Attention United States Senators | Eastern North Carolina Now

    Joe Biden is wrong.  The left is wrong.  My God-given, constitutionally protected right to "keep and bear arms" is absolute and inviolate.

    We have an inherent right to protect ourselves and others from a lone attacker, from a mob, or from an overreaching government that is attempting to usurp our rights.  Any restrictive legislation is an unconstitutional infringement.  Because it is, it is also null and void on its face; unconstitutional "law" is an oxymoron.

    The left is having a hissy fit about "gun violence killing children," but "guns" did not kill the innocent children and adults in Uvalde, a mentally ill, immoral young man who was completely disconnected from whatever humanity he once had did.  The person is the problem; the weapon he chose is immaterial.  If we fail to focus on the problem, we will fail to solve it.  Please, vote "NO" on all proposed anti-2nd Amendment legislation, and persuade others to do the same.

    As for the real problem, that is not a mystery either.  It took a long time to get here, but now we're really "in the soup."

    Many children and young people are insecure and anxious.  Many of them spend more time living vicariously through what appears on the screens of their devices than they do in the real world with flesh and blood people, and we wonder why they don't interact with their peers or with adults well.  Many of them also spend a lot of time playing violent video games, and we wonder why they aren't more sensitive to the pain of others.  Many of them get ridiculed on social media and learn the art of making sarcastic comments from the relative "safety" of their devices.  None of this is good, but it is part of what is generally expected in our modern "instant gratification" world of communication.  It takes very alert, aware, vigilant parents to foil these disturbers of a good childhood and a good growing into adulthood, but good parenting can overcome them.

    Our public schools are chock-a-block full of things that tend to disturb the mental health,  confidence, and security of young children and teens.  Our public schools are also lacking when it comes to teaching students the things that lead to successful lives and good citizenship.

    The negatives in our government run schools include the teaching of "critical race theory."  This doozy of a theory holds that all white people are racists and insists that all white people have unearned special privilege, while all darker skinned people are victims, and that nothing short of giving them equal "things" by forcing others to give those "things" up will create an "equal outcome" which is presented as "social justice."  I say, "Hogwash!"  Belief in those things makes children loathe themselves AND the people who oppress them or who unload a sense of guilt on them.  It is a real abuse of every child subjected to it.

    The attempt to confuse children in public schools about so-called "gender fluidity" is another huge negative version of child abuse.  It does confuse them.  Some boys have some traits that are typically thought of as feminine, and vice-versa, but boys are boys, and girls are girls, and schools have no business wasting time and doing harm by discussing which pronoun to use for them!  The tragedy is that more and more children and young people are experiencing "gender dysphoria" as a result.  It's being brought on artificially and unnecessarily!

    Then there's all the nonsense that is ushered in under the term "social and emotional learning."  There's the pornography in the texts and library books.  There are the assertions at every turn that educational professional "experts" know best, and the additional assertion (often repeated) that the students' parents don't know what they're talking about.  There are the attempts (often successful) to usurp the health care and gender dysphoria decisions of parents (often without the parents' knowledge).

    How did we get here and what should we do about it?

    For starters, we got here by forming the U.S. Department of Education and by taking prayer out of public schools.  Senators, read it, please; the U.S. Constitution does not give the federal government any responsibility or authority for public schools, and it DOES prohibit congress from making any law regarding the establishment of religion or PROHIBITING THE FREE EXERCISE THEREOF.  So actually, the Constitution says the federal government cannot take prayer out of schools.  I suggest that the place to start is to abolish the U.S. Department of Education so that full responsibility for education is returned to the states, to the local jurisdictions, to the taxpayers who pay for them, AND that we recognize that parents have the primary responsibility for their child's health, well-being, education, and preparation for a healthy, responsible adulthood.  Parents, I suggest you consider going back to church (if you have left it) and taking your children with you.

    One size does not fit all.  The "laboratory" of the states and localities is a good place to sort out what society is willing to contribute to public education.  A well-educated populace contributes to prosperity and good citizenship, so we all have an enlightened self-interest in our community's getting it right, but parents are first in line because the nuclear family and the Judeo-Christian morality is the foundation of our American society as it was formed and as it functioned well and happily for a number of years.

    I suggest that "we the people" need to make a serious push to find, recruit, and elect local Boards of Education members who see a need for removing all the unwholesome influences from our public schools, and put useful instruction back in.  For example, studies have shown that people who learn to read using phonics enjoy reading and are much better at understanding what they read than are people who learned to remember "site words," so let's teach phonics!  Let's return to old fashioned math.  Let's teach our founding history and our founding documents.  Let's return classics to our libraries and remove the smut.  Let's have active parent/teacher organizations who actually communicate with each other and work together to help each student become the best, most successful, happiest person he or she is capable of, and let's put the issue of race into the ash heap it belongs in.  Race is not a determining factor.  Good parenting is.  Good teaching of useful things is a strong factor.  Hard work is also a factor.  Desire is a big factor.  Perseverance is another.  The real truth is that we won't really have to worry a great deal about the mental health of children and young people if we nurture them instead of forcing mental illness on them!