I just spent 1.5 hours educating a young lady about everything

[Skidmore]

under the sun. I'm exhausted. A girl who had never heard of PNAC, didn't know about the history of the US keeping the ME destabilized, Rumsfeld and Saddam, Watergate and its tentacles, or Iran-Contra and Negroponte....

She does now. She also learned a bit about the women's movement and the civil rights movement. And she learned about MLKs unfinished work. Her eyes got wider and wider. And I told her, "Go and read more."

[corkhead]

1. how do you keep them from looking at you like you are some kind of

tin foil hat conspiracy nut? All this shit is beyond belief.

you didn't even mention 3 consecutive stolen national elections

[Mme. Defarge]

6. I know.

It's a challenge, isn't it? Whenver I do try to talk about what's going on with someone who doesn't have a clue, I realize I must sound like a paranoid, hysterical nut case.

[Skidmore]

8. You tell them how hard won those rights were for workers and women and

minorities, and then you tell them about the greed, blind ambition, huge sense of entitlement, and belligerent elitism and authoritarianims that would lead to wiping it out in a few pen strokes. You get them to visualize a world in which these rights do not exist, and tell them what you remember of a world before those rights existed.

This young lady did not know that birth control pills were relatively new and that once could only be prescribed to married women. Don't assume they know. Teach them.

[TomInTib]

2. Better stay away from underage girls.....

How old is she- 12?

[Skidmore]

9. Barely 20... and it's okay

because I'm at the age to be considered mom-like.

[TomInTib]

14. Good for you to take the time. Makes you wonder what type of

environment she was brought up in.

I am constantly blown away by how little current events are discussed at home.

Most cab drivers are more up on current events than the majority of people I deal with in business.

[serryjw]

20. Isn't that the truth

But then again they are foreigners that hate Bushit

[niyad]

3. kudos to you for having the patience to do this. I hope she does go and

read, and read, and read--and see how little she was actually taught in school, etc.

[proud2BlibKansan]

4. Good for you

:yourock:

[MadMaddie]

5. Skidmore....Good Job...

It is hard work to educate the American people. When they do get on the right track they can't get enough...

If each one of us can do this....

Get some rest....You have done well!!:yourock:

[ayeshahaqqiqa]

7. Wow

Hope you weren't a schoolteacher doing that in class. I heard of a Bloomington teacher who lost her job simply because she told her class she honked in support of some peace protestors.

[Skidmore]

10. Not a teacher, but I played one today.

[fooj]

18. Thanks for helping to educate her.

I teach high school kids and they are THIRSTY for knowledge. They have such a wonderful ability to look at things in a clear, matter-of-fact way.

Peace.

[Tulum_Moon]

11. There is no school today

How did you fit all that into an hour and a half?
Good for you! People need to know about this stuff!

[Burried News]

12. Take the country back one mind at a time.

[DURHAM D]

13. If you accomplished that sort of education in so little time

maybe you should produce a primer for all of us. When I talk to young people they are interested for a while and then they glaze over because it is too much information.

I'm not kidding - I can never figure out how much detail to go into and what points to hit on exactly without sounding like I am paranoid. Part of the problem is that I don't know where to begin and what to include that will resonate with them because my life/political experiences are so different.

Congrats to you - we have to pull in the younger generation one person at a time. God knows they are not going to learn the responsibilities of citizenship in school.

[Tulum_Moon]

15. Great Idea!

Just think if we could all do this just a few times? There may be hope for us yet!

[Skidmore]

16. You've got to get them to consider this in terms of how these

changes are affecting their lives. We talked about how the path we are set on now can affect her as a woman and how not only her children, but her grandchildren, will be sorting this mess out. That we have a chance to put the brakes on. We talked about the people making the decisions now and the types of skullduggery they were involved in previously. We read the PNAC letter and looked at their website and talked about war and the suffering it causes. How those who exercise power are, more often than not, divorced from misery war brings while profitting from it. We talked about the erosion of jobs and the concurrent stripping of the educational system and the thrusting of religion in to the educational system. We talked about separating church and state and that each had it's own job to do.

[Wordie]

17. Great job, Skidmore! I'm so glad you seized the opportunity to help this

young woman.

:applause:

[Generic Brad]

19. It Does Make A Difference

Back in the late 1980's an older guy I worked with did the same thing for me in regards to Iran-Contra, Sandinistas, etc. It changed the way I view things forever.

[Xenotime]

21. You have helped rebuild America...

good work

[johnaries]

22. Great job! Hopefully she'll go tell her friends,

and then they'll tell their friends, and they'll tell their friends...

In the end, that's exactly what we have got to do.

[notadmblnd]

23. good on you, keep it up

I did the same thing last Thursday at my mothers cardiologists office with a group of about 5 women. Two were active participants in asking questions, others just listened. The men in the office were hiding around the corner but I know they heard me. But the best part was when one of the women that was listening got up to leave.. she said "I applaud you, I thought I was the only one that felt that way" I assured her that she was not alone.