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The Government: Hijacking our Children

Dr. Domenick J. Maglio, Ph.D. Neo-Traditionalist

Our government is gradually and systematically eliminating the rights of parents. It no longer has a commitment to the sanctity of the family. According to the state parents no longer have the ultimate power and responsibility for their children.

This hijacking of our children has not been done at gunpoint in the form of the Elian Gonzalez debacle. Instead it has been accomplished by emphasizing the abusive aspects of dysfunctional families while introducing big government programs to swoop in to snatch children from extreme circumstances. In this ongoing strategy, parental rights are chipped away.

Americans have been silent while their sacred rights to raise their children have been eroded by the government. The state has assumed more and more responsibility of parents, in essence becoming the Uncle Fidel to all of our children. Our forefather’s commitment to the preservation of the family unit has been corrupted by arrogant bureaucrats.

Many decent though cautious parents have told me in family counseling that they are unwilling to discipline their children for fear of being reported to law enforcement. Although concern for government interference started off as a convenient excuse for parental laziness, our government and media have escalated it into a cultural reality. Parents increasingly are informed that physical and even psychological means of getting their children to listen can lead to a confrontation with the legal system.

The courts with the assistance of the media have practically eliminated any legal protection of parents to spank their “own” children. Unbelievably state courts have decreed that parents have no right to be informed of their own minor daughter’s pending abortion. Presently we are at the beginning of a campaign for outlawing psychological intimidation in the form of humiliation. This is stripping parents of another means of controlling their children.

The mother of a 14 year-old girl required her to carry a sign at an intersection in Edmond, Oklahoma, that read “I don’t do my homework and I act up in school so my parents are preparing me for my future. Will work for food.” The 14 year-old girl said that it had taught her a lesson. However, a passing motorist called the police. The officer took the report, commanded the mother and daughter to vacate the area and forwarded the report to the Department of Human Services. Associated Press, November 17, 2005.

In California the 9th Circuit Federal Appeals Court’s three justices ruled in a 3 to 0 decision that parent’s do not have the right to protect their children from public schools indoctrinating them with values that they consider harmful.

Under the guise of education an explicit sexual survey was given to 7 year-olds. The type of questions that were asked exposed the children to behavior, thoughts and beliefs that traditional parents would not want to explore. Common sense informs us that these questions would contaminate and abuse innocent minds.

These questions range from thinking about touching other people’s private parts, washing myself because I feel dirty on the inside to the frequency of thinking about sex. United States Court of Appeals for the Ninth District, Fields vs. Palmdale School District, pg. 15066, filed November 2, 2005.

This court wrote: “In summary we hold that there is no free standing fundamental right of parents to control the upbringing of their children by introducing them to matters of and relating to sex in accordance with their personal and religious values and beliefs and that the asserted rights is not encompassed by any other fundamental right.” pg. 15083

According to this radical court, the state in the form of government schools has equal or more rights that parents in the upbringing of their children. This reasoning is consistent with a totalitarian nation’s thinking though hopefully not with America. The dismantling of the power of the family is essential in establishing a centralized society controlled by the dictates of one or a few megalomaniac elites.

All great civilizations have fallen after the family has been undermined. The arrogant state elites cannot improve upon the ability of families to raise their children. The undermining of the family by the state has to be corrected or we, the taxpayer, will have to pick up the tab for more government workers to attempt to replace the functions of the family. Regardless of our economic status or education we all know how government intervention works: It doesn’t!!

The vitality of our nation depends on the freedom and self-interest of citizens to prepare their children for the future. Leave us alone to raise our children. Stop attempting to eliminate parent’s rights and snatch our power, privileges and responsibility to raise our children.