I know it was just a small sampling of kids, but it sure was refreshing.

I just got back from a youth retreat with about 50 kids, mostly 16 and 17 year old youth. I drove the church van which holds 12 people. It was a 2 hour drive to the retreat camp. I  listened to the conversations going on around me during the drive.  Most of it was high school chatter about relationships, music and movies and things, but I was surprised and amazed at some other conversations. Politics! I am in northern VA near DC. I am surrounded by liberals. My county went very blue last election. Not only that, but I am Methodist, and a lot of Methodist churches tend to have a lot of liberals in them. At least around here.  When conversations went to politics they were remarkably conservative!

I could barely believe my ears to hear a 16 year old girl who said "like" every 4 or 5 words to say, "way to go Obama(with sarcasm), we are trillions in debt and you want to give money out to other countries and do nothing for Americans. Oh, except health care, which we cant afford your plan and the government will screw up anyway."

Then I heard at least 7 kids talk about going shooting. One girl was talking to another girl about shooting skeet and the other girl said she had never shot a shotgun before. The girl who had shot skeet said they can kick and I could not help but interject and say you have to hold it tight into your shoulder.

Then there just was the trip in general.  We broke the group into several smaller groups yesterday and did various small mission projects. I took 11 youth,  6 girls and 5 boys, to a house for mentally handicapped men. Only 3 of the 5 men who live there were there, 2 had down syndrome and I'm not sure what was wrong with the third, but he was barely communicative.

Usually I see kids in a situation like this need an adult to set the pace. NOPE! Wrong! They took off. Into the house we went. They engaged in conversation with the men who could talk. They were attentive. They were kind. We all played games, sung songs, went for a long walk, went shopping, had a Bible lesson. All the while the kids were sure to make the handicapped men the center of everything. The men had a great time, and so did the kids.  I was told by the caretaker, that the man who was not able to communicate usually goes to his room when people came over, but he was out the whole time. Not only was he out the whole time, but during the singing, he had a huge smile on his face, and one time even started dancing a little bit. The caretaker said she had never seen him so active.

It was truly a blessing to see so many kids, still in high school, with a firm grasp on what it was to be kind, caring, outreaching and compassionate, and on top of it, have a lot of conservative thoughts feelings and values.

What an awesome trip.

OUTSTANDING!!

Good to hear of it, BTW, I know many Methodists, all of them are very Conservative Thinking.

I will never disparage todays kids. (I am only 30, so maybe I qualify).  It is easy to say this and that about how it used to be, but my grandfather was a physician in WWII and told me when I was younger that the same fears were raised of America's youth headed into WW2.  He said to take with a grain of salt the lamentations of my elders about my generation.  He passed away in 1993, and was shown to be correct ten years later when my generation answered the call and performed in a fashion that upheld the greatest of American military tradition.

Every generation has it's losers.  Despite them, the United States stands alone in history.  

I am sick and tired of all the whining about the good old days.  Life has always been hard and has never been better than it is now for humankind.  I will continue to do everything I can to ensure my daughter lives in a better world, and I believe she will.  It will take more than a few Obamas and losers to stifle the American dream.  If it was that easy to defeat the American spirit, we would still be British.

+1

That just helped to make my day. Thank you.

When they turn 18, you should take them on a voter registration retreat.

mine too.

Reminds me of a comic strip I saw once. Showed a bus or train or something full of people all with the same thought-bubble - "Look at all these sheep, none of them have any idea what's really going on. All they care about is American Idol and not one could find Iraq on a map" or something like that.

Remember when we were kids? Far more of our classmates had political opinions than our elders would have believed. Granted, most of my peers were idiots, but they were concerned about Nicaragua, El Salvador, Iran, etc.

I don't know what my sons classmates think about Obama, I just know that my sons think he's a buffoon and for some reason actually have far more respect for Bush than I do* - they got that on their own at 11 & 14. It could be just that even kids that age can see through the "blame Bush" BS, or something else. As long as they don't turn libtard on me, I guess it's ok.



* Not wanting to start a shitstorm or anything, but he wasn't exactly Reagan... Or even his father.

Very cool, I have a large smile.

great story mjohn!  let's hope  there is an emerging pattern here - a grand awakening!  

Inspiring. Truly inspiring. Thank you for sharing!
(send it to chicken soup for the ..... soul!!!)

Sweet, their waking up more and more everyday.

Awesome!

Now you need to take them to the range...

Conservative is the new liberal.  We are the counter culture now so it's cool to be anti-Obama.  

Lots of WIN.

It did not sound that way. She was actually spelling out logic or lack thereof of spending tons of money unwisely when we are so far in debt.

there's ALOT of people who are conservative out there.. Im 22 and I've seen WAY more people my age acting responsible, mature and using critical thinking to solve their problems. There are a few dumbass liberals, but the majority I've seen are in the baby boomer age range.

Bumping again because it is a nice change from the gloom and doom.

One last bump.

Interesting that threads about chili go 10 pages, and this sort of stuff dies off quickly.  I admit, I am guilty of it too. So I'm not pointing fingers because I have to point at myself as well, but it is interesting.

Kudos to you! Well done sir, well done!

Not to pop your bubble but it's a horrible group for sampling (it would be like sampling ARFCOM)





Odds are the kids are parroting their parent's beliefs.
 

um. I am in a liberal area in a fairly liberal church. I mentioned that. Very true that their parents may be conservative and they could be parroting back. But sampling ARFCOM would be obviously conservative. Sampling these kids is not. In fact it is sampling in the more liberal grouping. So how would it be like sampling ARFCOM?

Also, even here in ARFCOM we have people complaining that some of their kids have liberal views, even being raised by ARFCOMers.

I'd say the opposite, alot of kids who grow up in liberal households are tired of the trash. Overall if you ask a kids opinion on what they think about a certain subject they will have an overall conservative outlook.

The generation today is much more conservative than the generation that grew up in the 60's-70's