The face of gun violence is not Sandy Hook. It is Chicago.There is a reason that Democrats don't focus on this root cause. It's far easier to blame guns and pass laws against them than it is to pass judgement on and change the behavior of an underclass that defies fixing.
This passage by Elder is telling:
ReplyDelete"The formula for achieving middle-class success is simple: Finish high school; don't have a child before the age of 20; and get married before having the child. Preparing for the future requires dedication. It requires deferring gratification, precisely the kind of "discipline" that Tupac admitted he lacked because he grew up without a father."
While I cannot make people choose to get married or not prior to having a child, I can say with confidence that more programs designed to keep kinds in schools and better access to a complete slate of reproductive health services will cut dropouts and reduce early childbirth.
Morality lectures aren't going to keep kids in school and prevent unplanned pregnancies.
Mike,
ReplyDeleteUsually you are a thoughtful guy, but the notion that public sector bureaucrats are more effective at influencing kids than their parents is ludicrous position. Don't let your union agenda corrupt rational thinking.
A boy learns how to love and respect women by watching his father show love and respect for his mother.
A girl learns how to choose and appreciate a good man by watching her father demonstrate love and caring for his family.
Being part of a church and community, being raised with integrity and values, none of these fundamentals can be replaced by liberal classrooms and condoms.
It's sad to see a professional educator denigrate "Morality lectures", when in fact those family discussions are the bedrock of a civil society.
Jake: Nothing I said would be needed if we were talking ONLY about kids that had a full slate of functional parenting in their lives. There are far too many kids that go through life lacking any type of functional parenting in their home; hence Elder's comments.
ReplyDeleteFor you to read into my comment that I'd ask a school to supersede a family's role is a mistake on your part. I'm asking for a school to provide guidance of last resort for young people who don't grow up with the benefit of a stable home life.
My "morality lecture" comment was not directed at the families of young people; it was directed members of the public as a whole who'd like to tell young people "you shouldn't do that" rather than actually teach them how to function in a healthy manner.
For you to interject "union agenda" into the conversation is also needless. "Liberal classrooms" etc. is a personal fetish of yours for another time and place.
Mike,
ReplyDeleteThe common sense clarification of your initial comments are noted. Glad to see you decided to walk back your ludicrous public sector rhetoric.
Unfortunately, you persist in sanitizing the point of Elder's article. He believes it is an ill-conceived and destructive government policy that promotes the dissolution of families and communities, and diminishes the importance of fathers, particularly in the inner city.
Until we come to grips with the myriad failures of the Big Government nanny state, we will continue to raise children lacking in discipline and parental guidance.
Gun violence, unwed parents, and ignorance of basic human values are the inevitable outcome of this contrived liberal overreach.
Jake:
ReplyDeleteClarifying things that you decided to read into a comment is nothing even close to a “walk back.” But thanks for continuing to be focused on “public sector” comments.
Feel free to continue to tilt at the “nanny state” windmill all you’d like, but what should society do with the vast legion of young people who currently live in home situations that lack proper parenting? The cause of children lacking discipline and parental guidance is a discussion for another day, but a failure to help those children will doom them to repeat the dysfunctional behaviors exhibited by the adults in their lives.
You rail against programs designed to keep kids in school, instruct comprehensive health education, and provide full reproductive planning as tools of “union agendas”, etc.
Your plan to keep young people from repeating the mistakes of the adults who parented them would be?
Simple Mike, you and your liberal brethren have to admit the complete failure of the mindless government policies and programs that you have so irrationally embraced.
ReplyDeleteInstead, let's have subsidies that keep needy families, their fathers and their communities together; let's let teachers teach, leave values education to parents and churches; and commit to ending all the politically correct moral relativism in our public discourse.
Have a tax and welfare system that rewards achievement. Demand strict accountability for all dollars spent. Regard the unprecedented growth of food stamps, unemployment benefits, and government spending as a social disaster, not the new normal.
How about demanding principled leadership from elected officials that improves people's lives, rather than creating make-work public sector jobs that just improve union dues and Democrat fundraising?
Anything is better than the lost generations we're creating now.
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