Newsgroups: ca.driving
Subject: Re: Change in enforcement policy. (was Re: new law)
From: wallich@ncd.com (Ken Wallich)
Date: 5 Jan 93 01:17:22 GMT
Reply-To: wallich@ncd.com (Ken Wallich)
Followup-To: alt.civil-liberties

john@zygot.ati.com (John Higdon) writes:

>In article <13758@optilink.COM> calley@optilink.COM (Chris Calley) writes:

>>1. It attempts to protect passengers, especially children, whose idiot parents
>>would otherwise not use seat belts for their children.

>Who is raising the children, the parents or the state?

Well, that depends on what you mean by 'raise'.  From what I've
observed, you are allowed a certain amount of discression on the
day-to-day matters of raising a child, but there are arbitrary
guidelines the state inforces, and if, as a parent, you step outside
the boundaries of what the state considers proper parenting, plan on
the parents getting arrested, and the child moved to a state appointed
location to be raised for a period of time the state will decide.

Take, for instance, two recent stories I heard about.  One was 3 or 4
children (ages between 3-12, I think) that were left home alone while
there parents went on a several week trip to Hawaii.  When they
returned, the police were waiting and arrested them.  More recently,
an 18 month old baby was left in a hotel room, and was heard crying by
the hotel staff.  They entered the room, and after 50 minutes, the
father came back to the room, and they arrested him.  They then found
the mother in the casino and arrested her as well, both were charged
with "child endangerment".

I'm not going to try to support or condemn the actions of these
parents, I just want to point out that the state already makes
decisions about how you are allowed to raise your child (no corporal
punishment or other 'severe' punishment like I had (or had the threat
of) when I was a child, or my father had, or his father before him).
I think the folks who complain about not feeling safe in their homes
should look at the type of citizens our state-enforced "kinder and
gentler" child-rearing techniques are turning out.  

I'm not trying to blame all of societies ills on not being able spank
your child with your belt, but societies' problems are complex, and
most of it stems from people not wanting to take responsibility for
their own actions, and *requiring* that the state do it for them.  In
many ways, the government is not just "taking control", it's doing
what a large percentage of the people want.  For those of us that not
only don't want that type of protection, but see it as the downfall of
one of the pillars of what our society was suppose to be founded on,
this is truely a sad time.  For those that think they are being made
safer by this constant intrusion on our liberty, your grandchildren
would curse your decaying remains, if their society tolerated such
thoughts.  But I'm sure such thoughts will be deemed "unsafe" by then.

John and I agree on everything else, so I won't bother to restate all
of it, he's doing just fine.

This, of course, has almost *nothing* to do with driving, except for
those who drive with children passengers.  I'd suggest taking it to
alt.civil-liberties, as my 'followup' would indicate.

-- 
---
Ken Wallich

wallich@ncd.com ~ ken@wallich.com ~ kmw@al.org ~ [...]decwrl!vixie!amber!ken