Along the journey my daughters have taken as the Presidential Selfie Girls, where they have listened to and taken a selfie with each Presidential Candidate, (Save Jim Webb and perhaps Joe Biden) they have learned some important life lessons from each of the candidates.
As an example, I took them to see Jeb! Bush at a local town hall event. At one point they heard him explain his philosophy with regard to the other Republican candidates.
“Look,” Bush said. “Just because I don’t agree with them doesn’t make them a bad person.”
It was a quick, unrehearsed and off-the-cuff response to a question from the audience.
But I recognized it as the life lesson that it really was.
“Did you hear what Jeb! said?” I asked the girls in the car on the ride home. “About people not being bad for holding different opinions? You need to remember that bit of advice for the rest of your life. While you might disagree with someone, they are entitled to their opinions and it doesn’t make them a bad person. Just as you are not a bad person for sticking to your beliefs.”
Later in their selfie challenge, the girls were invited to attend a Housing Summit in New Hampshire where Gov. Mike Huckabee was going to speak. He was the last Republican candidate they needed to get for their selfie challenge
Neither girl was too excited about meeting Huckabee. Although they had attended some of his political events in 2008 (where they got to meet Chuck Norris and taste clam chowder for the first time) all they recently knew of Huckabee was his current involvement in the Kentucky clerk Kim Davis situation.
The girls disagreed with the Davis situation for several reasons. The Supreme court had legalized gay marriage so they felt it was wrong for anyone to deny gay couples a marriage license.
Kim Davis had run for and had been elected to her clerk position and in denying marriage licenses to gays, she was not doing the job she had been elected to and agreed to take.
In my Northeastern, growing up on Glee, and “some of my friends are gay” daughters’ minds, Kim Davis was wrong, which of course meant that Mike Huckabee was wrong. Big-time wrong.
“Uggh” was the word uttered when we arrived at the event.
The girls were ushered into the Green room where they got to meet with Mike Huckabee and his staff. The Governor warmly shook their hands and then spent the next 20 minutes asking them questions and telling jokes. Huckabee’s jokes were brightly timed and funny and the girls found themselves genuinely laughing and feeling comfortable around him.
Huckabee’s actually really funny – tweeted Addy.
After a while, the girls were taken to the Holding room, where again Mike Huckabee came by and joked with them. While there, he was asked by a member of the New Hampshire Institute of Politics to answer a question on video about his philosophy with regard to working with both parties in order to get things done. His answer was thoughtful and logical. And it made complete sense.
Before the girls were put on stage, Huckabee joined Ayla Brown and played Bass guitar with her band while she sang a rocking tune. Add another point for coolness.
“Wow, he’s a really nice guy” said Emma. “I wasn’t expecting that.”
And that, right there is one of the many, many benefits that have come out of taking our daughters to so many political events for the last few months.
You don’t know someone until you meet and listen to them.
And more importantly, just because you don’t agree with someone doesn’t make them a bad person.
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Wendy Thomas writes about the lessons learned while raising children and chickens in New Hampshire. Contact her at [email protected]
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