WebParenTips - The Online Parenting Newsletter vol.4 no.11, Nov, 2003 

                           LOTS TO BE THANKFUL FOR

I read the newspapers. I know that there are lots of parents out there who are
unemployed and worried sick about money. I know there are many of you who
have relatives in the military fighting and dying in foreign lands. I know the
specter of future terrorism haunts us all. I know that parents worry about their
children's schooling and what is happening to the environment their children
live in.

Yet at this Thanksgiving season we all have a good deal to be thankful for.
It worked! Our Founding Fathers created a land of democracy free from the
tyranny under which they had lived. We can vote, we have a free press, we
have freedom of expression and thought, we have separation of church and
state, we have civil liberties.

Sure we still have problems. Nobody said that democracy was easy. Freedom
and our kind of government comes with a huge load of responsibility. In many
respects it's easier when a tyrant tells you what to do, you don't have to think
about it. In a democracy we have to do a lot of thinking, both in the voting booth
and in how we conduct ourselves. Yup, we have the freedom to listen to the
music we like, but we also have the responsibility to turn down the volume at night.

As parents living in a land of freedom, we have some important tasks. We must
see that our children are well educated so they will become informed citizens
who can vote with thoughtful intelligence, not just for the guy (or gal) with the
most TV spots. We should take our kids with us when we vote so they can see
how a good citizen acts in a democracy. We should talk to our children expressing
both our gratitude for living in a land of freedom and how seriously we take our
responsibilities to preserve those freedoms for everyone. We should show our
children how we keep informed, how we discuss political issues, and how we
attempt to change, AT THE BALLOT BOX not with violence, what we feel needs
changing.

Be thankful for the blessings of freedom!

Happy Thanksgiving!


Happy Parenting,
Marilyn Heins, M.D.


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Dr. Marilyn Heins is a Tucson pediatrician, parenting
columnist for the Arizona Daily Star, author of the book,
ParenTips, as well as a mother, stepmother and grandmother.

She is available for workshops and lectures to groups of
parents, teachers, and grandparents. Dr. Heins' Lectures
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