LESSONS FROM THE CAMPAIGN TRAIL____
Published On 11-03-2008 , 12:50 AM
MY daughter who lives in Inglewood got into a tiff with her neighbor over a Proposition 8 yard sign.
Another of my offspring dropped a guy she'd been dating once she found out who his choice was for replacing President George Bush.
My kid, who thought the West Hollywood house with a Halloween decoration of a Sarah Palin image hanging from a rope was something to laugh about, had to be set straight.
"But I thought you didn't like Palin," was the response from the younger kid, who got a long lecture from me.
"Let's get this straight," I warned, "Just because I don't support the Alaska governor's political views, campaign rhetoric or her ability to handle what she ought to know as a vice-presidential candidate, doesn't for one minute mean I don't like the woman.
"My viewpoint doesn't mean," I said to Brandi, "that I think the scene at the house in West Hollywood is acceptable."
"Well," stammered Brandi, as she knew what she was going to hear from me next. She knew what was coming because my lectures tend to follow the same format.
This one she knew had the makings of "Do Unto Others" because it's such a regular in our house getting played every time there's a student bully story turned deadly on the evening news.
"No," admitted Brandi, she wouldn't find it funny if an image of Obama, her choice for president, were to be found hanging from a rope.
But, alas, as life would have it a woman in Redondo Beach thought it clever to hang an Obama by his necktie. "That's messed up," said my kid, who initially thought it was OK for Palin to hang in West Hollywood.
The Inglewood daughter let the tenant in the front house know if he wanted to keep his "Yes on 8" sign on the front lawn, she would have to add a sign in opposition.
"What?" argued the tenant who proclaimed the entire lawn area was what he had rented and she was only entitled to lay claim to the back yard since that's where her living quarters were.
"He can be narrow-minded and think he can regulate the lifestyle of others, but not on my rent receipt," she declared.
After having the property owner tell the front house tenant who had what rights, Inglewood daughter marched herself to the No on Proposition 8 office, got a sign and lined it up right next to the "yes" one.
While the date was dropped for his views on who should be the next president, time has healed a few wounds, or as the daughter put it, time helped the guy see the light. Maybe since he's now for Obama she should have said he now sees the "dark."
Inglewood says she had no idea how passionate she was about tolerance until she arrived home that evening after work to see she was being portrayed as having someone else's viewpoint.
Brandi's looking at Palin a little differently now. She's even acknowledged - got it straight from me - that the governor does look much better in her designer duds then she did with the Sears and Kmart wardrobe. This commentary doesn't include our discussion on who should have paid for the governor's shopping spree.
There's been a heap of lessons learned from this 2008 political campaign. Those mentioned here barely scratch the surface of my family's continuous conversations on the state of the union.
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