“For The Children” – Overused and Abused Manipulation
When I was a kid, we did all sorts of things that today, would have others looking at you as if you were some sort of child abuser or child molestor. Things that today are considered downright dangerous. I mean we rode bikes, on the city streets, with no helmets. We roller skated on those same city streets without helmets, knee pads, elbow pads – and survived. We ran and played games that required tagging, shoving, pushing – and survived. Sometimes group games involved skill and if you didn’t have the skill no one wanted you on the team. OK that sucked, but hey, that’s life sometimes. But we survived and learned other skills. We would pool our pennies to buy 1 bottle of Coke and share it with each other – and didn’t get sick. The same bottle – no straws. We drank water directly from public fountains or garden hoses – and didn’t get ill. We also got into fights with each other – and no one got sued. There were no seat belts in cars and baby car seats hadn’t even been thought of – and we survived.
Somehow we managed to do all these things and remain intact and healthy. And I mean healthy physically, mentally and emotionally. We got exercise, so eating wasn’t an issue; we learned lessons about team playing, accepting rejection, taking risks. Listening to todays so called professionals………….we should have all been maimed, injured, killed or somehow mentally/emotionally damaged for life.
When I was a kid, it was common for family and friends to greet each other with a hug and kiss. Today, any adult doing that to a child is looked upon with suspicion. Hell in some schools kids hugging each other is looked upon as inappropriate, and I’m talking about 2 girls greeting each other. Can’t imagine what they think about all the jocks patting each other on the butt.
Our parents explained about not talking to strangers and not letting strangers touch us inappropriately. It wasn’t unusual for a strange adult to go over to a child that had just fallen off their bike to see if they were ok. If they were really little and the parent wasn’t nearby, it was ok for an adult to help that child. Today that good samaritan would be labeled a criminal for doing that.
Growing up, when your parents spoke you jumped first then asked “how high”. You didn’t think about talking back unless you didn’t want to sit for a couple of days. We were taught right and wrong, appropriate manners in all situations, and respect for each other and other people’s property.
Somehow innocent acts are suddenly offensive, perverted, and considered criminal in some cases. Somehow disciplining a child is suddenly child abuse. And setting boundaries and telling a kid “no”? Don’t even think of that today. And then you wonder what’s wrong with kids today.
I’m glad my son is an adult now and I don’t have to live with all the bullshit regulations that parents have to tolerate now. Fortunately for me these things were just starting to get out of control as my son was growing up so I didn’t have to tolerate too much government interference in my parenting.
To give you an idea how whacked out of control things are today, I give you two different stories about the latest emotional blackmail of “for the children”. While they are different, they are actually connected, and also connect out to everything else that is going on today. This is what happens when you allow government busy-bodies to dictate your every thought and action. This is what happens when you give up your right to raise your child with your values.
The first article from NewsWithViews is quite interesting and enlightening. I’m thinking we need a sequel to the Stepford Wives, called “The Stepford Children” (desperately trying to keep visions of Hitler’s Youth movement out of my head).
IN THE BEST INTEREST OF THE CHILD
By Betty Freauf
April 30, 2008
When we first began to hear the phrase “In the Best Interest of the Child” we thought it was a noble concept that protected the vulnerable children by removing them from abusive or negligent parents; yet it also has led to levels of intervention unimaginable a few decades ago and suddenly many people were being accused of child abuse. Child Protective Services (CPS), because of something a child may have said to a teacher or written in an essay, which may even have been misconstrued, was kidnapping children at schools.
Because of draconian actions by the child protectors, many felt they were overstepping their boundaries, so the Oregon legislature passed legislation creating a Citizen Review Board, which was to become watchdogs over social workers who were determining who were unsuitable parents. I volunteered in the mid-1980s to become an unpaid member. A number of boards were set up in each county.
Our Constitution gave government no jurisdiction over family life and I felt constitutionally it was the county sheriff’s duty to investigate the crime of abuse because he was the “elected” official and the public could hold him responsible. I contacted our local sheriff and he was more than happy to take responsibility but this never happened. Instead, the social workers would contact the sheriff, or the local city police, and they would accompany the social workers to a home to supervise arrests of often times innocent people and take traumatized, screaming children to be “interrogated” and then to some “licensed” foster care home where it was not unusual for the child to be abused again. Bleeding-heart liberals who believed everything the media printed about this so-called epidemic felt the children would be safe in foster care because they were “licensed.”
“Licensing” by Big Brother, whether it is for day care, foster care, restaurants, entertainment centers, for any and all professionals, somehow gives the impression of safety and trust. Was the sheriff intimidated by the “experts” or did he not recognize his Constitutional authority even though he took an oath to defend it? His proper position should have been, “NOT IN MY COUNTY!!” Once again we saw the hand of the Communist infiltration in America. Goal #38 of the Communist Takeover of America is: Transfer some of the powers of arrest from the police to social agencies and treat all behavioral problems as psychiatric disorders which no one but psychiatrists can understand (or treat).
