Food for Thought

[L. Adrian Griffis]

On Tue, 5 Nov 2002, Jim Herrmann wrote:
> I think you are making my point, which I apparently didn't make clear.  
> Perhaps you didn't read the other paragraphs.  We, the parents of the 
> children, need to take responsibility for teaching our children right vs. 
> wrong, i.e. morals.  It's not the state's (school's) job to be responsible 
> for the morality of our children.  Unfortunately, way too many people in this 
> country are far too willing to cede that responsibility.  While I agree with 
> you about sexuality being natural, it is not my place to decide what someone 
> else teaches their children any more is it anyone else's place to decide what 
> I teach mine.

Perhaps I did misinterpret your point.  I have to admit, my rant was
directed at more than just what I thought you were saying.  There were
a number of points in the conversation as a whole that were troubling
me.

I would agree that it is out our place to dictate to another person
what they teach their children.  But this conversation as a whole seemed
to touch rather firmly on the topic of government mandated filtering
on the content that children can see when accessing the internet through
particular equipment.  It also ranged into steps that could be mandated
for content providers to facilitate that filtering.  Surely such a move
would be all about a subset of our population forcing a set of rules on
the rest of us for the sake of supporting their own notions of what is
right for their children.

Look, I would be delighted if the low life scum that are constantly
spamming my inbox with promises of teenage virgins getting nailed by
all manner of farm animals would all develop intense agoraphobia,
become recluses and never bother the rest of us, again.  But if the
Federal Government really wants to encourage moral behavior, it
should start by setting a good example and following the rules that
have been specified for it in our constitution.  Dictating the rules
of morality for our children is a perilous thing for us to ask our
government to do.

For the rest of us, establishing the norms and moral expectations
of our culture is driven by this kind of conversation.  If you are
saying that we should be very cautious about dictating parenting
decisions to other people, I agree.  And on this point, caution
should tells us not to try to force anything on other people.  But
if we think a particular decision in parenting will lead to real
harm, saying so is exactly what we should do.  The voice of moral
hysteria is not the only voice parents should hear.

Adrian