Social Commentary

I've tried to avoid doing a much of any social commentary on this blog since, if I get started, I'd probably be spewing propaganda for weeks. However, I ran across a brief article in the latest Newsweek that really summed up a whole lot of today's problems for me.

The article was about a new trend, which I generally support, to hold parents responsible for the crimes of their minor children. Even though I'm a liberal on most issues, I do believe that the primary responsibility for giving kids a moral basis lies with the family, not with the schools or the government. I think there's a roll for everybody to play, but the lynch pin is the home. So, it makes sense to me that, if kids go wrong early, there should be consequences for their parents.

But come on -- let's at least be logical about this and send the message we want kids to get. In Louisiana, a parent can be fined $250 if their child joins a gang. Not much, but a start. In California, if a parent provides, intentionally or accidentally, a gun to a child who then goes on to seriously injure or kill somebody, the parent can be fined $30,000. OK, better. However, there is now a federal law that says, if a child illegally downloads a song from the Internet, the parent can be fined up to $150,000!!!

Now that we have are child-rearing philosophy straight, let me provide the obvious advice to those of you who still have kids at home. If you're thinking about buying your child an mp3 player, forget it. It's a whole lot cheaper to get them a handgun! And if you really want to be financially responsible, forget the Kazaa account, take the kid shopping for gang colors!

Makes you proud to be an American!