Take a stand and Shut your mouth.

History will have to record that the greatest tragedy of this period of social transition was not the strident clamor of the bad people, but the appalling silence of the good people. ~Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. (Brainy Quotes.com)

Have you ever been in a situation where you hear a child say something that you KNOW they did not decide on their own.  Something that had been instilled in them by friends or family?  Now when it is a good thing that they child says, fine (like Jesus loves me), but when a child is spouting hate, that burns me up!

I have raised my children to not ever discriminate against someone because of their color, economic status, odor, abilities or different abilities.  I have only told them, if they are nice to you, be nice to them, if no one will play with them you should be the first.  I cannot understand why parents would want to create hate in their child.  For that matter I cannot understand why people in this day and age hate someone (or whole races) just because of their color, sexual orientation, religion or any one of the myriad of reasons people hate.

One of my children came home from school one day and told me that the President (Barack Obama) shouldn’t be president.  When I asked him why he said well (I won’t name the child’s name) said that because he was African he shouldn’t be our president.   I was flabbergasted.  We don’t have a large population of other colors/religions/ethnicities in my community.  I think the last time I remember it was 1% Black, 1% Hispanic and the rest are white.  But I explained to my child that our president is an American, therefore he should be the president.  I also told him not to repeat things that he hears other children say because that is not how we live.  My husband is Hispanic, so I used the  scenario of how would you like it if someone was mean to daddy because he wasn’t white.  My son said he would be mad.  I said well, if a child that is a different color heard someone say that about them, what do you think they would feel?

I also told my son and daughter that when they hear something being said that doesn’t sound like what I’ve taught them, they should stand up and say that it is wrong.  Tell someone.  I can only hope that they will always do that.