Why do we hate our children.
One of my, shall I say indulgences, for lack of a better word, during my extended Covid vacation Is watching crime dramas. I’ve seen EVERY episode of Law and Order, and Law and Order-Criminal Intent, Vincent D’Onofrio is amazing on that particular show, by the way. Lately it’s been Criminal Minds. On one episode the character played by Shemar Moore said that he didn’t believe in the concept of evil, that people did things either because of some mental defect, or basically some environmental issue, such as drug addiction or abuse etc.
I found this a rather astounding concept as history has shown that evil exists, Hitler, Manson, Stalin, Richard Ramirez, the list of truly evil people is endless and can’t really be explained by external factors such as Moore’s character theorized. If this was the case, than every person who shared the same experiences as those evil doers, would be likely to commit the same crimes.
I mention this not to debate the concept of “does evil exist”. In my humble opinion there is no real debate on the issue. We can debate over where there may be different kinds of evil, or maybe certain levels of evil, one type of evil being more heinous than another. I’m bringing this up because of something that I feel is truly evil, and the people that are perpetrating this need to be called to account for their actions. This has to do with what we are doing to our children. I saw some statistics today that are absolutely appalling. According to data released by the insurance industry, claims for children ages 13 thru 18 who have self-harmed themselves rose 90% year over year from March 2019 to March 2020. Drug overdoses rose 95% in that same time period, 95 percent! Then the thought occurred to me that this is insurance data, what about the people who don’t have insurance? The actual figure is undoubtedly far worse. Another shocking stat was drug overdose fatalities in San Francisco were three times the number of Covid deaths. There are so many studies, reports and statistics that say the lockdowns are FAR more harmful than the virus, yet here in California they still persist. Study after study has shown that school aged children have something like a 99.97% chance of survival. So why are our children still being kept out of school? The most immediate answer is the teacher unions, who wield political power like a scythe through a wheat field. One of these lunatics actually said that reopening the schools was a white racist plot! Really? All you have to do is look at income levels for all ethnic groups and you will find that non-whites (god I hate the concept of grouping people by skin color, but unfortunately that’s how our society groups people) rely on public schools far more than white folks, mostly because of the parents working status, either both of them working or low income single parent job status. They rely on the public schools to educate, house and feed them. Having their kids at home places an unbearable burden on them. There was a great article in the Washington Examiner that explained the actual racist policies of these teacher unions far better than I can. These unions have held parents and governments hostage with demands that have very little to do with protection from Covid and a lot to do with political agendas. Once again, I refer you to the Washington Examiner story for a list of the non-covid demands of some of these unions.
The damage done may be irreparable. So far one whole school year has been wasted. My fifteen year old grandson has experienced this first hand. He was just starting to adjust to high school life after struggling with grammar school. He was socializing, making friends, exploring new interests, becoming his own person. Since the closures his grades have plummeted, his mother complains about his attitude and you can tell he is, while not clinically depressed (thank god) he is not in a good place. I saw one study that said up to 25% of young people have thought about suicide, and the number of teenage suicides is climbing at an alarming rate. I read an article on N.P.R. with the headline that stated that “Child Psychiatrists Warn That The Pandemic May Be Driving Up Kids Suicide Risk” At the risk of sounding crass, all I can say is “duh, kinda obvious ain’t it” There are a lot more of those types of studies and articles out there This is unconscionable!
What about all the lost opportunities for these kids? All of my children are grown and gone, so thankfully I don’t have to worry about them in regards to this insanity, but one of my dog walking routes takes me by a local high school. I noticed that football, as well was all the other sports, have been cancelled. The football team is a pretty big deal at this school, they have a good program there and a lot of student athletes have parlayed that into college scholarships. What about these seniors who have been deprived of that opportunity, not to mention all the other lost opportunities these senior students have suffered from the lockdowns. I am glad my kids are grown and gone, but that doesn’t take away from my anger at these unions for the damage they are perpetrating on our youth. It’s bad enough that the curriculums that are being taught are woefully inadequate to prepare them for the real world, but at least they had an opportunity to learn, and socialize, to have a fighting chance. No! These unions say that our politics are more important than your bratty, stupid kids, we are the gatekeepers of all knowledge, how dare you question us with your soccer mom mentality. I’m reminded of the Catholic church, where in medieval times, the peasants had to have the bible read to them, because it was written in Latin and only the priests new the language, thereby creating a hierarchy over which the church could exert control over the masses. These unions have forged form themselves this same type of hierarchy. The reformation by Martin Luther ended that, and today we need a reformation in our public school system.
First, these unions have to go. It’s not just the political power they have, it’s also the tenure issue. I remember reading John Stossel’s book, “Myths, Lies and Downright Stupidity” (a really great book by the way) in which he detailed how hard it was to be fired as a teacher. Even if that teacher was so obviously incompetent or as in the case of some clergy in the Catholic church, guilty of pedophilia. The rules and regulations imposed by the unions make getting rid of bad teachers virtually impossible.
Next is school choice. The teacher unions insist that charter schools are evil (hmm...) and that only the public schools offer the best place for our kids, wow the irony of that is unbelievable. The reason for this is political as well. Why do schools place such importance on attendance? Maybe because that’s how they get paid, how their budgets get allocated? What if we take that money and let the parents decide what school is best for their child? What a novel concept, parents who know what’s best for their child. No, it doesn’t take a village to raise a child, Hillary, unless it’s a village idiot you want, but I digress. This is especially true in the inner cities where a lot of public schools are failing, yet the teacher unions consistently fight against vouchers and school choice. They seem to care more about retaining their political power, than about the quality of children’s education.
It has to be said that, except for the incompetent or criminals, I admire teachers of all vocations. Theirs’s is an often times thankless job, that requires a great deal of personal sacrifice. I have no direct evidence of this, but I’m sure that a lot of teachers would rather not be part of the teacher union and save the dues they have to pay, and be thankful for the opportunity to get rid of bad teachers and to advance their own careers on the basis of merit instead of tenure. Wouldn’t it be better if instead of tenure, we offer an opportunity for the good teachers to excel and advance? To let our schools compete against each other in the free market? That’s exactly what Stossel recommended, and I agree with it wholeheartedly. Parents would be able to send their kids to good schools, bad schools would be forced to compete against successful schools in the free market, and either upgrade, or fail. We cannot and must not fail our children, after all who is going to pay off the massive debt our failed governments have accumulated, but that is a subject for another blog.
As I stated earlier, the debate over levels of evil, and what constitutes true evil, is one that I’m sure everyone has an opinion on. In my book, if the actions of a person or group, whether intentional or by the law of unintended consequences, causes the death of another human, whether it be the demands of teacher unions that have nothing to do with students, and prevents them from being in an actual classroom, or a policy that leads to the death of people trying to get into this country, (yes I’m talking about Biden’s border policy and all of the people who died crashing through the border fence, stacked like cordwood in an s.u.v.) I will call those things by what they are… EVIL. I’m sure there are many more examples of this particular type of evil. Our persistent involvement in foreign conflicts is one that comes to mind right away. There is enough evil in our world without having to go out of our way to create more. STOP THE INSANITY!
I welcome any and all comments that will add to this discussion, Please, feel free to let me know, good or bad, your thoughts on the issues I have raised. And as always, ROCK ON Y’ALL!