There is a difference between Democrats and Republicans. The current presidential campaign and the U.S. Senate campaign in South Carolina clearly illustrate the opposing philosophies.

I’ll mention one: tolerance.

Democrats believe tolerance is accepting all or most behaviors and religious beliefs and philosophies as being equal.

On the other hand, Republicans believe that some ideas are superior and that tolerance is basically a willingness to listen and extend courtesy to others who do not share our views. This, of course, is my observation and opinion.

When one considers our children, superior behaviors should be given more weight. For example, the U.S. Senate candidates in the first debate differed on the matter of teachers who were openly homosexual. Inez Tenenbaum said it was un-American to ban these teachers, and Jim DeMint said he would not allow them to teach.

Furthermore, DeMint was criticized when he said it was inappropriate for unmarried pregnant teachers to be in the classroom.

I was alarmed but not surprised when the superintendent of education said openly that homosexual teachers should be allowed to teach our children. Hello, is anybody home at Fort Rutledge?

Children model behavior. Children also have a way of attaining the levels of expectations that their parents and teachers clearly delineate for them. The Family Research Council, founded by James Dobson, says that homosexuals proselytize. That, at least, means that we can expect homosexual teachers to put a favorable slant on homosexual behavior.

Tenenbaum and most Democrats are OK with that notion. Most parents in South Carolina and the United States disagree with that idea.

The same is true with regard to unmarried pregnant teachers. How does a sex ed teacher tell children not to have sex until they are married (as required by S.C. law) when the teacher is pregnant and unmarried?

Teachers are held to a higher standard in South Carolina for the aforementioned reasons. Their clientele is not longshoreman or truck drivers. They are influencing the minds of our children on a minute-by-minute basis.

What is more important: the sexual freedom of adults, or the safety and well being of children?

Most South Carolinians agree that what one does in private is his or her business, minors excluded.

Yet what one does in private may become public depending on the egregiousness of the behavior. Rotten behavior will often show up even to casual observers as the behaviors manifest themselves in observable emotional and physical ways.

We don’t want the questionable lifestyles of our teachers to show up in the behavior of our children.

Sen. Fair is a Greenville Republican.