They train our kids for war. This they call compassion & concern.
I call BULLSHIT! It's nothing more than kiddie boot camp! In a word, brainwashing.
This story was on the front page of our local newspaper recently.
About face: Military component added to McComb alternative school
When students at Summit Academy start school on Aug. 7, it will be like nothing they've ever experienced. The alternative school, operated by the McComb School District, has done an about-face, adding a military component to the curriculum and a heavily structured day for all students who are sent to the campus for violating school district policy.
From the moment the roughly 50 students in grades 7 to 12 step on the bus until the moment they stop off in the afternoon, they'll be required to follow strict rules. Once at school in Summit, they'll take their place ..ed footprints outside and stand at attention.
Awaiting them will be 58-year-old Sgt. Maj. Robert McHenry, a seasoned Marine and former ROTC instructor in the East Marion School District.
"I've been wearing this uniform for over 30 years," McHenry said during a visit to Summit Academy on Friday. "It can be fun, or it can be their worst nightmare. There will be no abuse (by any staffers), but rules will have to be obeyed. ... It's our way or the highway."
Of course that's just an excerpt. To really grasp my misgivings you have to read the whole article. And it's available online here:
http://www.enterprise-journal.com/articles/2008/07/21/news/01.txt
But more disturbing to me than the article was the way our community praised this program of fascist indoctrination. It disturbs me to see how easily we Americans surrender our rights and how conditioned we've become to smiling and thanking our oppressors.
One in our community wrote a comment upon this article which quite galled me in it's ignorance. They commented: "It is sad that the community has to take action to control young people today and be the ones to discipline them, instead of the parents doing this at home. "
I could remain silent no longer, thus added my own comment.
Yes. Once upon a time it was the parents who disciplined the children. They were OUR children & OUR responsibility. And as such, family honor and loyalty to ones family were of great personal value.
And it was this sentiment which led young men to enlist in the service. Especially in time of war. We fought, not to protect corporate interests or a political ideology, but rather to keep those who would threaten our families from arriving upon our doorstep and telling us that we must conform and comply with the standards of their State or face the consequences of forced labor and death camps.
If you've still a family member who enlisted or was drafted into the military during WWII you should consider what they fought for. If you've a relative who died in that war, you might honor their sacrifice by considering what they believed they were giving their life for. It was for you! They died so that, in this day and age, you might still know a nation wherein one was entitled to the pursuits of Life, Liberty and Happiness!
And in their era, we as Americans were afforded such freedom because of the fact that at home we were each given the understanding that wrongful and shameful behavior would be dealt with firmly. Parents were expected to tame their children, and parents did so without fear of intervention by the State. And though not all parents succeeded, most produced honorable, responsible and decent citizens. Each generation earned it's rights anew.
Still though, as the saying goes, one bad apple can ruin the whole bunch. And we're more prone to pay attention to tragedy than we are to praise a job well done. Thus the truly abused children, though a comparitive minority, gained the attention and sympathy of the nation. Bit by bit we began to relinquish our rights as parents.
Resultingly the State was able to pull a swift one on us and steal custody of our children. The system now in place says we must care for the needs of our children, but that we are no longer considered competent to attend to their well being and can no longer be trusted to shape who they become. Parents must now live in fear of the State in terms of disciplining their children. Thus, in effect, OUR children are no longer ours but THEIRS by default.
This is what we have become, and I believe, it is what those who would see the citizenry become dis-empowered have always intended for this nation.
By taking power from the parents, but not the responsibility, the State has, over time brought about a society as was envisioned and forewarned by the author George Orwell in his novel 1984. In it he wrote of a society wherein our sole loyalty was to be to the State. Family loyalty was considered to be a punishable "thought crime". And our children were not only encouraged to report upon us, but were taught that they would be rewarded when they did so. And that too is what we see today.
The notion of family values or the expectation of a child's obedience to his or her parents is in sharp contrast to the needs of a government which seeks to rule rather than serve it's people.
Far better that the parents be kept fearful of their children and be forced to let the children do or say as they please until the State steps up and pretends to be the hero by saying, Mom, Dad, you seem to be having a bit of trouble with your child. Here, let me raise them for you. The parent then becomes, in the eyes of the child, a bumbling fool, something obsolete and unworthy of their respect. The State in this manner wins the hearts and minds of our children to manipulate and control them as best suits of it's ever changing whim.
In a word, our youth become slaves. Generations are bought and sold without notice. Individuality vanishes and great minds cease to be produced. In their place nothing but trends and empty minds. Sheep are ill equiped to observe their lack of freedom.
This has, in one manner or another, been the way of all dictatorial governments. It was the way of Germany in 1934 with their Hitler Youth campaign. And it is, in part, what our grandparents and great grandparents fought against.
As to Summit Academy and any similar institutions, be they guided by social workers or drill instructors, I have no doubt they are staffed by those whose intentions are good at heart. But such institutions are no substitute for a parent empowered with the freedom and authority to properly raise a responsible and decent child.
I find it saddening to the point of disaster that we as parents should continue to allow government at the federal, state or local level do our job for us.
If we've the courage to speak loudly against rising fuel costs, could we not also find the strength of spirit to do our children the kindness they deserve? Have we still the will to raise our voice, individually and collectivly, in adamant opposition to the policies which have led us in this woeful direction? Will we make no attempt to resist the virtual kidnapping of the ones we love most?
We must ask ourselves, is it desirable that our youth be raised by police in order to keep them from being, one day arrested? Or does it better please us to police our own children, and in so doing arrest the continued erosion of the sovernity of family and the importance of our children being raised by the people who love them?
I fear we've forgotten our place both as parents, and as Americans. Daily we are increasingly told to ""Think Green". But, the home is also an environment worth saving.
We still have the right to oppose the direction things are going. And we owe it to our eventual grandchildren to make the effort.
