Parental Rights in Jeopardy

Welcome to my inaugral entry into blog moderation.

In the past four months, I have undergone a transformation which I recommend for all parents that cherish their freedoms. The quiet, yet fretful, father-physician, that I once was, has metamorphosized into a unquenchably passionate activist, addicted to defending our right to parent. Every effect requires a cause, and such a powerful effect requires an equally great cause.

With that introduction, I come to my point, "What was the cause of my metamorphosis?" In February, I learned of a threat to the American way of life so great that I could no longer linger in my intentional denial of the changes taking place in our country. That was when I learned of the forces gathering to ratify the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child. I will not provide the details now, but I will strip away those layers of flesh to reveal the heart of this issue that provides me with such passion and motivation.

The heart of the issue is bound up in the consequences of ideas. All ideas have consequences; they do not happen in a vaccum, devoid of impact. The idea here is the philosophy that government, its officials, its experts, its bureaucracy, and all their trappings know what is best for the individual citizen and furthermore should force it upon them. Despite the antithetical nature of this philosophy to the foundations of America's republican form of government, many Americans are promoting this philosophy in the form of this United Nations treaty. They sincerely believe that they, in their roles of government leadership and expert opinion, know better than a child's own parents what is best for the individual child. They reach beyond claiming knowledge of the best common good and intrude into decisions for the individual good of families, particularly the children.

By claiming this superior wisdom and seeking the power of this treaty to implement it in our great nation, they will strip parents of the very right to pass values, tradition, and beliefs to their next generation. They claim high motives of protecting against child abuse, protecting from unhealthy influences by parents, assuring the proper education of all children, and so much more. They practically claim that they will provide salvation of all that is bad in the world for children. This mostly means salvation from parents and parental influence.

There I find myself, engulfed in the flames of passion, hearing forces claiming that we as parents do not possess the wisdom nor the intention to provide what they deem "best" for our own children. I will give up many privileges, many perks, many luxuries, but I will never, ever, give up the right to raise my children and direct the provision of all that is good for their growth into mature citizens of our great nation.

Therefore, I work against this United Nations Convention of the Rights of the Child and for a Parental Rights Amendment which I believe after much research is our best hope against the gathering forces for the treaty.

Please refer to www.parentalrights.org for further background on this treaty. If you live in Tennessee, search Tennessee on that website for our Tennessee webpage.