Saturday, February 25, 2012

State, Stay In Your Place!

On last night's episode of The O'Reilly Factor I learned of an outrageous act going on in California. In four of its counties, the state of California, using taxpayer money, is actually mailing condoms to kids as young as 12! You read that right. California is sending kids condoms, along with lubricant and pamphlets on avoiding pregnancy and STDs. How nice! And these neat little packages are being mailed in plain envelopes so as not to attract attention from pesky, nosy parents. This is government corruption and overreach on steroids!

Children belong to their parents. It is the sacred right and duty of parents to teach children morality and values. Consequently, parents have the right to know everything about their children's lives so they can guide them into making the right decisions. The state has NO right whatsoever to intefere with parents' rights and duties. Yes, some parents will fail in their responsibility, and that is the usual excuse used by progressive types to justify the government helping children evade parental oversight. The state must step in, they say, because some parents can't be trusted to do their job. But the failure of some parents to do their job does not justify government on any level overruling the rights and authority of all parents.

Yes, teen pregnancy and STD infection are disturbing. But state intrusion into the family isn't the solution. Not only does this shatter the cohesion of the family, but it undermines the general safety of children. As stated above, California is mailing condoms to children as young as 12, apparently without bothering to ascertain the age of these children's sex partners. That means that the state of California believes that 12-year-olds can consent to sex. How will that affect the enforcement of age-of-consent laws? It destroys the state's credibility to claim, on one hand, that 12-year-olds can't consent to sex while, on the other hand, giving them the means to do just that.

If the state wants to help stop teen pregnancy and STD infection it should flood the airwaves with public service announcements warning of the consequences of unprotected sex and give parents the correct information to discuss with their children. That is the limited role the state should have: dispensing information which parents then use according to their values. Some parents are very liberal and see nothing wrong with their (very young) teen children being sexually active. Such parents will, no doubt, give the go ahead for their kids to use birth control. Traditionalist parents wouldn't make that choice. But what ever choice parents make, the key is that they, and not the government, are in charge of their children.

We should not have government interfering with the sacred relationship between parent and child. Raising children is the job of parents, not the state. Unless abuse is happening, parents must be free to bring up their children as they see fit, even if they make choices the we-know-better progressives don't like. That is the essence of freedom, and the last time I checked, freedom was a good thing.

1 comment:

Wise Conservatism said...

oh goodie. A great post on the reasons why the government needs to stay out of our business......especially with our kids. I would shoot the first government official who came in here to tell me how to raise my kids, unless of course I was abusing them.....something I would never do by the way. Government, stay the hell out of my house.