Dec. 11, 2005 - 22:25 MST

THE VILLAGE AND ITS IDIOTS

An article in the Denver Post - Rocky Mountain News joint Sunday edition has an article by Ed Quillen, a Denver Post Columnist and former editor of a newspaper. He lives in Salida, Colorado west of the Continental Divide. Quoting in full, italics and bolds mine:

"When Hilary Rodham Clinton, now a senator from New York but then the nation's first lady, issured a book called "It Takes A Village," various right-thinkers complained about its thesis. The title came from an African proverb, "It takes a village to raise a child," and the critics said this was wrong: Famililes, not villages, raise children in this country."

While there is merit in that criticism, it does seem odd that certain eight-thinkekrs have been trying to transfer some child-rearing responsibilities from parents to the "village" -- that is, society at large."

"That came up last week when the Senate Commerce Committee held a day-long forum on indecency in cable and satellite television programming. Currently, there are federal standards for regular broadcaast television, but not for cable and satellite, where the Federal Communications Commission does not have authority -- but Congress could grant that power to the FCC"

"Programs with sex and obscenitiy should be limited to adult viewers, FCC Chair Kevin Martin said, and, "Parents need better and more tools to help them navigate the entertainment waters, particularly on cable and satellite TV." And the Christian Coalition wnts to increase the fine for indecent broadcasting from $32,500 to $500,000 per incident."

"If some juvenile psyches are tainted by exposure to something on TV, isn't it the parents' job to protect their children ?"

"Note that the First Amendment to the federal constitution says, CONGRESS SHALL MAKE NO LAW . . . . ABRIDGING THE FREEDOM OF SPEECH. That seems pretty clear. No law. There is no exception for the protection of youthful eyes and ears. Congress seems to be exceeding its constitutional powers even to consider decency provisions."

"To move on, I must confess that I don't spend much time shopping for television sets. The one we have now works fine. So I might have missed something new in the electronics department, but to date, every TV set I've seen has an OFF switch and a channel changer. And many of these can be programmed to allow only certain channels, so parents can limit what their children watch."

"However, the FCC's Martin told Congress. "You can always turn the television off and of course block the channels you don't want, but why should you have to ?"

"Now we are getting to the real issue. Martin is perfectly capable of customizing his family's TV fare, but he's too lazy. He wants the government to do it for him."

"As for all those right-thinking parents, many of them the same folks who mocked the "it takes a village" they must be too busy to keep track of what their children watch. Or perhaps they hate being around their children , and want to be able to shunt them off to a separate room with their own TV sets. They want an electronic babysitter. They want the "village" to raise their children."

"And there's another problem with federal standards -- whose standards should apply ?"

"Years ago, I read bedtime stories to our daughters. To keep from getting bored myself, I looked for material of some literary merit, like E. B. White (Charlotte's Web,") Stuart Little, ("The Trumpet Of The Swan"), Homer and Virgil. A friend suggested "The Chronicles of Narnia" series by C.S. Lewis, and they were good reading, up to a point."

"The point when the characters Lucy and Susan, approximately the same age as our daughters then, were not allowed to join the boys in battle, just because they were girls. I started to explain that the books were written back in the 1950s, when people thought differently."

"Eventually I decided that I really didn't want my daughters to hear anyone say that there was something they couldn't do just because they were girls. This, after all, was not some ancient epic like the Illiad, which underlies Western literatiure even if it is sexist. It was a relatively modern fantasy. So I found something else for their bedtime stories."

" "Other parents might have made a different decision. And that's the point. It's a parental decision, not a "village" decision or an FCC decision. And if some parents are too lazy to do their jobs, why does that mean that my choices of television programming should be limited ? Why not tell them to be with their kids, instad of pestering the FCC and Congress ?"

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I tend to agree with Mr. Quillen for the most part, although we might go different routes in picking reading material for bedtime stories and child rearing methods. After all difference is what makes this a country of freedom, something our countrymen have worked for many, many years and have gravely hurt each other at times to obtain the freedom for each of us to exist as the rest of us do.

Of course I suppose the "Intelligent Design" folks and "Faith Based" types want the "village" to contort itself to teach all children in our country their version of what their version of decency and so forth is."

To my simple mind I see no conflict between religious belief and the intelligent design theory - - - - but what chaps my lips is the further interpretations applied. And some of those interpretations are dillies, disregarding scientific exploration, carbon dating and many other things. To me it seems to be such a simple thing. It looks to me that the Intelligent Designer had the thought, did the designing, Prototyped animals of various kinds including man's forerunners and put his design into practise. Oversimplified I know. But why should there be nit-picking arguments from either side ? When I was a little tot, everything about my parents and their actions was a Mystery to me -- everything. I had all the faith in the world that they loved me and were guiding me in the right direction. Oh, I misbehaved, because I was and still am human. I suffered some consequences now and then for such actions.

I expect most of us came up that very same way, but a lot of us differ. I accept the mystery of the Intelligent Designer the same way I accepted the mystery of my folks. And have faith, faith that is and will be with me forevermore.

The "village" didn't raise me, hell the "village" was horrified that Doug was a kid whose Mom and Dad both worked for a living and thus was at home alone after school and all summer. The "village" blamed every dad-burned thing that happened in our neighborhood on me because I was "the home alone kid." But my parents led me in the right direction and I have tried to go the right way, with a modicum of success.

I remember when I was a little kid and listening to the adults talk, often some one would reply to a tirade of another's and in a manner of agreement say, "Yeah, there oughta be a law," as if that would solve anything. Now we have more laws, some of which conflict, than ever before in our existence. I can't see where we are very much better off.

Now groups of people are trying to regulate how we think, how we feel and what literature and TV shows we watch. I think Mr. Quillen has the right idea, it is time for parents to get busy and do their jobs instead of trying to leave it up to THE VILLAGE AND ITS IDIOTS . . . . . . . . . . . . .

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