Good morning!
This is the weekly DKos Asheville open thread that Randall and I try to deliver every Saturday morning. We hope this group serves to reinvigorate us locally and regionally here on Daily Kos, building on the sense of community that's grown through our online engagement. DKos Asheville can give us all a better sense of connection, a better understanding of who these people are that we stand with, work with, and share with in the political process. We hope, through this community, that we can do a better job of leveraging our orange passion for progressive politics to help elect more and better Democrats.
If you would like to host a weekly open thread, please let us know.
We have a tentative date of July 20 for the next meetup. So, use the comment section to begin planning. I'm hoping I'll remember to bring a hat this time; or at least not spend so much time in direct sun.
Our legislature outdid itself once again this week. On Wednesday, pat of butter in a sea of grits wrote about the latest, perhaps saddest, legislation our representatives have brought forth.
The North Carolina House Committee on Health and Human Services passed a bill that would prevent teenagers from receiving counseling or treatment for sexually transmitted infections unless they have notarized consent from a parent.
This legislation is perhaps a great example of the difference between progressives and conservatives. Progressives tend toward a world view that looks at the community as a whole, while conservatives tend toward a world view that is focused first on themselves as individuals separate and apart from the world around them.
In this example, progressives can easily think of situations in which a requirement for notarized consent from a parent would not be a good idea. Conservatives on the other hand view the issue from the perspective of what they personally prefer, and not what might not work for others; and their preference is that their children do not get counseling or treatment for sexually transmitted infections unless they first know about it. They can not see past their own personal desires for control, they can not see how, or perhaps do not care how, other family situations might be different. And they can not consider a situation in which their own child might be too afraid to tell them of a mistake which resulted in an infection; and they can not see, or refuse to see, the consequences of a child with an infection who does not get treatment.
It is understandable, in the great flow of events, that some parents raise their children in a manner similar to how they themselves were raised. And it is understandable that some parents have received a perhaps less than adequate education, an education that perhaps would have availed them of a broader view (and here, education does not necessarily mean formal schooling). But while it may be understandable that some parents have these views about how they choose to raise their children, it is not ok that they impose these views as laws on the rest of us.
But this self-centered world view is indicative of political conservatism as a whole. And I think it is perhaps our work to make available to our neighbors, co-workers and fellow citizens a different way to view the communities in which we live.
Enjoy your Saturday!