"Ditch Mitch": When Will We Have Substance?

The Capitol. Kinsey Hein, 2013.

I live in Kentucky. I have voted in Kentucky elections for the last six years. I vote for candidates based on what they are bringing to the office for which they are running, how they have run their campaigns, and whether or not I believe that they have the best interest of the country at heart. I do not vote for a candidate just because they represent a certain party.

I am not a fan of Senator Mitch McConnell, one of Kentucky's senators. No, it's not because he's a Republican and I'm a Democrat and so of course I should hate him. It's because I don't agree with things he's supported (or loudly not supported) during his tenure in Washington. He has voted for war in Iraq, the Keystone Pipeline project, and a tax break for himself; all issues I see as despicable. He has voted against gun regulation, campaign finance reform, the Violence Against Women Act, affordable health care; all issues with which I have a very personal relationship and believe are necessary for the good of our country.

Mitch McConnell is up for reelection in November 2014. The assumed Democratic candidate running for US Senate is Alison Grimes, the current Secretary of State of Kentucky. She took the office only 19 months ago, so when her name started coming up, I paid attention. I wanted to see what experience she's gotten during her stint as our Secretary of State, seeing as she was a local intellectual property lawyer before she was elected. I've listened to a few of her speeches and I agree with her more than I agree with McConnell on a number of political issues.

I am, however, disappointed by the campaign Grimes is running. Slogans like "Ditch Mitch" and "Team Switch" are all over local television and newspapers. Grimes's bid for the Senate is polling well simply because she's saying that she is not Mitch McConnell. I don't want to vote for someone because they aren't "the other guy;" I want to vote for someone.

I expressed my frustration to my husband about the fact that Kentucky's best hope of a Democratic US Senator is using grade school insults to persuade voters to vote for her. He listened for a minute, and then said, "She has a campaign team that is using polling data that shows what works to get a win."

"Ditch Mitch" works? "Team Switch" will win Grimes the election? If these absurd sayings work, I think we have a lot more to worry about than which candidate won the election. If someone who has only 19 months of public service experience can win a seat at the national level on elementary school level quips and not on her resume or voting record (because she doesn't have a voting record), what does that say about us as a society?

Sure, it might simply mean that more people voted against McConnell than for him.

But what else could Grimes's winning demonstrate? That we don't care who takes a seat in the US Senate as long as it's not "the other guy"? That we are perfectly fine not only supporting, but rewarding the playground insults (that we wouldn't allow our children to say) our elected government officials are using during their "elevated discourse"?

I'm tired. I'm tired of this divisiveness that we insist on clinging to like a lifeline. I'm tired of the die-hards out there who refuse to see the other side of every issue just because of who brought the issues up. I'm tired of the name calling. I'm tired of the holier-than-thous out there who think that people who don't agree with them just aren't smart enough to understand. I'm tired of the staunch patriots on both sides who think anyone on the other side of the aisle is a complete jerk. I can't be the only who's tired of all of this!

When we heard about the tragedy at Sandy Hook, who didn't hug their kids a little tighter that night? I can tell you it wasn't just Democrats who did.

When the death of Osama bin Laden was announced, who didn't feel a little tiny sense of relief knowing that he had finally been brought to justice? I can tell you it wasn't just Republicans who did.

Whenever we hear about kids who have bad schools or people without food or young moms who get laid off, who doesn't feel for them? We all do.

We all have common goals. We all have the same things we care about more than anything else in the world. Shake off that grade school sense of "I've gotta call this guy a bad name to make myself look better." Move on from that childish yearning for victory, just so you can say you've won, even if you haven't earned it. Become that person, that leader, who is willing to question his own opinion to give the other side a chance to be heard. Become a leader and, for the good of your country, reach across the aisle and shake the hand of someone who, deep down, is just like you.

"Be the change you wish to see in the world." --Gandhi

Sources:
McConnell's voting record
2014 KY Senate Polling Statistics
KY Secretary of State Legislative Initiatives

Teachers: Is Your Personal Life Really Yours?

Sarah Jones, teacher and cheerleader.

Yesterday's abysmal court ruling that gave the BenGal dancer/teacher Sarah Jones only 5 years probation after she had sex with a student made me think about what teachers are allowed to do outside of school. I thought about it and came to a couple conclusions:
1. I would have felt incredibly uncomfortable if I had a teacher in high school who was a cheerleader/dancer on the nights and weekends. I would have felt like she was a role model for me; someone put there by the school board to show me a good example of an adult. There definitely would have been a huge influence on my dressing and actions if I had known she was a dancer, because I would see showing 90% of my body and shaking my boobs and butt to thousands of people both at home and on national television as an acceptable thing to do. "If my teacher can do it, why can't I?" would have been a pretty logical leap for a teenage mind.
2. If I had a child who had a cheerleader/dancer as a teacher, I would be very upset. If I ever have a child, male or female, who has a teacher who moonlights as a slutty dancer in clothing the size of a postage stamp, I would question the school board's decision of hiring her.

In Kentucky, according to KRS 161.164, teachers are not allowed to be part of political campaigns because they don't want the teachers using their authoritative positions to influence students. I spent two hours this morning looking for where the KRS laws mention stripping or dancing while being a teacher and they don't exist, as far as I've found. So, the state doesn't want teachers influencing their students (most of whom cannot vote) politically, but it's fine to influence the students' (most of whom in middle and high school are starting to experiment with sex) sexual behavior . I really disagree with this.

I looked at three Kentucky county teacher contracts this morning: Jefferson, Boone, and Kenton. In all of them, there was some version of this sentence: "The private life of a teacher is not the concern of the School Board unless it affect's the teachers responsibility as set forth in KRS 161.120." In Section 1, Part c of this statute, it says, "Committing any act that constitutes...immoral conduct." Who decides "immoral"? I think dancing/cheering in extraordinarily revealing clothing on weekends is immoral. But obviously, the Board doesn't agree with that, because Sarah Jones was a teacher while she was a cheerleader.

Teachers have long been regarded as pillars of the community. I am a third generation teacher in my family and in my immediate family alone, there are 5 teachers. I see education and teaching as the noblest of professions because there would be no leaders, no engineers, no doctors, no lawyers, nothing, without teachers. It is my opinion that we need to restore the integrity to the teaching profession. Just like a politician's life is not their own (see Bill Clinton or anyone else who has done something in their personal life and gotten destroyed for it), neither is a teacher's life. When you enter the teaching profession, you become a role model for thousands of students. You are teaching the next generation about values, about academia, about social relations, and everything else. Overall, teachers see students more than parents do during the school year. I absolutely do not feel comfortable entrusting my children to people who sell their bodies on weekends (yes, nothing physical is happening, but you're baring your body to the world for entertainment). I don't care if it's "dancing" and some people consider it "athletic" and "not sexual" as I know some of you will respond. It is highly inappropriate for our students to be exposed to that mentality in a public school.

For the record, for those of you who know me and remember that I was a ballroom dancer for a few years and wore incredibly revealing costumes, I would not continue that sport as a teacher. I think that, too, is excessively revealing and too sexual to participate in publicly in competitions on my weekends as a teacher. I know that this is an amazingly conservative view, but the reason I have this opinion is that our children are exposed to so much sexual media all the time outside of school that I feel like school should be one place that is safe from that. Girls especially are so influenced by sex, "being sexy," and working to "look good." School should be a place for academia and not sex or having sex-related distractions, such as an entire class knowing their teacher bares (almost) all every weekend in front of a 50,000 person stadium.

Kids are impressionable. Let's work on giving them good impressions.

"Be the change you wish to see in the world." --Gandhi