Dear God:

Why didn't you save the school children at ?. ..

Moses Lake, Washington 2/2/96
Bethel, Alaska 2/19/97
Pearl, Mississippi 10/1/97
West Paducah, Kentucky 12/1/97
Stamp, Arkansas 12/15/97
Jonesboro, Arkansas 3/24/98
Edinboro, Pennsylvania 4/24/98
Fayetteville, Tennessee 5/19/98
Springfield, Oregon 5/21/98
Richmond, Virginia 6/15/98
Littleton, Colorado 4/20/99
Taber, Alberta, Canada 5/28/99
Conyers, Georgia 5/20/99
Deming, New Mexico 11/19/99
Fort Gibson, Oklahoma 12/6/99
Santee, California 3/5/01 and
El Cajon, California 3/22/01?

Sincerely,
Concerned Student

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Reply:

Dear Concerned Student:
I am not allowed in schools.
Sincerely,
God

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How did this get started?...

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Let's see,
I think it started when Madeline Murray O'Hare complained
she didn't want any prayer in our schools.
And we said, OK.

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Then, someone said you better not
read the Bible in school,
the Bible that says
"thou shalt not kill,
thou shalt not steal,
and love your neighbors as yourself,"
And we said, OK...

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Dr. Benjamin Spock said
we shouldn't spank our children
when they misbehaved
because their little personalities
would be warped and we might damage their self-esteem.
And we said,
an expert should know what he's talking about
so we won't spank them anymore...

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Then someone said
teachers and principals better not
discipline our children when they misbehave.
And the school administrators said
no faculty member in this school
better touch a student when they misbehave
because we don't want any bad publicity,
and we surely don't want to be sued.
And we accepted their reasoning...

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Then someone said,
let's let our daughters have abortions if they want,
and they won't even have to tell their parents.
And we said, that's a grand idea...

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Then some wise school board member said,
since boys will be boys
and they're going to do it anyway,
let's give our sons all the condoms they want,
so they can have all the fun they desire,
and we won't have to tell their parents they got them at school.
And we said, that's another great idea...

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Then some of our top elected officials said
it doesn't matter what we do in private as long as we do our jobs.
And we said,
it doesn't matter what anybody, including the President,
does in private as long as we have jobs and the economy is good...

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And someone else took that appreciation a step further
and published pictures of nude children
and then stepped further still by
making them available on the Internet.
And we said, everyone's entitled to free speech...

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And the entertainment industry said,
let's make TV shows and movies that promote
profanity, violence and illicit sex...
And let's record music that encourages
rape, drugs, murder, suicide, and satanic themes...
And we said,
it's just entertainment
and it has no adverse effect
and nobody takes it seriously anyway,
so go right a head!

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Now we're asking ourselves
why our children have no conscience,
why they don't know right from wrong,
and why it doesn't bother them to
kill strangers, classmates or even themselves.

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Undoubtedly,
if we thought about it long and hard enough,
we could figure it out.
I'm sure it has a great deal to do with...
"WE REAP WHAT WE SOW,"

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The ConservaTOR's Notes:  Although I agree with this e-mail to a great degree, I am also a proponent of active parenting.  Ignoring your little darlings when they act out in public is a great way for them to start sliding down this slippery slope, because you have in essence just deposited them into the hands of "the village" to raise them.  Well, parents, take a good hard look at that "village" because "the village" is in sad disrepair.  Your children aren't able to process information they receive the same way as you do.  They simply don't have the experience.  It is your job to help them experience boundaries and the consequences of violating those boundaries.  And yes, enforcing boundaries will make them temporarily unhappy.  That's because they don't know better.  But guess what: Discipline will also make them much happier in the long run.  Parenting is an awesome and gigantic task.  I dare say that if we didn't have a natural desire to procreate, we would give it up.  Oh, wait a minute!  That's why abortion is so popular!  (Different topic).  But I want to encourage you dear folks who have taken on this massive, magnificent task to "bring up a child in the way they should live, for if you do, when they are grown, they will not depart from it."  Don't be discouraged when you do everything in your power to be a proper parent and then your children do everything in their power to disprove that proverb.  They still have your upbringing planted in their hearts, and that's what they cannot depart from.  And ultimately, that may be what saves them for the really long term:  eternity.

I am also a proponent of free speech on the Internet.  However, I am not a proponent of unfiltered access in schools and libraries -- particularly access to sites that are illegal in any venue (child porn).  If taught properly, children can avoid the sexual predators who roam the Internet like wolves searching for lost sheep.  Taking that analogy a little further, they still need an involved shepherd.  Parents, at home this is you.  Teachers, at school this is you.  Librarians, if the child is old enough to go to the library without their parents, or if this is a school library, this is you.  Legislators, enforcing the law by shutting down the illegal sites and finding the predators is your shepherding task.  Filtering software designers, it's your task to design filtering software that can discern the difference between legitimate biological research and pornographic searches so that the schools and libraries can offer access with filters, but without fear of filtering out legitimate information.  And grandparents, you don't get off so easy, either!  You need to know how the Internet works!  You need to know how to avoid viruses and imposed porn sites and other things that go bump in the 'Net.  Be brave and learn.  Otherwise, when the grandkids come to visit, either in person or via the Internet, you could be the blind leading the blind.  It all boils down to taking responsibility for our families, which is precisely what many liberals are saying that we are not qualified to do.  That's when "Father Government" takes over.  (sieg heil von der Schule.  Translation: "Victory welfare from the school.")  Yikes.