QUESTIONS AND ANSWERS, RIGHT OR WRONG

image via slideplayer.com

The wrong questions and answers still get the right words.

All parents have heard questions from their kids that made them think they’ve both gone over the topic before.

And they probably have, but that’s no excuse for ignoring any question from a kid. They want answers and you’re the answer man, the answer woman, the answer LGBTQ.

However you identify yourself, when your kid asks, you answer. Why?

Because not answering gives them an answer, which they take to someone else.

This is where parenting gets complicated. It’s not just kids asking questions that need answers, it’s where they’ll find the answers good enough to satisfy their curiosity.

In a time not so long ago that everyone living then is dead now, kids asked questions to teachers, clergy, policemen, and their parents.

They got answers ranging from, “go away kid, you’re bothering me,” to, “such a good question from such a little fellow,” to a straight answer that seemed too simple to believe.

Being helpful, or at least not being the lamest of the lame, was a goal for questions and answers.

Fast forward from those golden days of yore to 2016 where Baby Boomers have heard it all at least once.

If being sixty feels like a throwback to the 60’s and the Cultural Revolution you heard about, it just means you’re paying attention.

Maybe you’re a little older and lived in the midst of the rising youth, campus unrest, and National Guard action like Kent State that left people dead in the street.

Listen to the same questions and answers today.

The biggest generation in America shifted from Boomers to Millennials. Is it a shock to think the once biggest generation in history produced the current biggest generation in American history?

A lot of people got together and made a lot more people. The math is easy, what is missing is not so easy.

Now, when you see a large gathering and notice older people, they are probably Boomers.

Some are bitter Boomers full of blame for lives that didn’t pan out the way advertised.

Somewhere between then and now Baby Boomer history got lost.

What happened to, “come on people now, smile on your brother, everybody come together try to love one another right now?”

The Fifties ended with President Eisenhower warning about the Military Industrial Complex.

Click the link for the former Supreme Allied Commander of WWII’s warning. This one lasts two minutes. Full length follows after.

The Sixties started with President Kennedy looking like the new kid on the block after Grandpa Ike stood down.

He knew about going against the grain and it seemed like America needed his message. Then he went quiet and so did the ideals he outlined during his short time.

The elders we see today, like Republican Vice Presidential choice Mike Pence, 57, heard the same things we all heard. He grew up a Catholic Democrat like Kennedy.

He’s a college boy who went to law school. If he’s smart enough to graduate from institutions of higher learning, and professional schools, where does this come from:

From the Mike Pence wiki page:

Theory of evolution

When asked if he believes in evolution, Pence answered “I believe with all my heart that God created the heavens and the earth, the seas and all that’s in them. How he did that I’ll ask him about some day.”

And:

Sex education

In 2002, Pence criticized a speech by then-Secretary of State Colin Powell where Powell stated that it was “important for young people… to protect themselves from the possibility of acquiring any sexually transmitted disease” through the use of condoms. Pence called Powell’s comments a “sad day”, and expressed his support for abstinence education. Pence asserted that “condoms are a very, very poor protection against sexually transmitted diseases” and that Powell was “maybe inadvertently misleading millions of young people and endangering lives”

How are we supposed to treat people different than us? Maybe a man like Mike Pence isn’t so different?

Compare him to Colin Powell who was recently quoted on the use of personal email.

This is the former General, former Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, former Secretary of State, the man chosen to report on yellow cake uranium, and the man who investigated the My Lai massacre in Vietnam.

He carried the burden of the jobs he’s had and soldiered on. The questions and answers he’s given don’t always pan out, but he’s been brave enough to own them.

If anyone needs to ask about leadership, Colin Powell is a good start.

Check this election year’s crop of candidates against this:

13 Rules of Leadership

First printed in the August 13, 1989 issue of Parade magazine, these are Colin Powell’s 13 Rules of Leadership.

1. It ain’t as bad as you think.
2. Get mad, then get over it.
3. Avoid having your ego so close to your position that when your position falls, your ego goes with it.
4. It can be done.
5. Be careful what you choose. You may get it.
6. Don’t let adverse facts stand in the way of a good decision.
7. You can’t make someone else’s choices.
8. Check small things.
9. Share credit.
10. Remain calm. Be kind.
11. Have a vision.
12. Don’t take counsel of your fears or naysayers.
13. Perpetual optimism is a force multiplier.