Across America, thousands of families have been ripped apart by child protection bureaucracies who terminate parents’ rights on a whim. Soviet Communist party educators in 1918 were instructed at a conference to take the children and nationalize them.
American children became nationalized on September 30, 1971 with the Comprehensive Child Development Programs, which I touched upon in June 2003 – one of the first articles I wrote for NewsWithViews. The legal training manual for the Department of Human Resources said social workers must be trained to accept “state values” regarding “our children.” Day care centers began to replace the parents, as “unemployed” mothers were encouraged to seek gainful employment outside the home. Our CPS operates under the Oregon’s Department of Human Resources that was created in 1973.
Read the FULL STORY here.
The next story is about what happens when there is zero tolerance for anything, including innocent mistakes because you don’t watch television commercials. What this man, his son, his family went through is disgusting because there is NO room for error in this “for the children” mantra. Of course that presumes that human beings are perfect and never ever make a mistake. *rolling eyes here*
But What About the Children?
Christopher Ratte, professor in the department of classics at the University of Michigan, was recently turned into a jailbird and had his son taken away from him, all in the name of protecting the child from the father. He had taken his 7-year-old son to a baseball game in Detroit and ordered him lemonade. What was served up was a “Mike’s Hard Lemonade,” which his son prepared to drink. Suddenly security arrived.
“You know this is an alcoholic beverage?” the security guard asked.
“You have got to be kidding,” responded the professor. And before the professor could examine the bottle, the guard snatched it away, and the boy was taken to the hospital where no traces of alcohol were found in him. The boy was then promptly put in foster care. It was two days before the mother, a professor of architecture, was allowed to take him home, and a full week before the father was allowed to come back into the home again.
The case provides a remarkable look at the workings of bureaucracy. The Detroit Free Press interviewed all the people involved. It turns out that no one was happy about what happened, but the gears of the bureaucracy ground away, ruining peoples’ lives for no good reason.
The cop on duty thought it was a mistake, but his supervisor was insisting that he act. When Child Protective Services came to take the child away into their cruel foster care, the police objected. But CPS was just doing its duty. It had no choice but to take the child since the police had requested a court order – also triggered by events – to remove the child. Observers who know the system say that the only surprising aspect to this case is that child was returned so quickly. Had the couple been poor, uneducated, and unconnected, the case might still be tied up in the courts.
The lesson many people draw from this is that social workers are being given too much authority, that governments need to be reformed so that they do not take extreme measures too hastily, that cops need to use good sense before busting up families, etc. The problem is that all of these reforms ultimately depend on the state to use its discretionary power judiciously.
Read the FULL STORY here.
I’m all for protecting children from harm……but this is getting out of hand. What ever happened to parents actually parenting? What ever happened to common sense? How is it that the real abusers and molestors are never caught in time, but innocent parents are nailed on a regular basis?
And what about this “No Child Left Behind” nonsense?
No Child Left Behind Act
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
President Bush signing the bipartisan No Child Left Behind Act at Hamilton H.S. in Hamilton, Ohio.
The No Child Left Behind Act of 2001 (Public Law 107-110), often abbreviated in print as NCLB, is a controversial United States federal law (Act of Congress) that reauthorized a number of federal programs aiming to improve the performance of U.S. primary and secondary schools by increasing the standards of accountability for states, school districts, and schools, as well as providing parents more flexibility in choosing which schools their children will attend. Additionally, it promoted an increased focus on reading and re-authorized the Elementary and Secondary Education Act of 1965 (ESEA). The Act was passed in the House of Representatives on May 23, 2001[1], United States Senate on June 14, 2001[2] and signed into law on January 8, 2002.
NCLB is the latest federal legislation (another was Goals 2000) which enacts the theories of standards-based education reform, formerly known as outcome-based education, which is based on the belief that high expectations and setting of goals will result in success for all students. The Act requires states to develop assessments in basic skills to be given to all students in certain grades, if those states are to receive federal funding for schools. NCLB does not assert a national achievement standard; standards are set by each individual state in order to comply with the Tenth Amendment to the United States Constitution, which specifies that powers not granted to the federal government or forbidden to state governments are reserved powers of the individual states. The Act also requires that the schools distribute the name, home phone number and address of every student enrolled to military recruiters, unless the student (or the student’s parent) specifically opts out.[3]
Read that last sentence again!
The Act also requires that the schools distribute the name, home phone number and address of every student enrolled to military recruiters, unless the student (or the student’s parent) specifically opts out.[3]
I didn’t know about that part. Do they tell the parents that?
Seems to me this program is just turning schools into free childcare and telling kids they don’t have to try or work to move on and get somewhere.
