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Tuesday, 14 February 2023
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Written by John Hood
The “problem” with freedom is that other people may do things that trouble, annoy, or even anger you. In a free society, you have no legitimate authority to stop them.
Strictly speaking, that’s not a problem. It’s a solution. Throughout human history, much suffering has derived from a lack of freedom.
One faction obtained government power, wielded it to impose its values on others, and then either successfully or unsuccessfully made its imposition stick with violence or intimidation.
Another faction, aggrieved, eventually obtained power of its own, and the cycle of strife recurred.
Freedom is necessary for living together peaceably in a world of conflicting values — which is, in fact, the only world we’ve got.
If you are free to worship Baal and I am free to worship God, one of us is likely to be in dire moral peril. But at least I am not also fearful of being tyrannized or killed for acting on my beliefs, and you can say the same.
Moreover, in a free society I have more than just the right to worship as I please. I also have the right to attempt to evangelize you, just as you have the right to try to sell me the full Baal-Believers benefits package, complete with free Ginsu knives for ritual sacrifice (did you know they can cut through these tin cans as easily as through a ripe tomato?)
Of course, in a free society, there’s nothing that says one has to listen. Therein lies the “problem.”
In my experience, liberty lovers fail to appreciate how difficult it is for most human beings to handle not being listened to, and to be confronted with the fact that others are doing something self-destructive or wrong but can’t be enjoined from continuing.
Such psychic pain is also an inalienable facet of human nature. It can be excruciating.
Yielding to the temptation to use government coercion to make this pain go away is wrong — no less than yielding to other kinds of injurious temptations — but surely one can understand why it happens.
It has become fashionable in modern society to attribute this behavior primarily to religious conservatives, typically portrayed as puritanical busybodies or hypocrites. But I find at least as much willingness among groups on the political Left to use governmental coercion to impose their beliefs.
On public university campuses, they restrict free speech and require participation in tendentious diversity training.
In legislative bodies and regulatory agencies, they seek restrictions on advertising, either because they don’t like the products being sold or they don’t like consumers are smart enough to understand the claims made.
They claim the right to impose restrictions on wages, prices, working hours, and other conditions of employment regardless of what the parties to an employment contract may seek or think is fair.
They think it’s okay to force taxpayers with strongly held moral or religious views to fund obscene art or social-justice activism but think it’s outrageous that taxpayer money goes to educational institutions and social-service nonprofits that teach or adhere to traditional views.
Freedom isn’t easy. It requires us to be grown-ups, to settle for living in a society in which some people, no matter how hard we try, just aren’t going to do what we say or believe what we believe.
It requires hippies to respect the rights of fundamentalists, and those with less to respect the rights of those with more, and gays to respect the rights of straights, and pacifists to respect the rights of hunters. Yes, it also means the reverse in each case. It works both ways.
Yielding to the temptation to coerce inevitably creates a more serious problem than the problem of learning to live with daily annoyances and outrages — just as yielding to a strong temptation to drink or overeat can make one feel good in the short run but cause severe harm in the long run. I guess it’s time for a new 12-step program.
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Tuesday, 14 February 2023
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Written by Laura Macklem, Carolina Journal
A parade of teachers and activists stood in front of the long table of senators Monday night, Feb. 6, labeling parents as abusive, volatile, unsafe adults whose involvement in their children’s difficult journeys in self-discovery would lead to suicide, self-harm and death.
The militant message boldly asserts that parents are the enemies, and secrecy between schools and children should be ordained by the state.
During the Senate Rules Committee hearing about the Parents Bill of Rights, Democrat state Sen. Julie Mayfield said children face “withering inquisitions from parents” about their gender confusion, painting parents as berating outsiders instead of concerned family members.
Senators were asked by activists to trust schools as secret keepers of “affirming spaces” and that asserted any attempt for parents to be informed about pronoun changes was “policing queerness.”
Sen. Amy Galey, the Republican bill sponsor, reminded attendees that SB 49 makes provisions for rare instances where children might be subject to abuse if parents learn about their child’s chosen identity. But that provision wasn’t quite enough to satisfy anti-parental rights activists, who want parents left out in the cold while school employees usurp the moral and emotional guidance of other people’s children.
In the last two months, there have been 13 documented sex crimes by North Carolina school employees, one charge for larceny, four for assault, one for being drunk while teaching, and another for child pornography. Considering the number of crimes, with the majority being sexual and assault charges, the school system and their activists are in no position to claim moral authority over parents.
In fact, between the sexual assault by school employees, the bullying, violence, and drug use, it seems schools are one of the least safe spaces for children.
Speakers in favor of SB 49 gave shocking examples of why transparency is needed, detailing graphic sexual storylines in books offered in schools and gender confusing books aimed at kindergartners.
A retired Orange County school teacher of 16 years said in a statement to the committee, “these books in media center would make grown people blush… We are supposed to protect our children, not harm them.” She added that being asked to use alternative pronouns contributed to her decision to retire early.
NC Values Coalition executive director Tami Fitzgerald told the committee that Charlotte Mecklenburg School District started using “Welcoming Schools” in 2016, a teacher development program directing teachers to incorporate sexual orientation and gender identity into lesson plans.
Sen. Amy Galey has been the “mom representative” for many — she speaks on behalf of most moms in the state. Very plainly, Galey said in a press conference, “It baffles me to think that this bill could be divisive, quite frankly. I cannot understand why it would be controversial to say that children 5-6-7-8-9 years old should not be taught about sexuality or sexual activity in a public school classroom.”
The campaign to shut parents out while school administrators provide pornography, keep secrets, and indoctrinate children is indeed baffling. It’s especially troubling that the pattern follows grooming tactics, which include gaining access, trust development, isolating children from parents, and desensitizing children to sexual material by slowly exposing it to them. If you reference the Pavement Education Project’s website at www.pavementeducationproject.com/ you can see examples of pornography and books on gender ideology by county and school in North Carolina.
As one speaker put it, there is no academic value in teaching children about gender fluidity or showing them sexually explicit material. Schools should stick to academics and leave cultural issues to the family.
None of this happens suddenly; it’s been a slow drip of agenda-driven curriculum brought to parents’ attention largely during COVID shutdowns. The activists paint themselves as victims of parents who are in the wings, waiting to violently abuse their children because of gender confusion.
Teachers who spoke positioned themselves as necessary parental surrogates, the first adults who should rightfully respond to students’ personal struggles.
The character assassination of parents is simply a way to gain exclusive access to children, cutting out parents to influence an agenda.
Thankfully, the Senate passed S.B. 49. As the House considers a response, I hope members will consider the harmful toll educational agendas have taken on our children.
While test scores continue to fall, mental health problems and gender confusion continue to rise. Schools are failing in their mission to provide a solid education that will prepare students to become productive, educated members of society.
They should leave moral and personal matters to families.
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