The Respectfully Republican Conversation

Suzfive - yes, this was a chilly morning but it will be in the 70's tomorrow. Sorry to hear you guys have to deal with such cold weather so early in the season.  I like your post above.  Too bad I can't photocopy it and distribute it to my staff.  Some of them are wearing Obama buttons. 

ibc -

let me get this straight:   you get an email that "implies" that Obama has ties to or relations with Farrakhan.   The MSM never talks about it.  So, you conclude that the Obama is secretly an anti-American radical and that the MSM isn't doing it's job.  Does it not occur to you that there is NOTHING other than a random email to follow up on?  The MSM is deeply flawed, and all too quick to parrot the campaign's talking points, but journalists don't waste precious time on what is essentially "spam" emails with zero evidence to back it up.

It is laughable that so many of you are seriously implying that SENATOR Obama secretly wants to destroy America.  It's also sad and pathetic and stupid.

So now we're stupid. 

Shirley - I didn't say you were stupid - unless you believe that Obama is secretly a terrorist with a hidden agenda to destroy America.

If the shoe fits, wear it.

If you disagree with his policies, fair enough.  But to think that he hates America and bent on destroying it, is insanely stupid.

ibc -

I haven't seen Sarah's transcripts, or any of her papers written at any of the 4 or 5 colleges she attended.   What is she hiding?  </snark>

"It is laughable that so many of you are seriously implying that SENATOR Obama secretly wants to destroy America.  It's also sad and pathetic and stupid."

Since you seem to be the only saying that, I'll have to toss it back on you.

oh, oh, oh.....finally something I feel passionate about!  Community Service!  That can mean alot of things and our high schools require the students to do a certain amount of community service hours to graduate.  I think that is great.  Not everyone knows or understands that not everyone has things as well as them.  When I grew up I was taught that if my neighbors didn't feel well I would just grab a rake and clean up their leaves.  It wasn't anything I complained about or fussed over, you just did it.  Alot of kids now don't know what it means to helps someone else let alone themselves.  I think it is good for young people to get out there in the community and provide some service hours.  They don't have to be bad, degrading or gueling.  My daughter picked up one job and the ASSN for the Blind.  She had a couple that she would visit once a week.  They would go through all their mail.  My daughther would open eveything, read it all to them and they told her where to put it, in the save pile, shred pile, trash pile, where ever they wanted it.  Then she would physically write their check and help them put the plate in place so they could sign their checks.  It is something most people take for granted something as simple as looking at the mail but she made time to help these people with this.  If she ever couldn't do it I would step in for her some weeks and take care of it for her.

Alot of people think community service is terrible and hard and its not.  If we don't learn to give back to our community and we don't teach our children to give back then the community eventually falls apart.  Maybe that is why peple don't sit out on portches taking to neightbors anymore????  I miss some of the simple pleasures in life when I was a child.

LuAnnH, 

Your daughter learned values from you, as you learned from your parents.  Volunteering and charity are things that have always been part of the American Life.  It is only in the last years, the generation me and x that have not been taught the pleasure of giving of oneself.  What I have a problem with, if you get compensated, i e tution and such, is that community service, is it charity and giving.  Is it just doing something so you can get something material back in turn.

Having two children who have graduated from college and one a current student - student loans are not free - they have to pay them back with interest! My daughter graduated this past spring from the University of Michigan and the vast majority of her friends (including herself) have put off going to grad school in order to give back doing community service. She and several of her friends are doing Teach for America. She has a few friends who are in the Peace Corps as well as a few who are in the military. While she was in college she tutored children in the inner city of Detroit in reading. My son tutored students in math in Durham while going to college. I think kids in college now are much more involved in community service. 

The idea is not new. There is already a program in place called Americorps - you can join right out of high school or after you graduate from college. A few of my middle dd friends took a year off after high school with this program. You can choose from a variety of volunteer opportunities around the country. After a year you get around 4000 dollars that you can use for college. 

I do not think student loans should be tied to community service. You already have to pay the loan back with interest so it is not free. I am all for programs like Americorps where you can volunteer and get some money for college.  I have always encouraged my children to volunteer - to whom much is given - much is expected.