When I was a kid, you went to school and learned the lessons taught, did homework. You did the work and moved on. If you didn’t do it, you were held back. I fail to see how expecting children to know how to read and write and do math at their grade level before moving on is somehow damaging to them. Granted, some kids learn slower or have a harder time. My sister struggled with that, and yet she still managed to maintain grade level knowledge to move on to the next grade.
Can you imagine the shock these kids face when they enter college or the real world and find they actually have to prove themselves to get anywhere? No wonder so many kids today actually expect to be paid for just showing up.
Does NCLB work? I personally don’t think so.
Does No Child Left Behind Make the Grade?
Thursday, March 27, 2008
Humor me and try to answer these questions:
1. The Colombia River was explored by(a) Lewis and Clark
(b) Coronado and Columbus
(c) Ponce de Leon
(d) Vespucci
2. The capital of Kentucky is(a) Lexington
(b) Louisville
(c) Frankfort
(d) Knoxville3. The first 10 amendments to the United States Constitution are called the
(a) Declaration of Independence
(b) Mayflower Compact
(c) Bill or Rights
(d) Emancipation Proclamation4. What is the largest South American Country
(a) Columbia
(b) Brazil
(c) ArgentinaScratching your head for the answers? Not as easy as you think? I’ll clue you in: 1) a 2) c 3) c 4) b
But these questions don’t come from a high level IQ exam, they are basic questions that an average 5th grader should know.
You may also remember, “Columbus sailed the ocean blue, in 1492.” Back in the day, teachers engrained this saying into our brains. However, Common Core, a group that recently commissioned a survey, discovered that one in four American teenagers who were asked basic history and literature questions in a phone survey thought that Columbus sailed to the New World some time after 1750, not in 1492.
Read the FULL STORY here.
One size does NOT fit all – it never did, it never will!! Our children are being dumbed down and indoctrinated. It’s why more and more parents are sending their children to private schools or home schooling them.
It’s time to take back “For The Children” from all the nosy-body, do-gooder, governement type control freaks who think they are better parents than the parents of these children! The future of our country depends on it!!!!
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WHAT IS GOING ON? 
I have just stumbled across your blog and I found it fascinating! I read the page from top to bottom and was impressed by your ability to say so much 🙂 about the disaster that is happening in your country. Perhaps you do not realise it but here in NZ the exact same thing is happening. Our children are no longer ours to raise, we are not even allowed to discipline them, the schools don’t teach – merely babysit, and the bureaucrats determine what we should eat and do.
Your interpretation of the two stooges actions is, in my view, spot on. Anything less than a World War will not satisfy the military industrial complex that Eisenhower warned about when he was President. People with common sense seem to have fled the Governments of the world, and now the sheeple are being led to their demise by the morons (perhaps that is unkind to the genuine morons).
Keep up the good work, and I hope you do not end up being detained although I will not be holding my breath. You are now on my must read list.
wellbeing said this on May 1, 2008 at 10:31 pm |
Hi wellbeing, Thanks for stopping by! Glad you enjoyed your visit and I welcome your return.
It is mind boggling that so few people see, or are willing to admit, how things are going. I realize this is happening worldwide, and that is because the power elite of pushing us, rapidly now, towards a global community. Now I have nothing against all us humans caring for and about each other, we are all connected. What I don’t like is that we are being forced to conform to a set of ideals that a few want and will control. The rest of us, will just be peon slaves to them. I find that unacceptable. I despise the idea of someone else making my decisions for me.
Yes, it won’t surprise me if I’m labeled a ‘domestic terrorist’ at some point for speaking my mind against my government. I still hold out hope, little as it is, that this “socialistic” ideal can be squashed.
I look forward to hearing from you again, please feel free to comment on anything. We don’t always have to agree with others, we just need to respect their right to their own opinions. That’s what I try to practice.
swfreedomlover said this on May 2, 2008 at 7:25 am |
Hi freedom lover,
For a number of years I have said that we might as well have “SLAVE” tattooed across our forehead for all the freedom that we have. Fear is now the currency of the day, together with accumulation of money and control of people the ultimate aim. For what reason I am unsure as you can’t eat money, and history has shown that the sheeple will eventually rise up and take back the freedom that has been stolen from them, When people have nothing else to lose the tide will turn and it will be bloody.
wellbeing said this on May 2, 2008 at 1:06 pm |
I’d love to believe that the people will rise up and turn the tide, unfortunately, everyone seems to be drugged. The apathy and mindlessness about what is happening is appalling. From what I see here in the States, the only people I notice speaking out seem to be smokers like myself. Kind of puts a new light on the sudden drastic push to ban smoking and ostracize smokers. If quitting makes me brain dead like the rest, no thank you…………I’ll go right on smoking happily until the day I die. It is frustrating, annoying and heartbreaking to see what is going on.
swfreedomlover said this on May 2, 2008 at 1:48 pm |
Court Appointed Childrens service has in their white pages to AB train the children through the use of volunteers so they are not accountable.PROGRAMMING
Debbie said this on June 3, 2009 at 7:59 pm |