{"id":5311,"date":"2015-10-08T06:09:38","date_gmt":"2015-10-08T10:09:38","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/intramuralist.com\/?p=5311"},"modified":"2015-10-08T06:11:35","modified_gmt":"2015-10-08T10:11:35","slug":"ap-gov","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/intramuralist.com\/?p=5311","title":{"rendered":"AP GOV"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><a href=\"https:\/\/intramuralist.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/10\/chalkboard_by_lorelinde-d8u2l4g.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignright size-large wp-image-5313\" src=\"https:\/\/intramuralist.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/10\/chalkboard_by_lorelinde-d8u2l4g-1024x768.jpg\" alt=\"chalkboard_by_lorelinde-d8u2l4g\" width=\"654\" height=\"491\" \/><\/a>My mother has long talked to me about the blank chalkboards in each of our lives. Here it is&#8230; behind us&#8230; blank&#8230; just waiting to be written upon. Time for new markings \u2014 sometimes with a little dust leftover from the eraser \u2014 but new markings, nonetheless. The beautiful time to write is now.<\/p>\n<p>My older son no doubt felt that empowering chalkboard behind him when he left for year one in college last fall; he was well aware and excited for the unique opportunity ahead of him.<\/p>\n<p>My middle son is currently sensing the chalkboard\u00a0 \u2014 at least politically; he&#8217;s enrolled in AP Government.<\/p>\n<p>Let me first diffuse a bit of my facetious facade&#8230; JT&#8217;s class selection certainly pales in comparison to his older brother&#8217;s whole new set up and surroundings. Relevant, however, to our Intramuralist postings, my middle son is learning all about government and politics; he&#8217;s seeing the big picture \u2014 and all the little nuances \u2014 all, comprehensively, for the first time. Note: it will not be me who does the writing upon his beautiful, blank chalkboard.<\/p>\n<p>He observes.<br \/>\nHe processes.<br \/>\nHe asks questions and more questions \u2014 and then comes to his own conclusions\u2026<\/p>\n<p><em>Is democracy the wisest form of government?<\/em><\/p>\n<p><em>Do people realize that a democratic republic is different than pure democracy?<\/em><\/p>\n<p><em>Why would someone consistently support spending more money than they take in?<\/em><\/p>\n<p><em>What lives do we protect and what lives don&#8217;t we? Why the difference?<\/em><\/p>\n<p><em>How is it that politicians can promise free college without a way to pay for it?<\/em><\/p>\n<p><em>Where is the limit to taxation?<\/em><\/p>\n<p><em>How can a person claim to be tolerant but then be intolerant of the one who thinks different than they do?<\/em><\/p>\n<p><em>Why do these guys stay in office so long? Why are there not term limits?<\/em><\/p>\n<p><em>What is despotism?<\/em><\/p>\n<p><em>How involved should government be in creating social policy?<\/em><\/p>\n<p><em>How did Christianity influence our Constitution? What was our founders&#8217; desire?<\/em><\/p>\n<p><em>What\u2019s the definition of the separation of Church and State? Does it really exist?<\/em><\/p>\n<p><em>How do people misconstrue the Constitution?<\/em><\/p>\n<p><em>Is that Executive Order legal? Do presidents know they can&#8217;t legislate? Does the Supreme Court know they can\u2019t legislate?<\/em><\/p>\n<p><em>Do people realize the foolishness in politicizing EVERYTHING?<\/em><\/p>\n<p>AND\u2026<\/p>\n<p><em>Is there anything else we should be declaring our independence from?<\/em><\/p>\n<p>I&#8217;m thankful this day my son isn&#8217;t quite ready to claim full independence from me&#8230; although it&#8217;s not my job to do all the writing on his chalkboard.<\/p>\n<p>The beauty is that the younger generation gets to fill it in on their own. We get the privilege of watching them grow.<\/p>\n<p>Respectfully&#8230;<br \/>\nAR<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>My mother has long talked to me about the blank chalkboards in each of our lives. Here it is&#8230; behind us&#8230; blank&#8230; just waiting to be written upon. Time for new markings \u2014 sometimes with a little dust leftover from the eraser \u2014 but new markings, nonetheless. The beautiful time to write is now. My &hellip; <\/p>\n<p class=\"link-more\"><a href=\"https:\/\/intramuralist.com\/?p=5311\" class=\"more-link\">Continue reading<span class=\"screen-reader-text\"> &#8220;AP GOV&#8221;<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[10],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-5311","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-daily-life"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/intramuralist.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5311","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/intramuralist.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/intramuralist.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/intramuralist.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/intramuralist.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=5311"}],"version-history":[{"count":11,"href":"https:\/\/intramuralist.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5311\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":5324,"href":"https:\/\/intramuralist.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5311\/revisions\/5324"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/intramuralist.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=5311"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/intramuralist.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=5311"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/intramuralist.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=5311"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}