Also, the $4000 barely covers one semester tuition at a state school - does not include books or room-and-board.

Did you know that if you have the grades and the test scores - if your parents make less than $60,000 a year you can go to many of the top colleges for free? Yep, Harvard and other top schools - if you get accepted its a free ride. No excuse not to study hard.

Quote from Carol Joynt, on NYSD. 10/29....

That's a useful way to describe Washington with just days and hours until the hundred years election comes to an end. At the root of it is a sense that something seismic could be about to happen, but when you talk to long-term Barack Obama loyalists, or many Big D democrats, the public posture is "don't speak it or we might jinx it." You know what they want? For it to be over and with a decisive win that leaves no room for vote count challenges, law suits, or a resolution that needs to come from the Supreme Court.
Nonetheless, the city officials are girding for an election night that could spill out into the streets. They are preparing for three scenarios: one in which John McCain wins and, in a city tilted heavily democratic, there are angry demonstrations a la Rodney King; one in which Barack Obama wins and there are Super Bowl type street celebrations where the exuberance turns to looting and violence; and a third in which the vote upsets both sides due to no plurality or charges of voter fraud. The preparations are quiet, almost off the radar, but underway just the same.

I'm all for high school students performing community service and agree with it being a requriement before graduating from high school for all the reasons mentioned.  This is NOT what Obama is proposing.  Glad to see some understand the difference between chosing to do community service versus govt mandating it as pay back.  . God help us.  

Sad, indeed.  Sad that everything we say is taken out of context.

LuAnn, you've raised your children right.  Helping others is a wonderful thing. Many parents take their children to work with them in homeless shelters feeding the poor.  I think that's probably one of the most eye opening experience a kid can learn from. 

There used to be and I don't know if it's still offered, where if one goes to college to be a teacher and if that person teaches in the public school system for X amount of years one gets their college tuition free. 

LuAnn,

Let's be honest...your kids would have done community service, required or not, because that is part of how you raised them. 

I'm all for kids participating in community service and learning how good it feels to help someone else.  What I don't like about most "required' community service programs is that the participants lose out on the joy that comes with giving freely of yourself, and get bogged down in keeping track of the number of hours put in, and "proving" to the administrators of the program that the requirement has been fulfilled.

Also, $4000 doesn't go very far toward a college education these days.  That's maybe 20% of a year at an out of state public college, or 10% of a year at a private one. 

Chemosabi---first of all your name is cool- i get a chuckle out of it

Now, daffodil was not being racist, she was merely posting what Carol Joynt said.  Is Carol Joynt racist?  I have no idea, I don't have a clue as to who she is.  But the sad fact is, there was rioting in both scenarios she listed.

There was looting in New Orleans too, of course that was because George Bush blew up the levies...........

PEOPLE riot, I did not see one time where Ms. Joynt said "black" or "minority" riots, she said "riots" . So if you automatically ASSUME she is refering to "blacks" or "minorities" then perhaps you are the one who is racist. 

Or perhaps the sad FACT is that videos of these riots show who was doing the rioting!?!

What I don't get is why people are labeled "racist" when reporting the facts as they are. 

 It WOULD be racist to imply rioting might happen if it had NEVER happened in the past, but it did and many people were hurt, even killed. 

It is not MY fault, or DAFFODIL'S fault, or Ms. JOYNTS fault that there were riots after Rodney King, or Super Bowl, or Hurricane Katrina, it is the fault of the RIOTERS!

What I find alarming is that ladies on the other thread make jokes about Tito the Builder.  Tito is not out to round up the Latino votes as they suggested.  Anyone with common sense would know he's telling you his story.  That he immigrated here from Columbia and has made a life for himself.  He owns a small business.  I wonder why they haven't looked into Tito's records.  Tito made a profound statement IMO.  He said, The USA made me.  He is PROUD to be a citizen of this country. 

Listen to why Tito doesn't want Obama and why he came on board and became outspoken.  After the first part of this video he's doing an interview. This is another man, like Joe, who just has GOOD OLE PLAIN common sense.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s3NjmbkJBY8