What Kind of Parents Nurture Leftist America?

[Confederate Kahanist]

http://www.jbs.org/jbs-news-feed/6110-what-kind-of-parents-nurture-leftist-america



Yet another off-the-wall lawsuit is sparking debate, this time in Mississippi. A lesbian teenager, Constance McMillen, declared her intention to show up for the senior prom wearing a tuxedo with her female date. School officials gave the idea a thumbs-down, which, of course, sparked the interest of the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) — a long-time leftist front group that never saw a sordid cause they didn’t like. With the parents’ blessings, attorneys for the girl confronted school officials, claiming they had violated the girl’s free-expression rights and threatening a lawsuit. So the Itawamba County School District canceled the April 2 prom rather than give in.

Now the girl in question has the gall to be upset because she is “facing hostility” from classmates who (understandably) blame her for “ruining” their senior year, and she is suing the school to try to force them to put on the prom.

No doubt the ACLU can be counted on to declare such expressions of disdain by students “hate speech.”

Where are all these prickly parents of loony kids coming from? They seem to be everywhere these days, as if every adult doesn’t have enough to do, what with nonstop bureaucratic paperwork, cellphones to program, and “traffic” cameras to negotiate?

And they seem to have been popping out of the woodwork for years. Such parental behavior didn’t begin when Michael Newdow, a non-custodial parent, filed suit against Sacramento-area Elk Grove School District in March 2000 to have the words “under God” removed from the Pledge of Allegiance on the grounds that the words constituted an endorsement of religion, and therefore violated the Establishment Clause of the First Amendment to the United States Constitution and who later spearheaded an effort to have “In God We Trust” removed from U.S. coins and “so help me God” banned from the oath of office.

It didn’t originate with parents challenging dress codes, or with folks who balked at “Eurocentric” curricula. It didn’t start when illegal immigrants began demanding bilingual classes (http://www.bilingualeducation.org/pdfs/NCLB.pdf), or when students started petitioning for unisex dorms and bathrooms.

Ah, so many lawsuits, so little time…

Alas, today’s irate parents are the grumpy progeny of the Greatest Generation, a war-weary generation that couldn’t imagine Marxism taking hold so quickly and so thoroughly in the home of the brave. Sixties-era Boomers, who looked askance at anyone over 30, and their Gen-X progeny, who were taught that advice and guidance from anyone over 30 could be safely ignored, are the ones spewing ire (and lawsuits) today.

Apparently, most believe they are “involved, enlightened citizens.” Not surprising, really, inasmuch as they were taught to question all authority and flaunt convention in school. Beginning in the mid-1960s, field trips became exercises in protesting laws against abortion, agitating for animal rights, protesting meat, and so one (for a grade, too!). The only time teachers got really involved was to correct the blatant spelling and syntax errors of grade-schoolers writing irate letters to the President, admonishing him to “stop ruining the planet,” or expressing outrage over the war — any war.

Of course, there was no time for youngsters to avail themselves of any facts or context on these issues. What was sought was just some good old emotional frenzy! That, and enthusiastic “groupie” participation (slogans, chants, sign-making, poster-carrying) — those were the tickets to a good report card, which of course was what their parents expected.

So when did it all start? It began back in the days of All in the Family, Maude, and “Doonesbury” cartoons; back when conservative news anchors like Joe Pyne of California’s 1960s-era were being mercilessly ridiculed at the University of California by clueless post-grads; back before young, so-called “right wing” cartoonists like Bruce Tinsley (“Mallard Fillmore”) and columnists like Michelle Malkin started gathering an audience; back before actors like Charlton Heston and Jon Voigt balked — all too late to affect youngsters who decided they’d better “go with the flow” if they expected to “make it” in college or their chosen field.

Now the chickens (the draft-avoiders who fled to Canada and otherwise) have come home to roost….

So, what kind of parents help their teenager ruin prom night?

The kind who, beginning in the 1960s, cut their teeth on socialism and “being popular,” not on duty and honor.

The kind who marched to the tune of John Lennon and U2, not to the tune of Sousa.

The kind who learned in high school to put their faith in psychiatry, the United Nations and Big Government, as opposed to self-sufficiency and independence (which now are marginalized as irrelevant).

The kind who got their kicks from cocaine and LSD, then passed along a different sort of passion for drugs to children — a panoply of legal drugs for anxiety, depression, Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder, psychotic (violent) urges and a host of so-called learning disorders, all tidied up and “sold” to the public in a fraudulent, non-scientific tome entitled the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM).

Today, we pay homage to kids for not knowing who their father is (TV shows like Who’s Your Daddy? and How I Met Your Mother, and Grey’s Anatomy); we shower admiration upon those who pose nude in licentious poses, using honorable phrases like “brave,” “self-confident,” and “secure.” We pay tribute to those who dishonor their families, their country, and religious values — Cindy Sheehan, Michael Moore, and “Madonna” — while granting only a passing nod to those who endure great sacrifice for the same. Our art is mired in ugliness and disrespect — disheveled, ugly faces screeching into microphones; virtual strippers in ripped, ugly clothing gracing the pages of “fashion” magazines; people who can’t carry a tune featured in talent competitions.

Only the passing nod is occasionally offered in the face of unexpected greatness. Talents like Michael Flatley, the choreographer and dancer of Riverdance fame; Susan Boyle, whose performance blew away even the cynical Simon Cowell in Britain; Damian McGinty, whose early perfect pitch caught the eye of the emerging “retro” singing troupe, “Celtic Thunder”; vocalists Chloë Agnew, Órla Fallon, Lisa Kelly and Méav Ní Mhaolchatha, Lynn Hilary, Alex Sharpe, and fiddler Máiréad Nesbitt of Celtic Woman fame, all of whom now perform to sell-out crowds of music lovers who actually appreciate melody and harmony; artists like Daniel Graves and Esther Engelman, whose works of polish and beauty adorn galleries frequented by what is left of knowledgeable art lovers; and violin virtuoso Joshua Bell, who played incognito one morning in a D.C. subway in January 2008 just to see if anyone would notice among the thousands of subway riders who don’t typically shell out $100 a ticket for a classical concert (turns out, a three-year-old was seen to be paying the most attention, utterly fascinated by the melodious notes coming from the instrument as his mother yanked him away).

All of which might be heartening in a melancholic sort of way, offering some hope that perhaps the excessively hyped darlings of today’s entertainment world — like Annie Sprinkle, Robert Mapplethorpe, Ellen DeGeneres, and Adam Lambert  — will, in the end, underwhelm future generations, resulting in senior proms that are less contentious and more rooted in the engaging, coming-of-age dramas of yesteryear.