The Children

 This second round of restrictions has raised a concern, that no one seems to be talking about.  There is some talk of middle and high schools going to remote learning, while keeping the elementary schools open.  The middle schoolers and high schoolers are already indoctrinated!  

Think back on our own years in school.  The most information, be it education or indoctrination, is gained in elementary school.  Middle school or as we Boomers called it, Jr. High, was basically just building on our elementary education and steering us toward, at that time, college.  High school was simply preparatory years for college.  The indoctrination was strong with a catchy phrase of programming to encourage college.  "Work smarter not harder!"  So, if you were smart, you aimed for college.  And that's what most of us working mothers taught Generation X who taught it to the Millennials.

That phrase has caused generations of damage and created a class division in our society.  By the time the Boomers became part of the establishment, both men and women were in the workforce, so children spent even more time being indoctrinated, not only through daycare and extracurricular activities but by the example set by their parents . . .we, the Boomers.  Without a doubt, women have always worked, but somewhere between the Greatest generation and the Boomers, with smaller families andmodern conveniences came boredom, materialism, dissatisfaction, and feminism.  

It had come to the point, that many appear to believe it is truly more prestigious to be degreed than employed.  So many jobs are simply beneath so many until times get desperate.  In the programming and indoctrination came the rise of tuition costs and the promotion of student loan debt.  With student loan debt, the governmnent already has indentured servants.  Yet I digress . . .

Many American children are growing up in single parent homes or with both parents working.  Then there are the multigenerational arrangements gaining in numbers as well, with all the adults working.  The point being, children spend very little time outside of the social programming.  Even when they are home of an evening, in most homes there is television with plenty of advertisements.  Remember, when it comes to television, "there is a reason, it's called programming."   

 Now, here is the bottom line.  The destruction of the family has been the aim of the enemy for years.  Certainly, America's political system should have revealed to all of us by now, that blame doesn't actually fix anything!  This entire culture can spend energy blaming the previous generations or we can spend that same energy protecting the children.  Here is the foundation beneath the bottom line. Nurturing and raising children is a woman's highest purpose. 

At risk of sounding like a conspiracy theorist, if I had elementary-aged children, I'd be homeschooling.  There wasn't a great deal of warning and no one asked permission to lock the nursing homes down.   

Acceptance

 It seems social distancing actually began with television, then technology, which has brought us to personal telephones  I remember the early days of call waiting, when a phone conversation is interrupted with an incoming call, only to have the individual return after several moments to tell me, "they forgot about me."  At first it was difficult to hang up and just let them call me back when their Joe Biden moment passes, because it was my mother.   After all these years she still does it, but if I call and she's already on the phone, I get voice mail . . .  Perhaps I should take it personally.  Nah, there are far more offensive things taking place, all around us.

If I had a dollar for every time an in-person conversation was interrupted to answer a call or respond to a text, I'd be one wealthy woman.   It has absolutely amazed me, the number of times, I am mid-sentence, only to see the other person looking down at their screen or even tapping the keypad.  So, some social distancing has just replaced the rudeness that already existed in the culture of America.  The social distancing began long before CV-19.

I've been out to lunch with individuals who answer their phone and proceed to have a conversation.  A conversation!  So far, I've not been sitting at a table with anyone who has received an emergency call.  That I would understand.  These calls pertain to plans of another time, or simply just chitchat.  I'm sitting across the table wondering what I should do.  If the conversation continues too long, I begin to wonder why I even thought this was a good idea, to begin with.  

Now that most of our society is addicted to phones, we are all social distancing.  With the introduction of tracer and tracker apps, I've posted to social media that I do not want SMART phones in my home.  A couple of individuals have respected my wishes, and now that I think about it, that's all the company I've had.  Perhaps my statement on social media seemed too harsh.  I figure if someone must have their phone on them at all times, then they can just call.  

Remember the outrage and reaction to the news that the phones would have tracking and tracer apps?  Many folks vowed to stop carrying their phones.  Then, of course, youtube videos surfaced explaining and demonstrating how to turn the apps off.  Do you think anyone is still leaving their phone at home or checking to see if the apps have been reinstalled?  Now, new phones are being promoted with cost-saving upgrades, which causes me to wonder if the tracking technology may already be hardwired into the new phones.

It simply doesn't take long for people to just accept the "new normal" and forget what we would "never do" and "never allow."  It does seem everyone is still angry and upset, but the subject and the targets have changed . . . again!

For our "safety" GPS was built into phones.  There seems to be an APP for everything now.  How long will it be before tracking and tracing are automatic in every phone, and accepted?