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| A gay President...interesting topic, what is your opinion?
Posted: 9/3/2009 5:08:15 AM | SaharaM
I have read yr first post like 3 times at different moments...and yes I seem to have misinterpreted your comment.
I am not trying to excuse myself, but I see what caused me to post my angry response...
"good luck in those teenage years"
Since I had felt sarcasm in yr comment, I jumped right there and then because we are in the process of getting out of a season of hell with our 19 years old son that has lasted about 3 years. Trust me when I say so. It has been far beyond the usual teenage horror years. So I reacted incorrectly. It was so bad I cant post it openly here. Fortunately it seems he is on the way out and getting back on track slowly but surely. My son was a good boy, and with all the wrong choices he made he still managed to graduate HS with a 4.0 average. I am happy to see all the things he did have not damaged his ability to learn and he is doing extremely well in the community college until he is ready to go to the big college.
I am sorry for my harsh words and thank if you wished me well.
G. | |
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| A gay President...interesting topic, what is your opinion?
Posted: 9/4/2009 8:31:38 AM | It happens.
I'm glad your son is on the upswing.
I've worked with many, many teens over the years whose parents either abused or neglected them so badly that the teens ended up in the custody of the state. (One family eventually created a house rule that they couldn't own baseball bats because when dad used he would pick up a bat and beat a kid with it.) Unfortunately, treatment like that often produces some very damaged teens who in turn display very dangerous and deviant behavior. So I truely appreciate when I see a parent who is invested and thoughtful about their parenting, as you are. And I'm sure you'll agree that it's nice to think about things like how to answer a kid's question about a gay president instead of how to keep a kid safe.
I want to stress, again, that I think your kids are lucky to have a mother like you. Seriously.
Hang in there. And thanks for the note. | |
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| A gay President...interesting topic, what is your opinion?
Posted: 9/4/2009 5:23:47 PM | SaharaM
I think a very important part of parenting is listening to our children...this is why I like to give my children the best answer I can, so when I feel Im not mastering the subject...then I ask..
Now a bit off topic ( below)
I have tried very hard, but husband never agreed with me on parenting and we were not one united team...this is what cause the big trouble with son...husband was far more permissive and was I permissive with some limits.. Our child got too much of everything and never valued the things and opportunities he was given...he fall real rock bottom last May ( assaulted me and threatened to kill me and ended up in jail).
Luckily seems it was the needed wake up call...he had way too many close calls. I was devastated and felt unfit and a failure parent.
We gave him all kinds of medical care and professional for that matter before he got into the deep...I feel we have been to hell and back...buts God had mercy and he is back on track...slowly but surely.
The real casualty to this has been my marriage....its FUBAR...but I'm trying my very best that our daughter doesn't have to take a wrong detour before being a grown woman.
I know I am a lucky person that my son didn't get killed in the process of learning right from wrong... | |
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| A gay President...interesting topic, what is your opinion?
Posted: 9/5/2009 7:09:29 AM |
We are all equal, the fact that this is even a topic shows me ther're still alot of confused people out there!!!
It's just the nature of the beast. I'm not saying I think it's right for sexual orientation to be an issue in a campaign, but it is an issue in society right now, so of course it would be an issue in a campaign. Unfortunately, it cannot be avoided. Conversations should be encouraged... that is a big part of how all civil rights issues in this country progress. | |
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| A gay President...interesting topic, what is your opinion?
Posted: 9/7/2009 8:47:08 AM | In regard to a gay President the OP states, ''Now there is the role model issue...so...''
How many presidents in the past 100 years have been good role models? With Watergate, Monica, 2 Bushes, corruption & controversy gallore... in actuality, none of these presidents were fit role models.
Mind you, the Canadian prime-ministers likely don't fit the bill of good role models either.
I think that if a president is gay, non-corrupt & in a long-term monogamous relationship, why not? | |
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| A gay President...interesting topic, what is your opinion?
Posted: 9/8/2009 5:38:08 AM |
Lets see...
We have already had various Alcoholics, womanizers, a manic depressive, crooked sociopath, hasbeen narcissist, and a baffoon...and we're worried about a Gay person. Part of the problem is that many still associate homosexuality with mental illness, addiction, and / or negative behavior. 
I think that if a president is gay, non-corrupt & in a long-term monogamous relationship, why not? I sure hope you require that all of your candidates are in "long-term, monogamous relationships." | |
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| A gay President...interesting topic, what is your opinion?
Posted: 9/8/2009 7:01:08 AM |
I think that if a president is gay, non-corrupt & in a long-term monogamous relationship, why not?
