The degree to which the relationship between parents and children, and the state and children, has changed so much in my nearly 60 years on this planet that I sometimes wonder if I was born on a different one when I look around today. Just the relative popularity of the OPEN SOCIALIST Bernie Sanders with many young people, for example, when he could have only been popular in a place like Vermont, previously, is a very good indicator how much America has changed. That weird socialists of all stripes are now being elected to Congress on a regular basis, when Bernie was a lone freak show for so many years previously, is another.
We have become almost COMPLETELY a socialist nanny/police/surveillance state in my time, something that would have been almost unthinkable back in the 70s when I was coming of age politically, supporting Reagan, and others I thought were "conservative." The nuclear family was always the building block of Western civilization, and the assumed right of parents to make all important decisions for their children was never questioned. Now, it is hard to believe it, but parental rights are almost a thing of the past. The state has definitely taken over the role of the final arbiter of what is best for children, and is, more and more, beginning to openly assert that role v.v. parents.
Consider this very well written article that covers four major areas in which the state now reigns supreme--major areas of the rearing process:
https://parentalrightsfoundation.org/sopra_17/
Here is an excerpt from the introduction to the above article:
"The Supreme Court once declared, 'This primary role of parents in the upbringing of their children is now established beyond debate as an enduring American tradition.' Wisconsin v. Yoder, 406 U.S. 205 (1972) at 232. So, how are we doing with that 'enduring American tradition' today? Unfortunately, not so well."
That Supreme Court ruling in 1972 was one, frankly, that I don't even remember. There was almost no one outside the radical halls of psychiatric and left-wing political wisdom that would have even thought to question such a basic premise back when I was in 7th grade. I may have to read up on that case at some point to see how it all came about, but the name "Yoder" tells me it was probably some invasion by the state into Amish culture, which is about the only place a debate over parental rights MIGHT have come up at that early period. Today, it is not just the Amish whose unique traditions draw attention, it is ANYONE with a traditionalist approach to family life and the proper role of government.
When it comes to modern American Drug salesmen (aka "doctors") parents are routinely losing the right to decide what treatments (including extreme and untested treatments) are to be done on suffering children. Consider this further excerpt from the above link:
"Yet even as the evidence is showing more and more the fallibility of the medical profession, states are heeding doctors’ and pharmaceutical companies’ urgings to clamp down on parents’ rights in medical decisions. California in 2015 notoriously passed SB 277, a bill to remove from parents the right to make an informed medical decision regarding their child’s vaccinations. Similar bills were introduced in 19 other states but failed to pass. Proponents of these bills, though, are undeterred, as evidenced by the number of states dealing with similar measures again this legislative session – already as many as 30."
We must be ever vigilant regarding these types of bills, as THE PRESSURE FOR THEIR PASSAGE WILL CONTINUE TO RAMP UP, AND WILL SOON BE A CAUSE CELEBRE of all MSM operatives, school administrators, all "medical professionals," etc. The drumbeat for mandatory vaccination AGAINST THE EXPRESS WISHES of parents is growing louder and will not cease short of a major reset of some sort in the entire economy and culture of The West.
In education, the situation is becoming nearly as critical. Parents are gradually losing their right to determine the things their own children will be taught, and homeschooling is under special assault. Consider the following:
"Mother Kiarre Harris decided in December 2016 to remove her two children from Buffalo’s failing schools. Per state law, she filed all of the required paperwork with Buffalo City Hall and told the school she was beginning to homeschool the youngsters. A few weeks later, Child Protective Services and the police showed up to take her kids. When she wouldn’t reveal where the children were, she was arrested and jailed on obstruction charges... Home School Legal Defense Association recently filed suit against New York for routinely doing this very thing: charging “truancy” and taking children away from parents who have fulfilled all of the statutory requirements to teach their children at home. New York law permits parents to choose this educational alternative, but the state’s message is clear: if you make that choice, we will fabricate a reason to take your child."
New York is a test case for this type of circumvention of homeshooling rights. You can bet that homeschooling is targeted for complete termination as a parental right, or that it will have the state's curriculum forced upon it (including moral value issues such as human sexuality, social justice, "global" citizenship, the wonders of forced vaccination, etc.) and the kid's WILL EVENTUALLY ALL BE TESTED for these "proper values" before they can graduate. In the states, the "McSchool" Agenda-- where major corporations are gradually taking over the education of children via "charter schools" which receive MANDATORY TAXATION revenues just as do public schools today, but with no elected school boards-- is another way that the state's values clarification agenda (leading to Chinese-style "social credit scores) will be forwarded. A charter school WITH CANNED COMPUTER CURRICULUM and less and less involvement from "teachers" will pump government values directly to the child's brain without worrying about whether or not a given teacher is skirting the intentions of the curriculum masters.
The article goes on to talk about the slippage of parental rights v.v. the "child welfare" system (which has been the primary focus of my writing here over time) and the rights of parents with mental or physical disabilities v.v. the state. Only in the final category can it be said that any positive progress has been made, and, in my opinion, even that is only temporary and illusory.
To summarize, the real target of all the government interventionism is not to do a better job raising children, it is to seize omnipotence to government while both ensuring that children are raised to totally accept and approve of totalitarian government, while at the same time emasculating resistance from older generations who remember what freedom really is all about. To prove that TRADITIONALISM is the real enemy of the current nanny/police/surveillance state, consider this article which shows that non-traditional, unassimilable elements of society are being "empowered" by the state EVEN TO THE SPECIAL ALLOWANCES TO SUCH PARENTS by the state for THE MUTILATION OF THEIR OWN CHILDREN:
Consider this excerpt from the link above:
"'“U.S. District Judge Bernard Friedman ruled that Congress had no authority to enact a law that criminalizes female genital mutilation (FGM). 'As despicable as [FGM] may be… [Congress] overstepped its bounds.' The ruling came after defense lawyers challenged the 22-year-old genital mutilation law that hasn’t been used until 2017 when Dr. Jumana Nagarwala was arrested and accused of mutilating the genitalia of young girls.
In other words, any young girl can be assaulted by anyone with a blade or broken glass to cut out her clitoris and labia’s majora and minor—without legal action against her. (sic...should read: "on her behalf.") Plain and simple, in a first world country, this legalizes 'assault and battery' of a child without provocation or choice. 'It’s a giant step backward in the protection of women’s and girls’ rights … Especially when there is a global movement to eliminate this practice....' Why are we allowing Muslim barbarians to continue their barbarity in our country? When they start tossing gays off buildings as they do in the Middle East, will that judge allow that practice, too? What about four wives being legal? Will we acquiesce to that, too? How about 'honor killings?' Will we continue to ignore the average of 23 to 27 of them annually to grow to over 100 or 500 annually?"
So, the above clearly shows that NOT ALL PARENTS are having their rights taken by the state. Some few are actually having them strengthened, even when the practice in question is clearly an extremely violent and irreversible form of physical abuse.
Q'est cera. Welcome to Amerika, c. 2018.
God bless you fine folks!
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