Posts Tagged ‘freedom of speech’

Welcome to the United States of America

Sunday, January 29th, 2012

Where a “How are you?” means, “I see you are there, but I don’t REALLY care how you are REALLY doing.”

 

Where “I am sorry,” means, “Well, I know I did something not quite right and I don’t REALLY FEEL sorry, but my mom told me to say this whenever I did something so I am just saying it.”

 

Where “Please” and “Thank you” are used so profusely that it mostly does not REALLY mean anything. However, it’s almost a sin if you forget to say those words after the end of each sentence and question you pose.

 

Where “Can you forgive me?” is used like a doormat in defense of your actions and you don’t REALLY care whether the other person forgives you or not, because you will continue to behave just the same and do not plan to adjust your future actions.

 

Where everybody SEEMS to care, but then nobody REALLY cares.

 

Where everybody talks all the time, but nobody has anything REAL to say about anything.

 

Where everybody is called a friend and wants to be your friend but then nobody is your REAL friend.

 

Where freedom of speech is highly valued and is considered a hallmark of the American culture, but it REALLY is not the case, because:

 

Where praising and positive compliments have become so much the norm that anyone won’t dare utter a REAL ‘negative’ remark for fear of offending someone.

 

Where being politically correct has taken over REAL words.

 

Where words have lost their true meaning in REAL life.

 

Where the underlying emotions accompanying words have been stripped away preventing REAL interaction with others.

 

Where people robotically go from home to work, from work to home (the religious folk also try to go to church and then there are the devout football fans who live for the football games).

 

Where life is an endless cycle of Christmases-Valentine’s Days-Easters-4th of Julys-Halloweens-Thanksgivings-Christmases, etc.

 

Where people with deep emotional issues may find momentary relief, because all the above provide excellent escape/remedy from dealing with the REAL problems at hand.

 

Where relationships have become artificial, superficial, and superfluous.

 

A part of me loves it and another part of me hates it.

 

Welcome to my world.

 

Pastor’s advice to discipline children: Corporal punishment

Monday, November 7th, 2011

Never a day goes by when I am not struck by some bizarre piece of news. This time it is about a pastor and his wife who promote corporal punishment in disciplining children.  They have self-published a book, To Train Up a Child, which has 670,000 copies in circulation (nope, I did not make a typo – sixhundredseventythousand books in print being circulated!!!).

Now here is the punchline: Guess with which group of people this book is popular? Christian home-schoolers!!!

Here is the irony of the system in this country. The teachers at schools are under EXTREME pressure from the parents. They are being watched like a hawk and God help them if they so as much as lay a finger on a kid. They will probably lose their job… [I met a male kindergarten teacher once, who said he had to quit, because it was not appropriate for him to even touch the kids in his class—let alone give a hug—even though it was considered normal for female kindergarten teachers to be affectionate with their students.]

Okay, I admit, maybe some teachers are out of line and we have to protect our kids, but come on, we will never ever hear of a teacher using corporal punishment. Not in the United States of America. There would be a big upheaval and the teacher in question would be sued big time.

And then there is the occasional kid who is abused at home and the teacher can step in and call the authorities, then the parents can be sued of child abuse/neglect.

But how do we protect the home-schooled kids who have to live under the tyranny of parents who believe in corporal punishment and who actually carry it out??? Does it make corporal punishment okay when it is done in the name of God Almighty and Jesus Christ?

The Pearls, along with many conservative Christians, say the Bible calls for corporal punishment. “To give up the use of the rod is to give up our views of human nature, God, eternity,” they write in the book.

Three kids have already died, but the Pearls (the authors of the book) are not being charged. Fine, there is freedom of speech and you can write anything you want. But, how come they can ban Harry Potter in some states and not this book? Something just does not add up.

 

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Disclosure: I am a strong advocate of attachment parenting and do not believe and have never exercised any form of physical punishment with my children. I believe there are a myriad of ways to get through to a child instead of reverting to aggressive behavior.