra II. This test was attempt at finding out your political standing based on the answers provided to questions.
Dad considered himself conservative. I was appalled that my answers placed me there too.
Went back through questions which I now noticed were pretty ambiguous at best. Never quite stating what the obvious point of the question was pushing you towards.
All of the questions demanded a black/white answer and even at 16 I knew life wasnt black/white.
Hard to believe people today can
MaryMagdaline
(6,856 posts)Freddie
(9,275 posts)When I was a teen in the 70s I saw so many girls my age have their lives permanently changed by an unplanned pregnancy. At that point I made a personal vow that any decision regarding childbearing would be MINE and totally under my control. A vow I kept as both my children were very much wanted and planned for. And over the years I kept seeing how the Republican Party was doing everything in their power to take that determination away from women and make us captive to biology again. Nope. My daughter is a fierce feminist and a Dem too, raised her right.
MaryMagdaline
(6,856 posts)2naSalit
(86,804 posts)a not-so-pearly-white-skinned female with a brain that helped me navigate and survive my hellish childhood where I was seen as the "N" word and then, the rest of life in a society that saw only two purposes for my existence... a sex object and domestic slave.
MaryMagdaline
(6,856 posts)Racism, misogyny, anti-intellectualism - 3 headed monster.
2naSalit
(86,804 posts)and like the older lady in that protest photo holding the sign saying, "I can't believe I still have to protest this shit" I can't believe I still have to deal with this shit. At least being retired now, I can just walk away from assholes and other people I don't need to interact with.
MaryMagdaline
(6,856 posts)Hotler
(11,445 posts)Religion, Boy Scouts and college were building blocks.
MaryMagdaline
(6,856 posts)Its cliche but I love Bruce Springsteen, on my 19th Birthday, I got a union card and a wedding coat.
sprinkleeninow
(20,267 posts)Live and let live.
I detest injustices, harm, cruelty, greed, selfishness, etc. All these rattle me. Knowing others are being hurt without batting an eyelash pains me so.
"The first shall be last and the last first."
An Orthodox Christian from 40 days 'new'. 🤗
MaryMagdaline
(6,856 posts)tazkcmo
(7,302 posts)It was the GOPee and their people hating platform.
MaryMagdaline
(6,856 posts)CTyankee
(63,912 posts)Hearing hatred against black people and wondering what was wrong with my fellow white men and women that failed to see the injustice against people of color.
The hate. The goddam hate.
But then came the landmark SCOTUS ruling in Brown v. Board of Education. That had a big effect on my political leanings.
MaryMagdaline
(6,856 posts)70s was so inspiring. Until Reagan, our Supreme Court seemed to want to knock down one injustice after another.
llmart
(15,555 posts)They discussed politics quite a bit and loved FDR. My family was poor and they taught all of us children - seven altogether - that people and how you treat them are more important than the things you own. We received many lectures growing up on right vs. wrong. Also, my grandfather, the only grandparent I knew, was a rabid socialist and he preached equality constantly. Even though he never knew it, a lot of that sunk in.
MaryMagdaline
(6,856 posts)Socialist then. Sounds like a lovely family.
llmart
(15,555 posts)Not sure anyone would call our family "lovely", but thanks. We were different to say the least.
My grandfather was proud of his socialism. One time in high school it was embarrassing to me. He used to stand on the corner in the town next to our little, rural town and hand out the socialist newspaper "The Weekly People" and he made us kids stamp his name and address on each one. One of our extremely conservative teachers had to turn it into an American History lesson all the while looking at my brother and I with a knowing glare because we had a distinctly unusual last name, so she knew he was related to us. Being a teenager and all I wanted to crawl under my desk. He was extremely anti-Vietnam war and I wasn't that interested in it yet, but he said, "You better be interested as it's your generation that's going to be dying." I'm 69 and yes, it was my generation that sacrificed the most lives in more ways than one.
He was quite quirky but prescient.
MaryMagdaline
(6,856 posts)Could be quite embarrassing then.
cemaphonic
(4,138 posts)But the thing that made it specifically political was listening and reading about the Iran-Contra situation. I was in middle school at the time, and it seemed like there was one of two possibilities - either Reagan was lying through his teeth, or too incompetent to manage such an important and complex job. It really bothered me that nobody seemed to think that either case should have disqualified him from the Presidency.
