The American Spectator

br> — Howard Hirsch br> Carson City, Nevada /p>

Jerry Carter’s article on the sniper and the children was, to use the phrase, right on target. The Horndog president and his fright of a wife made a career of pushing their socialist programs by using the mantra of “for the children” to give us an eight-year nightmare of the Clinton administration. If they were truly “for the children,” they would have pushed for more tax cuts, less government, giving real meaning to the rights as outlined in the Constitution, ended welfare, rewarded hard work, cracked down on criminal behavior at all levels, become champions of the free enterprise system — in short, adopted the principles of conservatives and self-sufficiency.

Now, the sniper case becomes more important because a kid was hit with one of the shots. Why is this any more important than a middle aged man or woman being shot? At what age does someone move from “innocent childhood” to nondescript adulthood? I worked my entire professional life in the government schools so I know about doing something “for the children” is all about. One thing for sure that is a waste of time and money is focusing on and pampering the children. This inflated self-esteem movement running amok in our schools is a disaster because it results in spoiled brats who expect that the world owes them a living rather than buckling down and doing the hard work necessary of be successful. Those who push this nutty self-esteem program are doing it, again, “for the children.”

Finally, there is the hypocrisy of the feminazis in the left who regularly castigate those women to choose to stay home with their kids and those who choose life over infanticide which is called abortion or, in their warped sense, choice. Hillary and company tout the “village” in child rearing which is nothing more than a shadow of the communist collective view of state-controlled parenthood. Did those kids grow up to be the promise of tomorrow? That concept has spawned such fiscal black holes as Head Start, a program that has not had any lasting positive long term effects. All of this under the mantra of “for the children.”

p>Instead of short term feel good nonsense programs, we need to focus on the end result. My idea of the goal of public education was to produce fully-functioning self-sufficient adults. Not pampered, spoiled and phony self-esteem filled brats. Kids are important but they are only part of society; they are not society. br> — Al Martin br> Portland, OR /p> p> Way to go, Jerry! I’m sure you will receive all sorts of flack about this, but it’s the unvarnished truth. A life is a life is a life. To see just how gullible the “great unwashed” is about this “children” appeal, one has to look no farther than Hillary’s It Takes A Village .