I'd agree with this up until the comment about the LT relationship. Why would we ask a gay person in authority to be in an LTR? Would we expect the same of a straight individual? Why are Americans so interested in the sex lives of their presidents?
We should not attach conditions (beyond those obviously necessary) for a presidency. James Buchanan was the 15th President of the US and he was a lifelong bachelor. However, having said that, I'm not convinced that Americans would elect a gay president, no matter how well qualified. That is a scenario that could work quite well in some EU countries or Canada but certainly not in "red" states of the US.
Namaste........ | |
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| A gay President...interesting topic, what is your opinion?
Posted: 9/8/2009 9:26:56 AM | I like Barney Frank , personally, to take one example of a successful openly gay politician. I think he's a good guy; and I loved incidentally how he told that nutcase off at that one 'town hall' meeting.  "Lady, having further discussion with you would be like arguing with my dining room table." What we could actually use President Obama to have a BIT more of vis-a-vis his detractors, IMHO.... a little bit more of that perhaps 'gay' pizzazz (for lack of better word) and attitude , along with some more (as the Jewish say) 'chutzpah' (which Frank aptly demonstrated both of on that particular occasion I think). 
I'm an Obama fan personally and I'm with him on most issues, but for me he's a bit dry and overly professorial at times and , I don't know, I'm sure it's just me and I am coming from an admittedly hotter-headed Italian viewpoint, but he seems to just lay down like a doormat or simply show very little to no response at all when people go after him in such pathetically low ways (caricatures of him as Hitler, questioning his place of birth, saying online that his mother was a prostitute, and so on).... | |
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wudger
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Joined: 12/20/2007
Msg: 86 | |
| A gay President...interesting topic, what is your opinion?
Posted: 9/8/2009 10:56:12 AM |
that his mother was a prostitute
and as far as presidents of the last hundred years.
Teddy Roosevelt - a boy with a broken body who grew to be a rip snorting man, war hero, policeman, great president, started the national parks, spoke six languages, authored countless books, etc.
FDR - a polio victim who managed to rise above his handicaps and become a great president who guided his country through a series of disasters, started the March of Dimes, started the first rehab center for paraplegics, etc.
Truman - a simple haberdasher who became a president who against all better bets tamed the military, integrated the army, fought against long odds to win re-election.
Eisenhower - a simple farm boy who led us to victory in the ETO, became president, kept the country safe through the post war period.
just to name a few. they weren't perfect, but they led remarkable lives. | |
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| A gay President...interesting topic, what is your opinion?
Posted: 9/8/2009 12:35:32 PM | | actually the united states may already have had one over one hundred years ago when the good people elected james buchanan....history has always wandered why he was the only bachelor president and many historians think today that he may have been gay | |
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| A gay President...interesting topic, what is your opinion?
Posted: 9/9/2009 5:15:43 AM | ''I sure hope you require that all of your candidates are in "long-term, monogamous relationships." ''
I presumed that since all past Presidents were married that it was a prerequisit to being elected? I might be wrong, of course, being Canadian I never dwelved into this aspect of American politics. Is it a prerequisit? | |
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| A gay President...interesting topic, what is your opinion?
Posted: 9/9/2009 8:02:43 AM | Is it a prerequisit?
^^^ Actually no, I don't believe it is. I just think that, given the prevailing trend towards generally conservative, middle-class values, it makes the would-be president eminently more 'electable' if he is seen as a few things: A) devotedly & happily married (or else at least somberly widowed and now chaste....like Joe Biden), & preferably with kids, B) accomplished & probably at least somewhat 'well-to-do', and C) religious at least to an extent (in some demographics they want it to be to a great extent, in others ...not so much).
This last was why Obama's religion (or lack thereof) mattered so much during the campaigning. It was dwelt on for a time that he was attending a south side (Chicago area) black Christian church where the pastor had made inflammatory remarks during sermons and was a friend of the Obamas for instance. It was also brought up (is still being brought up in certain circles here) that his father was raised Muslim in Kenya (Obama's paternal grandparents were both converts to Islam), and that Barack himself had been partially raised by a Muslim man in Indonesia (albeit a not very religious Muslim man).
So you can imagine how difficult it would be for an umarried, never married, childless (and let's add in for good measure openly non-religious) man to run successfully for Prez in this country. Much less openly gay! Like Rome during the Republican era (even throughout most of the Imperial era), this country prides itself on having the most solid virtuous leaders and senators and such, people whose personal values fit well with the prevailing religious beliefs (in this country tends to be Christianity obviously), the social mores, etc. Even if many of them are hypocrites, or worse (as of course was the case with Rome), this is how they have to be 'viewed' in order to be elected (and keep) these high offices. | |
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