Then, in the summer of 88, we moved to Atlanta, and since most of my stuff was packed, and I didn't know anybody (we were in temporary housing until our house was ready), I watched hours of the 88 Dem convention coverage, and have been hooked on politics news ever since. It became pretty clear through high school that the Republicans didn't value the things I did (arts, education were big for me at the time) and that they were totally in bed with the hypocritical religious right.
I turned 18 in 1992, and couldn't wait to vote out the snobby, out-of-touch (not to mention, heavily involved in Iran-Contra himself) Bush. Hard to believe that he looks like a damn elder statesman compared to the current crop of thieves, racists, religious lunatics and vandals that make up the current Republican party.
MaryMagdaline
(6,856 posts)So many in middle America were enablers ... letting them get away with murder.
saidsimplesimon
(7,888 posts)my third grade teacher upon arriving in the Detroit Public School System.
MaryMagdaline
(6,856 posts)klook
(12,170 posts)and seeing the idiocy and cruelty of Jim Crow first hand, as well as the hypocrisy of white evangelical Protestants. ("So...is there a White Heaven and a Black Heaven? What about that song, 'Red and yellow, black, and white; they are precious in his sight; Jesus loves the little children of the world'? Is that just something we sing in Sunday School and forget about when we leave the building??" )
MaryMagdaline
(6,856 posts)hunter
(38,328 posts)My parents are artists who always had day jobs. They were working in Hollywood when they met. They had LGBT friends.
My grandma and her sister as young women partied in the speakeasies and homes of movie stars in Prohibition Hollywood. My grandma's sister went through several husbands, Hollywood style, until she found one worth keeping, my grandma held onto my grandpa, an engineering type.
My grandma got me on television a couple of times as a kid but I was a complete failure as a child actor. Apparently I'd stare at Very Important People in a very unnerving way, as if they were somewhat interesting insects unworthy of conversation. It's been diagnosed as autism now but in those days they just blamed the mother. My engineer grandfather was clearly on the spectrum too, and there's little doubt I inherited it from him.
Political and religious discussion are never discouraged at our dinner tables; they are sport. Some folks play bloody bruising games of rugby for fun...
It would have been a perverse act of rebellion or indication of serious head injury had I grown up to be a Republican. There was zero tolerance for any sort of anti-intellectualism in our family and children were not expected to be silent.
MaryMagdaline
(6,856 posts)cannabis_flower
(3,768 posts)I was about to go to Catholic kindergarten in Victoria, Texas.
My grandpa (from Alabama) and my dad told me not to hold hands with any black kids. I had never met any black kids and as a child I wanted to obey my parents.
The very first week we went out into into a courtyard area and were going to play ring-around-the-roses. I ended up standing right next to the only black kid in the kindergarten. I wouldn't hold hands with her, not because I was prejudiced but because my dad and grandpa had told me not to.
The sister was very upset. She took me to the office and called my mother. She told me to hold hands with her, that my dad and grandpa were only kidding. (Not sure if they were.). I went back and held hands with her. Later my mom used the word that she usually used in this situation. She was "mortified".
I'm pretty sure this was the exact moment that I learned not to always do what my parents said.
MaryMagdaline
(6,856 posts)LAS14
(13,783 posts)MaryMagdaline
(6,856 posts)byronius
(7,401 posts)Made me forever hate the Klan and bigotry in all its forms.
Plus, science fiction.
MaryMagdaline
(6,856 posts)hibbing
(10,109 posts)My father was always ahead of his time on issues. He promoted equality for gays way beforevthatbhit the mainstream. Reagan, well, he was horrible.
Peace
MaryMagdaline
(6,856 posts)billh58
(6,635 posts)and fawning idiots.
MaryMagdaline
(6,856 posts)lastlib
(23,309 posts)John Lennon's murder. My college political science courses. Reading John Kenneth Galbraith and so many others.
MaryMagdaline
(6,856 posts)On my wall.
lastlib
(23,309 posts)A friend of mine wrote him a letter in the early days of JFK's term, saying how she admired him; he wrote her a nice letter back, personally signed, which she still has in a scrapbook. It's cherished treasure for her, of course--as it would be for me.
