Ah yes, opposite ends of the
mental spectrum today……
From: Adrienne
To: assorted email-connected
peoples
Where Did It All
Begin??????
Let's see, I think it started when
Madeline Murray O'Hare complained she
didn't want any prayer in our schools,
and we said OK. Then someone said you
better not read the Bible in school, the
Bible that says thou shalt not kill,
thou shalt not steal, and love your neighbors yourself. And we said,
OK..
~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Dr. Benjamin Spock said we shouldn't
spank our children when they misbehave
because their little personalities would
be warped and we might damage their
self-esteem. And we said, an expert
should know what he's talking about so
we won't spank them anymore..
~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Then someone said teachers and
principals better not discipline our
children when they misbehave. And the
school administrators said no faculty
member in this school better touch a
student when they misbehave because we
don't want any bad publicity, and
we surely don't want to be sued. And we
accepted their reasoning..
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Then some wise school board member said,
since boys will be boys and they're
going to do it anyway, let's give our
sons all the condoms they want, so they
can have all the fun they desire, and we
won't have to tell their parents they
got them at school. And we said, that's
another great idea..
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
And the entertainment industry said,
let's make TV shows and movies that
promote profanity, violence, and illicit
sex. And let's record music that
encourages rape, drugs, murder, suicide,
and satanic themes. And we said it's
just entertainment, it has no adverse
effect, and nobody takes it seriously
anyway, so go right ahead.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Therefore, now we're asking ourselves
why our children have no conscience, why
they don't know right from wrong, and
why it doesn't bother them to kill
strangers, their classmates, and
themselves..
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Probably, if we think about it long and
hard enough, we can figure it out. I
think it has a great deal to do
with...
"WE REAP WHAT WE SOW,"
(author unknown)
From: Glenn Arnold
To: Adrienne
cc: the same assorted email-ites
And then someone said, it has nothing
to do with forcing religious beliefs,
hitting your children, being
closed-minded about sex education, or
denying basic rights. It has to do with
parental responsibility.
And then someone said, "I'm not a role
model. Your parents are your role
models."
And finally, someone else said, "Blow
me."
From: Jamie
To: Glenn Arnold
cc: everyone, once again
here here!
From: Barney
To: Glenn Arnold
cc: still everyone...
I gave that one a standing ovation at
my desk...
From: Adrienne
To: Glenn, Jamie, Barney
cc: quickly becoming innocent
bystanders
It's obvious none of you have
children or have any concept of just how
scary
the thought is of sending your child to
school . . . an institution that is
required by law for all children to
attend . . . that no parent can be
present at every moment of the day at an
institution that is supposed to be a
safe haven for children to learn and
grow . . . that is now loaded with gun
toting, sexually aggressive,
gratuitously violent children who now
have been provided justification for
their discrimination by the ignorant
laisse faire behavior that all of you
have just condoned.
Who's responsibility are those kids
while they are at school?? I can do all
I can while that child is at home with
me. I can lecture . . . drive home the
finer points of the 10 commandments and
the difference between right and wrong .
. . I can monitor every ounce of TV they
watch, movies they see, books they read
. . . I can make sure they never take a
drink of alcohol, never smoke a
cigarette, never take a drag of weed, or
sample any drug . . .I can make sure
they don't experiment with sex. . . The
problem comes when they are not within
my line of vision . . . which happens to
be a lot of the time . . . which happens
to
be 8 hours a day, every day, as mandated
by federal law . . . while they are at
school.
I could rest on my laurels and
sit back and say . . . well, I've done
everything I can, short of locking them
in their room until they die. They know
the difference between right and wrong,
they've been instilled with a sense of
morality and common decency . . . and
they know that if I ever catch them
doing something they're not supposed to
do . . . there will be a consequence . .
. restrictions, spankings, age
appropriate discipline.
But what about when they show something
at school that's sexually explicit . . .
that contains gratuitous violence . . .
that contains images of drug use or alcohol abuse? Who's responsible for
that?? What about when they're at a
friends' house who's parents think like
you and think it's ok to condone that
sort of behavior?? It's my
responsibility to make sure my child
never goes to your house again, and that
you get a piece of my mind, but while my
child is in your care . . . he/she is
your responsibility. If my child gets
hurt at your house or while in your
"custody", you can bet your ass, it's
you I'll go after because you are
responsible for them and you acted
irresponsibly.
The same goes for school. These
children are in the hands of the
teachers and administrators and if my
child is being exposed to . . . crap .
. . it's the schools, teachers, and
administrators who'll pay the
consequences . . . and eventually as has
been demonstrated in Columbine,
the students and parents will pay
too.
There are many points of responsibility
here. It's not all on the parents. A
majority of it is on the parents, but
not all of it.
Grow up and accept responsibility
yourselves. Condoning this sort of
behavior is part of the problem, and
trying to pass the responsibility off on
one factor out of every influence in a
child's life is just plain
ignorant.
From: Glenn Arnold
To: Adrienne
cc: none.
No, I don't have any children (that I
know of) and I
won't pretend to understand what it's
like to have a
child on the brink of entering society.
But that
aside, I'm not condoning any kind of
laisse faire
behavior. I was simply disagreeing with
you on the
value of school prayer, how to
discipline children,
what is and isn't censorship, the
morality of sex ed,
etc. And to say that I'm condoning
"ignorant
behavior," well, that's kind of a low
blow. It's not
behavior, it's beliefs. And I don't
think my beliefs
are ignorant.
The core of the
argument is this: What
and/or who is responsible for kids
growing up the way
they do? Is it the media? Genetics?
The parents?
The kids themselves? Pop culture? The
internet?
Martha Stewart? And how much of a part
does these
influences--along with a thousand
more--play in a
child's developmental years? The debate
can go on and
on. As for my own opinion, I believe
that the parents
and the child are almost entirely
responsible for how
that child grows up. All the other
factors play a
minimal part, if any.
"Grow up and accept responsibility?"
THAT'S kind of
harsh. I have plenty of responsibility
and I'm
involved in moral and ethical issues
both actively and
passively (actively: Amnesty, WarChild,
S.O.M.E.,
etc.). And as far as targeting who's at
fault for
today's evil little kids, well, I'm not
saying that
parents have the entire burden. That
WOULD be
ignorant. I'm just saying--as Charles
Barkley put it
so elegantly--that parents should be the
role models,
not entertainers or sports figures.
Parents have the
best shot at helping their children
along the right
path.
Sorry if my first email came across as
spiteful. I was
rebuking the original author of that
email, not the
sender. You didn't write it, so I
didn't figure you'd
be quite so defensive about it. You
weren't the
target. But then again, if you believe
that society's
problems lie in exactly what that author
was railing
against, well then I stand back and
apologize again. I
just happen to not agree.
(And the "blow me" wasn't directed at
you. It was just
a joke.........Actually, I've been
saying "blow me"
quite a bit lately in the hopes that
someone will
eventually say "Sure!")
The Ignorant One,
Glenny
From: Jim Arnold
To: Glenn Arnold
Hi --
What happened? I thought you were going
to check
and see if you had any plant racks at
your store? Bet you forgot,
didn't you? Ha! Anyway, if you have
one, let me know.
Kevin starts work tomorrow driving a van
for
Fastrans. That
should keep him out of mischief for
awhile. He's still
going to
look for a computer repair/support
job.
We went to the Fairfax City Chocolate
Festival
today. Very
interesting but very few samples.
Love, Dad
