Soapbox

OK so tonight I have two items on my soapbox. I've had one of these on my mind since yesterday and one since this afternoon after I read an interesting article.

Soapbox #1:

Yesterday while Aaron and I were watching the Red Raiders punish the Kansas Jayhawks (GO RED RAIDERS!!) there was a commercial for a new game or version of a game called NFL Blitz. It basically started out talking about while most people on Sunday mornings were in church NFL players are getting ready to go to war. First of all, an NFL game is not life or death and certainly in NOT war no matter what some people may thing. The rest of the commercial basically went on to compare the NFL to church/religion. I was so pissed off by the end of the commercial I could hardly see straight. I even voiced to Aaron, who loves video games, how much that commercial angered me. He agreed that it crossed a few lines that it shouldn't have. As the day went on, I couldn't quit thinking about that commercial. I'm about to say something that will really alienate those that really love watching football on Sunday, but think about what I'm saying before you get too angry. Maybe if they cancelled football on Sunday afternoon and had the NFL players go to church, the NFL's nickname wouldn't be the National Felons League. I have MAJOR issues with someone thinking that the NFL is a religion and that the players need to be worshipped. The sad thing is that there are a lot of people who do just that. We even have a store in our mall completely dedicated to the Dallas Cowboys. I thought when I moved here it would be out of business soon. I was wrong. It's been almost 4 years that I've been here and that store is still open. We need to think about the type of role models that our kids have. Do we want our children's role models to be people who play a game and feel they are above the law? I hope not!! I sure hope Michael can find better role models than a sports star and it's my job as a mother to make sure that happens.

Soapbox #2:

I read an article today in my mother's Women's Day magazine that she gave me about kids and voting. The article stated that as Americans it's not only important that we get out and vote but that we instill in our kids how important voting is. The article metioned even taking your kids with you when you vote so that they know how important it is to you. They went on to say that the reason that so many of my generation don't vote is because their parents never instilled in them the importance of voting. Dr. Dyer, our preacher, found it important enough this morning to mention during his sermon. He even went on to say that if you don't vote you don't have the right to gripe over the next four years about how our country is being ran. (I loved that!!) Our Sunday School lesson even talked about leaders and the importance of them. My parents did an amazing job with me and telling/showing me how important it is to vote. I can remember being so excited that I got to vote when I was 18 in a Presidential election. (For those wondering, it was 1996 and the Clinton/Dole election.) I can even remember them taking me to vote with them in 1984. I'm surprised now looking back that I didn't get kicked out of the polling place for telling my parents over and over to vote for Reagan. I never thought as a mother of the importance of this. Michael will be going with me to the polls to vote this year mainly because I don't have anyone to watch him when I go. I never thought of taking him at 4 and explaining to him the importance of voicing your opinion even if it's the unpopular opinion. The important thing is that you vote and you teach your children about their right to vote (really duty, in my opinion) and the importance of voting. Thanks Mom and Dad for teaching me the importance of voting!! Hopefully Aaron and I can do as good a job with Michael.

Thanks for reading my soapbox!! I don't do this very often on our blog, but felt these were two things that people needed to know/read about!!