MaryMagdaline
(6,856 posts)lastlib
(23,309 posts)gopiscrap
(23,765 posts)My father getting killed because of being shot in Vietnam while the Eisenhower administration was claiming the US wasn't there
My Franciscan religious education
having young men just a few years older than I coming home in body bags from Vietnam
watching republicans being anti women, anti gay, anti people of color
MaryMagdaline
(6,856 posts)gopiscrap
(23,765 posts)love your profile and profile name-Mike
MaryMagdaline
(6,856 posts)no_hypocrisy
(46,203 posts)I was raised by a hard ass republican authoritarian father. My mother could not curtail him.
I became a liberal at age 2. My father asked if I brushed my teeth that night. (Remember, I was 2 years old.) I lied. He could see the dry toothbrush. My father's reflexive reaction was to haul me on his knee and to give me two very very hard whacks. And hollered at me. I then understood the concept of over-reaction and hysterical explosive syndrome which would become the basis for our relationship until he died four years ago.
My father's view was black-and-white, right-and-wrong, narrow and bigoted views.
I became a liberal because I didn't want to grow up to be like him.
MaryMagdaline
(6,856 posts)I marvel at your ability to identify it and leave it behind.
Cairycat
(1,707 posts)seeing the Civil Rights Movement and the Vietnam war covered nightly influenced me. Seeing and reading about the My Lai massacre really implanted the idea that the government could be horribly morally wrong. My older sister, who I idolized, had just gotten married, and she and her husband were ready to go to Canada if he got drafted - that really impressed me (he was a teacher and ended up getting a deferment for teaching in a low-income school).
MaryMagdaline
(6,856 posts)I was sick and deeply ashamed.
gopiscrap
(23,765 posts)Vice President George Bush came to Tacoma for a campaign rally. 7 of us got in to "ask questions" politely. When doing so, we were arrested by the Republican National Security team. As we were led out, we were spit upon, hit, yelled at. I had my shirt ripped, was hit over the head with a yard sign and glasses broken. Much of it was done by former Pat Roberston supporters who had gone over to Bush's side. Being treated that way by conservatives and fundies specially sealed the deal for me as a young adult. I knew that coupled with my Catholic social teaching, affirmed by my Lutheran Pastor and his wife as foster parents and my previous experiences with my biological family both in seeing what they went through and as an immigrant made me shun conservatism even more!
MaryMagdaline
(6,856 posts)Doodley
(9,138 posts)MaryMagdaline
(6,856 posts)raccoon
(31,126 posts)It drag on and on. People wanted to get out most Americans did, I believe. But because of national honor we stayed in there and more service people were injured and killed.
MaryMagdaline
(6,856 posts)Aristus
(66,467 posts)perpetrated against people who weren't like me.
In 1976, the Army post I lived on put on a gigantic bicentennial pageant in a movie theater converted for stage theater use. The program was several hours of songs, sketches, and re-enactments detailing American history. During the Civil War section, a gospel choir sang an old slave spiritual "Oh Freedom!" during a re-enactment of the auctioning of a slave family. A school friend of mine played a young slave boy, one of my teachers played his mother, and a man I didn't know played the father. The mother was wrenched from her husband and her son by a planter in a white suit and hat, and they were "sold down the river", causing the mother to sing the final verses of the song solo. Seeing a family torn apart like that, even just in a piece of theater, was disturbing.
My father's historical interest in World War II, my mother's portrayal of Mrs. Frank in a local production of The Diary Of Anne Frank, and the miniseries 'Holocaust' brought the plight of the Jews in WWII to my attention. And I studied it very carefully from my father's books on the subject. I had had a crush on the girl who played Anne Frank in my mom's play, and knowing that she 'died' after the end of the play sunk me into a deep depression.
Finally, the thing that really solidified my liberalism was 'Don't Ask, Don't Tell' in 1993, after I was more or less grown up. Since my family had been active in community theater, I had known gay men and women for a while, and hadn't really thought about it much. I didn't really know much about homosexuality. I developed friendships with some people in the gay community in Louisville, Kentucky, near Fort Knox where I was stationed. I remember asking one of my friends: "Is it a choice? Did you choose to be gay?" He replied: "I would never in a million years have chosen to be this way. I can't get married, I can't serve in the Army like you, and anytime somebody wants to, he can beat me up and the cops won't do a thing."
