I told a lie to a Hillary supporter this week. It wasn't meant to be malicious or mocking. I was trying to promote healing....by lying. It probably isn't the right way to go, but I'm trying to speed up the unity timetable. Here's how it went down.
I teach high school Spanish in a predominantly Republican, wealthy, white suburb. We had parent/teacher conferences this week and I was visited by the parents of a student I've had for two years.
He has an A+, so we dispensed with the formalities rather quickly. It was a slow night, to say the least. We were competing with the first truly warm evening of the year, and we were losing badly. As such, we had some time to chat.
A bit of backstory: Their child, we'll call him Skip, had entered my Spanish 2 class with a terrible reputation earned at the middle school. He earned this reputation by terrorizing the classroom of a very good friend of mine at said middle school for his entire eighth grade year.
Despite his rep, and my definitely negative preconception about him, he had a very successful year in my class. He's a very smart kid, a bit Eddie Haskell-ish at first, but over the two years he's been with me, we have developed a great rapport. I shared all of this with his parents, telling them that he was one of my all time favorite kids (a true statement).
Mom thanked me for my comment and said that she really appreciated the rapport Skip and I have, "despite the fact that you're for Obama and I'm for Hillary." She said this in a very friendly and joking way. I was tempted to ask why (is it the woman thing, the Jewish thing), but instead, I said something like this:
"Well, you know, the important thing is keeping any eye on the big picture. No matter who the nominee is, I will absolutely support her or him." (a completely false statement)
Mom looked quite surprised and looked at me without saying anything for a minute. Then she said, "You know, you're right. Me, too."
I wanted to get back to firm ground (as in, not lying anymore), so I said something like: "You know, it's just been really great to see how engaged and excited the kids are as we've talked about this in the current events unit. I encouraged them to go and see their candidates (Clinton, Obama, Huckabee and McCain were all in town in advance of the primary) because, if that person became the president, it would be a pretty great memory to have."
Now the first part of what I told Mom was a lie; I will not support Hillary if she's the nominee. But, I'm trying to justify having said it because, well, I want to take the intensity down a notch. I wanted her to know that I bear her no ill will, even if we don't agree on who the best candidate is (Obama). I wanted her to be able to have at least one non-nuclear conversation with an Obama supporter, in the hopes that it might make her more amenable to coming over when all this is done.
I know it was a lie, I know it was bad, but, hopefully, my good intentions will keep me out of hell.