Do as I say, not as I do?

How many times have you found yourself telling someone else to do something that you won’t do yourself? This may be most common in your own family (I’m thinking about parents, here) especially when trying to rein-in the behavior of children who don’t yet understand right and wrong the same way that you do. Imagine a father smoking a cigarette and telling his young teenage son that he shouldn’t smoke.

The son replies, “But you’re smoking right now!”

“That rule doesn’t apply to me,” the father says.

You can probably identify with the kid’s feelings. Rules that don’t apply equally always feel unfair; they just seem wrong, don’t they? When you are raising a smart child, smart enough to ask questions about your behavior as it relates to what you’re telling them to do, you find yourself evaluating rules before you impose them on your kids. Asking yourself, “Would I be willing to do this too?” I would make the bold prediction that you will have fewer arguments over rules if your child can look at your behavior and find an example of the rule being carried out, instead of finding that you have exempted yourself from the rule they are expected to live by.

I hope that most of you are nodding to yourselves right now, thinking that’s the way you believe, too. I learned early to think about the examples my actions or inactions would set for my son, and to try hard to change habits that I didn’t want him to learn. We learn best from watching the actions of the people we look to for leadership and wisdom. Oops, I probably just tipped my hand as to the direction this article is heading.

Above the law?

Did you realize that it has become standard practice for our lawmakers to exclude themselves from the laws they create?

Read that again and think about it. How do you feel, knowing that they are creating laws “for our own good” that will never be applied to them? One of the things that was in the recent “Obama-care” health bill was a provision to exclude Congress from the law. When people objected, it was removed. BUT, it was later re-added quietly just before the bill was passed. How can any law that applies only to citizens other than those who hold the public offices responsible for creating the law be fair and just?

And it isn’t only health care. I’m torn between wanting to find out for myself how many laws have provisions for the lawmakers to opt-out of the law, and a deep dislike for reading and analyzing legalese. I will be looking for these clauses in any bill that Congress deigns to let us read before they vote on it. If I find such a clause, I will be writing and phoning my Representative and Senators and letting them know just how I feel about them telling me what’s good for me but not good enough for them.

Speak out early and speak out often if you think this practice should be stopped. Maybe someday we can turn America back into a nation that We the People will recognize and trust.