I had voted Republican in 1988 and again in 1992. I haven't voted Republican since, and don't plan to ever again.
Injustice, even though it doesn't happen to me or lots of people like me, is the driving force behind my liberalism.
MaryMagdaline
(6,856 posts)I think liberals must have the empathy gene. Even a reinactment of suffering can transform us.
Grasswire2
(13,571 posts)But that was built on a childhood in Baptist Sunday School where I was taught how we are to be in the world and be to others.
Then I was radicalized when I worked as an editor in a high-profile non-profit in D.C. and saw how America's Christian Right loved political power and "culture wars" more than they loved the people who had no voice or means; the ones Jesus favored. The nexus of religion and politics was disheartening. To say the least.
MaryMagdaline
(6,856 posts)They got ugly really fast
hay rick
(7,643 posts)I dropped out of college and had no money and no marketable skills. I moved from job to job and place to place for a decade. I lived in the ghetto, crashed on friends' couches, and shared apartments or houses with friends. I eventually rejoined the comfortable middle class but my experiences turned me into an activist.
MaryMagdaline
(6,856 posts)bif
(22,759 posts)Who can win an election. Bernie came close and he might have been able to beat the asshole we have now. I definitely think he could beat tRump in 2020. But I'm pretty sure he doesn't want to run again.
MaryMagdaline
(6,856 posts)Minorities, big city people and rural people to come together.
bif
(22,759 posts)MuseRider
(34,125 posts)to put limits on.
ashling
(25,771 posts)I was born human ...
seriously, though - not that I am not human, I am, but the other part,
My parents were ardent New Dealers. My mother was a social worker who was a Red Cross worker in India and Burma during WWII. My father was a Navy Doctor from a little town in north Central Texas in Erath County a county that was at the seat of the Texas Peoples Party in the 1880s. My gr-grandfather (who homesteaded there in 1870) was a populist.
My dad gott through college by working with the Youth Progress Administrat - headed in this state by LBJ. My mom worked for the WPA.
I give that as background, because that is who I am. Heck, I don't know when the label"Liberal" or "Democrat first dawned on me. I was born into a family of givers and free thinkers. Its in the blood.
Here's an honestt to God absolutely 100% true antecdote (that some of you have heard before) that is just one little piece of how I was raised. My dad used to travel for work and often we would end up tagging along with mom to get burgers. That was before the inundation of fast food - I don't think there was even a MCDonalds anywhere near us. At about 9 or 10 I found myself standing in line at a little burger shack.
I am just going to mention this in passing Not because it makes a big deal, but it might influence the story a little later on.
We were in line behind a black gentleman. ( again, no big deal)
The lady at the window (this is where it becomes a big deal) says the the fellow in front of us, "we don't serve no N***ers up hear, you'll have to go round back," Or words to that effect. So he heads around to the back.
Mother took us by the hand. She could have just taken us back to our 1957 Buick Special with holes in the side and a back dashboard so big I could lay there and look at the stars, and gone home. I don't know if it was because she wanted to teach us a lesson or just because it got her Scotts Irish up, but she took us out of line and we started around back. The lady said we didn't have to go around back.
I still here my mother saying groughly to the lady - which at the same time was directed toward us: 'We're no better than he is." Point well taken - at least by this kid.
We stayed at the back door to get our food.
At least, that is how I remember it.
Anyway, no matter how hard my friends or teachers or anybody tried to change me. did the liberal just couldn't be rubbed out.
Summary: Heritage and example.
MaryMagdaline
(6,856 posts)proglib217
(88 posts)My single parent mother was a devout Democrat and instilled Democratic principles in me. I was raised in the projects in Brooklyn in the '50s and '60s. My friends were white, black, Puerto Rican, Italian, Jewish, Indian and Catholic. I learned to respect and get along with all people, regardless of race, ethnicity, heritage or gender.
While in college I read "Looking Backward" by Edward Bellamy, and it had a profound impact on my thinking. Around the same time I first voted in a presidential election, for George McGovern, who fortified my thinking. Barbara Jordan, who was very special to me and also had a great impact on my thinking, completed my journey. It was Congresswoman Jordan, more than any other individual, who made me, politically, the man I am today.
MaryMagdaline
(6,856 posts)Upbringing