Note to Americans

[Steve]

Bernard,

I hope I'd be the last person to dismiss or unduly criticize anyone with a feminist bent. It seems clear that at least on average that movement has been heading in the right direction. I believe womens' rights has been a (maybe "the") crucial factor in finding ourselves where we are. My observation has been that women have in general more often shown what I consider to be real courage than have men, and I admire the heck out of these people for it.

BUT Notice that Roosevelt uses the phrase "close to home", not "at home", which is the essence of Astrid Lindgren's Never Violence speech. I'll concede that in her time "at home" likely would have been perceived as "too radical". I discovered last night that even Andrew Vachss' fine US lobbying group PROTECT specifically excludes "spanking" in it's mission statement, considering it "too divisive" an issue for a mainstream effort. At least Roosevelt includes schools in her list.

Far as the UN is concerned, if Lindgren's message could just finally sink in all those people could just go home and I dunno, spend time with their kids or something.

While I'm at it I'd like to just mention: "Radical" has become a misused word. It means "root", not "extremist". There's a difference.

[Steve]

Stuff's still happening in Texas. Rally this Friday:

http://nospank.net/tx-rally.htm

Steve

[Steve]

4 Days: Abuse of America's Poorest School Children Will Persist and Escalate if...‏

...Americans remain silent on this issue.


The Hitting Stops Here! will extend the “Fight the Paddle” event, scheduled for Friday, December 3, by following it with an “around-the-clock” campaign beginning that night outside of the Texas State Capitol until HR 5628 becomes law.


The Friday event, which will be joined by Ecko Unlimited staff and Mr. Marc Ecko’s camera crews, is scheduled to begin 3:30-6:30pm. Mr. Marc Ecko,is taking a stand so that American school children will no longer be defenseless victims of sexual battery misrepresented as "discipline" (see flyer: http://thehittingstopshere.com/ecko.poster.pdf).


Parents from paddling states including Tennessee, Alabama, Arkansas and remote parts of Texas are traveling to tell Mr. Ecko their stories of American school abuse.


We urge every responsible adult to help push the “Ending Corporal Punishment in Schools Act,” HR 5628 through the “lame duck session” where US Congressional leaders empowered to protect our American children from harm, await its expiration date, which is only days away.


The “lame duck session” is the last chance for HR 5628 to be pushed through.


The 13th amendment was necessary to end the sanctioned brutal treatment of slaves. HR 5628 is necessary to end the sanctioned brutal treatment of America’s school children who are mostly poor, disadvantaged and those having special needs.



Congress is still in session! Please call:

Speaker of the House, Nancy Pelosi (202) 225-4965

Rep. Steny Hoyer (202) 225-4131


Sample message:

Protect our American school children. Advance HR 5628 to the House floor today! Thank you.


We invite all US citizens to join us at the “Fight the Paddle” campaign-rally.


Our sincere gratitude goes out to Mr. Ecko and his staff for demonstrating their concern for American school children.


Paula Flowe, Exec. Director

Jestin Samson, Asst. Exec. Director

The Hitting Stops Here!

A campaign for teaching kindness and respect in schools everywhere.

http://www.TheHittingStopsHere.com

info@thehittingstopshere.com

408.509.6835

[Steve]

sf,

You're right. And this is just about schools. A relative minority of them at that. Tip of the iceberg. Even most parents who insist on retaining the "right" to beat at least their own kids oppose school corporal punishment, but what we have is no action and deafening silence. I agree with what I think is your underlying sentiment, that legislation ought not even be necessary. Today's rally may stand the best chance yet of starting discussion.

Thanks for speaking out.

Steve

[Bernard]

I didn't detect that sf said legislation ought not to be necessary. In the real world it's the only way to speed up the spread of non-abusive, "helping mode" child-rearing. I have great admiration for Paula Flowe's activism. Political and legislative action is what's needed.

If you type the words Convention on the Rights of the Child into Google you get results on the United Nations Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities mixed-in.... because it also mentions children. If you type the words Lloyd deMause into Google you get results for pages that - just by coincidence - have some other person with the same surname and someone else with the same first name. So you have to put the words within quotes.

Web Results 1 - 10 of about 12,900 for "Lloyd deMause"
Web Results 1 - 10 of about 427,000 for "Alice Miller"
Web Results 1 - 10 of about 2,590,000 for "Convention on the Rights of the Child"

In the case of "Alice Miller" you can't avoid spurious results mixed-in.... because there are other notable people called Alice Miller (see Wikipedia's disambiguation page - en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alice_Miller).... plus Genealogy websites and university professors called Alice Miller. And quite a few of the Miller & DeMause results are on this forum.

The biggest irony is that Alice Miller and Lloyd deMause never even acknowledged that the 1989 Convention on the Rights of the Child exists!

[Steve]

Bernard,

Let's make the point about legislation mine then.

A couple months ago I had the chance to get into a conversation with a therapist who's worked pretty much exclusively in state forensic hospitals. "Alice who?" she said. She hadn't heard of Jonathan Pincus either. I'd say she was more than grateful for the information. Gladly took a "Plain Talk" booklet too. Of course the best bet is prevention--and that fact lies on top of the basic reality that hitting a kid is morally bankrupt in it's own rite--but Miller says herself "We put these people in prison because we don't know what else to do with them." (Sorry, can't source it, one of her books.) And she's right. Since we believe so strongly in limited government here, our legislatures are simply too few and dinky to fit them all in.

Google's great. A guy in New York figured out that if he abused enough of his customers badly enough there'd be plenty of Internet chatter about him--which keeps his company at the top of Google's search list.

No news yet about the Texas rally.

Steve

[Bernard]

"Alice who?" she said. She hadn't heard of Jonathan Pincus either. I'd say she was more than grateful for the information.

As a therapist for state forensic hospitals she would likely be open-minded to this kind of information. The difficulty is to influence conservatives who are in denial about childhood maltreatment. But there is an upside....

Google's great. A guy in New York figured out that if he abused enough of his customers badly enough there'd be plenty of Internet chatter about him--which keeps his company at the top of Google's search list.

Rabid Republicans are helping to raise the profile of the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child in the same way. The Parental Rights Amendment website mentions it. Legions of right-wing American bloggers rant against it. Their objections must seem utterly ludicrous to normal people, so they're helping the cause indirectly.

An Irish children's rights organization posted a video for kids about the UN Convention on YouTube. There was a comment from a user calling himself "godchaser33" who compared it to the Nazi indoctrination of 'Hitler Youth'. Hilarious!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y_2nA49p3yw

[Bernard]

I didn't mean to be facetious when I said the comment by "godchaser33" was hilarious. Put it this way.... Were the Nazis trying to defend human rights for German youth? The brother and sister activists for Peace & Justice, Hans & Sophie Scholl (Aryan Germans), were executed by the Nazis along with their supporters at the University of Munich. Alice Miller mentioned them. It brings to mind the massacre of students at Kent State University by the Ohio National Guard in 1970.

[Steve]

More information and links from the Youtube page:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FXh3qFZyhYg

And just because I feel like it:



Steve