You take your teen’s phone away because you were told they used it to bully online. They squawk about their right to free speech. You say “sorry...them’s the rules”. They mutter something about you not stopping child porn... but you take away their ability to speak... You wince a bit because, well, that just doesn’t make a lot of sense, but you’ve heard that argument recently, and it seemed to make sense in a different context, so you let it slide. Agitated and without much thought you lift your hand and say “you’re free to speak to the hand” and you walk to the another room to have a seat.
You’re a little shook up because right before this unpleasant exchange with your teen you Googled “Libertarianism” because you thought you’d start a profile on a different social media platform and the creator is Libertarian. And you discover that libertarians don’t see age of consent the way you do. And you started wondering how they’d crack down on anything else harmful if they don’t take a stand on age of consent. And that comment about not stopping child porn still really bothers you...because, well, you don’t want to rethink age of consent in order to justify that argument you had against big tech. Your mind drifts... you actually wanted the party that’s against big government to override the states’ electoral vote. And now you want the government to regulate big tech...so a bully can continue to ...well, bully..in the name of free speech. You tell yourself your child is no bully...as you hold their phone in your hand, and you know why you took it.
In the corner of your eye you see a Blue Lives Matter magnet on the fridge the exact moment the news covers the officer killed in the capitol riot. For a quick second you mutter “all lives matter” then you gasp and look around to see if anyone heard your slip. You ponder that maybe his life didn’t seem to matter to those rioters or protesters or whatever..but you stop that thought...not because it’s wrong to think, but because it seems to challenge other thoughts running concurrently through your mind.
You finally sit down to collect your thoughts. You remember seeing images of police in riot gear during other protests and you wonder how it could be this easy to....and you don’t finish that thought. You look down at your hands once more and check your teen’s phone .. and you see a link to an article of a black man arrested for praying at the capitol several years ago. You skim through the article. Yes, you notice he’s black, but you tell yourself it doesn’t matter, well, he matters, cuz all lives.. never mind... you’re getting silly minded, you tell yourself .. And for the life of you you can’t convince yourself of anything at the moment. You’re rattled. Shaken. You console yourself with a good thought...like, well, “I wish that black man good things. We’re better than that” you tell yourself. “I hope it turned out well for him”, you tell yourself.
Your teen notices you are shaken. You hold up the phone and ask, “what’s this on your phone” more as a diversion than a serious question. “That’s the majority” is the answer. “The ...what? The majority to what?” Clearly your child got the words mixed up. You click the link and look again. Then... it sinks in. That’s the newly elected senator from Georgia, giving the senate edge to the other party. He was the one arrested for praying at the capitol a few years back. You’re both confused and a little angry. It’s a lot to process. But the only thought you can think of now is...what was that man praying for at the capitol? And you wondered if your God would dare answer his prayer.
