Civics Lesson

Conversation with KatyBeth this morning:

KatyBeth: "I don't wanna wear the pink camo shirt this morning, Daddy."

Ambulance Driver: "Okay, why not?"

KB: "Sometimes I get embarassed. Some of my friends make fun of me because I'm raised around guns. They think it's weird."

AD (resisting the urge to tell my daughter those friends are idiots): "You do know that it's our right to have them, don't you? That we have certain God-given rights, and that the Bill of Rights forbids the government from ever infringing upon them?"

KB: "Yeah, but why do you have to have so many?"

AD: "Why do you have to have so many Barbie dolls? You don't need all of them."

KB: "Yeah, but I bought some of them with my allowance! They're mine!"

AD: "Exactly. It's nobody's business – especially the government's – how many guns I have, just like nobody else can tell you how many Barbie dolls you have. Need has nothing to do with it. As long as nobody is getting hurt by it, the government has no right at all to tell you what you can or cannot say, or how many guns you own. And you should never, ever be ashamed of exercising your rights."

**Flash forward fifteen minutes**

KB (grooving to John Mayer's cover of Free Fallin'): "I love this song!"

AD: "It is pretty good. I like the original by Tom Petty better, though."

KB: "Dad, Tom Petty is lame."

AD: "BLASPHEMER! HERETIC! Burn the witch! You must never, EVER disparage the music of your father's youth!"

KB: "John Mayer rules."

AD: "John Mayer drools, and you are forbidden to ever speak ill of any of my favorite musicians ever again, under threat of never again getting chicken nuggets. Do you understand?"

KB: "Why not? As long as I'm not hurting you or Tom Petty, I can say whatever I want, right? I'm just exercising my rights!"

Yeah, I had nothin'.

But when she gets home today, I have a homework assignment for her. She's going to research the phrase, "hoist on your own petard."

 

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