5 Life Lessons My 12 Year Olds Know That Kanye West Has Yet To Learn

If it's not yours, don't touch it! My kids learned this while still in diapers. Their aptitude for continuous learning of this value never ceases to amaze me, while I'm regularly amazed at how little general respect those all around us actually have. From the disrespectful words spoken to them on the school playground to the ideas of disrespect they are ambushed by while watching television, the solid foundation of their upbringing provides them with a shield against such negativity...I pause to pat myself on the back ;) Even when faced with disrespect from their peers, their inner voice guides them to the most diplomatic responses their young minds are capable of.

This is what I teach my kids. They know the concept of respect.

Again, if it's not yours, don't touch it! This shouldn't be a difficult concept to grasp. Don't jump up on stage, grab something, anything, out of someone's, anyone's, hands. Just don't do it, Kanye! Where is your brain, Kanye? Why didn't your parent/s teach you this, Kanye?

http://todayscountrymusicvideos.blogspot.com/2009/09/video-of-kanye-west-interrupting-taylor.html

Hello, Kanye. Hello. I'm the conscience you live without, Kanye. The little voice that we all have and that you, unfortunately, were not given by the wonderful upbringing you claim to have had. It's not just me, Kanye, who despises your existence, lacking of all that is virtuous and dignified and gracious. There are tens of thousands of us, Kanye, who see you for what you are behind the easy screen of hip hop success.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KQNsnlj6aW0

Kanye, you're a douche bag. Filled already with the bloody poisonous fluid of excessive false importance. A little boy pretending to be a man. Your lack of self-control reminds me of the lack of self-control my 18 month old girl child showed when she wet herself, although my infant daughter retained an 18 month old sense of dignity. And yet you have not even that.

Your self control is nil, West, it's nil. My 12 year olds have known for years to keep their hands to themselves. And they watch much music, and they see you succeed, knowing in their hearts that you are the anti of everything they are taught. They watch your videos and look to me, their saviour, their teacher of priorities and civil behaviour, for the concise interpretation of your ridiculous statements and arrogant lack of tact.

You are ridiculous, Kanye, and you deserve to be ridiculed.

Integrity is something some say you're born with. And most would agree, that integrity is best realized when it is shown. And integrity is best shown when it's highlighted by those moments of instantly required diplomacy that you can't rehearse.

Those moments that are the 'fly by the seat of your pants' moments. Undefined, and completely improvised. Absolutely one of a kind and integrally character defining. Kanye West has proven to the world that he is unable to conduct himself in an integrally adult-like manner in these moments. Whether he is incapable or unwilling to live and let live isn't the issue. The issue is that his childish temper is allowed to exploit itself to the detriment of his fellow man and woman in the view of the world, time and again.

I believe integrity is something you're taught through life, disappointment and personal gumption to overcome adversity, and my 12 year olds were taught this, and they continue to demonstrate their integrity throughout every adverse moment they're faced with.

My 12 year olds know humility. They know it. They feel it. In every second that passes them by. They feel for their fellow man, woman and child. I've made sure they do. And they do. They are aware of how great they have it, they live their lives in light of it and they each in their own way display it.

They are aware of everything around them, everything positive and negative, they feel it all. If I've done my job, they will live out the entirety of their lives with the gift of being able to put themselves in someone else's shoes, and they will act accordingly. They will grow mentally and emotionally wider and fuller during the everyday happenings and once in a lifetime moments that await them. Kayne West, you neither exhibit nor retain any of this human feeling. If you did, you'd not behave so pompously, so arrogantly, so distinctly inhumane.

http://www.contactmusic.com/new/xmlfeed.nsf/story/cocky-west-i-should-be-in-the-bible_09_02_2006

Really, Kanye? Are you that important? I'm the first to profess that I'm not well versed in the 'bible' you are speaking of, but that is by choice. As a non-practicing agnostic, I grew up in a religiously lax and generally protestant household but in spite of it have chosen to be inquisitive about as many religions as I find reason to be. And you, Kanye West, have no tangible or even thread thin right to be considered part of ANY religious following.

http://www.thefreedictionary.com/religion

'Religion - Belief in and a reverence for...' Laughable your beliefs would seem to be, Mr. West and as far as reverence goes, you revere nothing but your own delusional sense of worth to the world held hostage by your images and nonsensical, irrelevant ramblings.

If ever my 12 year old children were to come to me and pout, I would chuckle. And I have! Chuckle I have at their momentary lapses of reason. It's my obligation. It's my job to show them that what they are crying about is so not worth crying about. Their blanketed beds in their warm, lighted rooms filled on occasion with the crumbs of their after dinner snacks are not places of punishment when they are 'grounded' or sent to when they need some 'quiet time' but rather they are places of solitude that provide them with the platform for deep thought.

And they come to appreciate the world they know. Through this, they appreciate what they have and they appreciate the work they'll have to do for what they want to have. Mr. West, I don't see your appreciation. None of a like mind see your appreciation for what you have. Your public displays of immature expectance of our (and I use the term 'our' to describe the quantity of decent humanity that I'm pleased to share the air I breath with) acknowledgement leaves a lingering, bad taste in my mouth.

Appreciation is sometimes all it takes to invoke change, love they neighbour or pass the torch to the next humble bearer. I truly hope, Kanye, for the sake of mankind's compassion that yours is a quickly extinguished point of light in a world of bright spots and dark shadows already struggling to be at peace with one another.

Dear Kanye West, you said it best, when you did attest...

'Let’s have a toast for the douche bags!
Let’s have a toast for the assholes!
Let’s have a toast for the scumbags
Every one of them that I know
Let’s have a toast for the jerkoffs'...

* Lyrics from Runaway, by Kanye West