America & The Boiling Pot of Socialist Water
Words matter and ideas matter and sometimes when words convey an idea that is contradictory to one’s belief system it sparks a fire and boldness ensues.
Melissa Harris-Perry, a news commentator who was doing an ad for MSNBC’s ad campaign known as Lean Forward, created a fire in me with her recent ad remarks. She stated:
“We have never invested as much in public education as we should have, because we’ve always had kind of a private notion of children- Your kid is yours, and totally your responsibility- we haven’t had a very collective notion of these are our children, so part of it is we have to break through our kind of private idea that kids belong to their parents, or kids belong to their families, and recognize that kids belong to whole communities. Once it’s everybody’s responsibility and not just the household’s, then we start making better investments.”
After hearing this statement and getting over my initial shock and outrage, I began to realize that this Marxist type philosophy has already pervaded the society that we live in. Why should any of us be surprised at her remarks?
America has become the anecdotal story of the frog in the boiling pot of water. We have allowed the waters of socialism to heat up around us, and slowly, our personal rights and freedoms have been taken away. It has been a gradual process and many times it has been framed in the notion of “protection and safety” for the most innocent in our society: our children. It started with legislation like helmet safety and requirements for child car seats. Yes, the safety of our children is important, and as a parent I want to protect my kids from harm; but we have bought into this notion that our government is the ultimate authority on protection instead of parents. We let government gradually, subtly slip into our private lives–and the water is starting to heat up.
Melissa Harris-Perry believes we haven’t invested enough money into our public education system, yet our nation has one of the highest spending per student rates and we rank only about 24th or 26th in the world (depending on what international assessment you look at). Our children are suffering under this notion that government knows best in how to educate our children. We as parents have bought into this philosophy of collective education and now our students are struggling under conformity and a “one size fits all” approach to learning. The public education system has let the waters heat up on our children under the pursuit of federal tax dollars and the monopoly of teacher unions. Standardized tests and Common Core Standards have created a lack of critical thinking among our students. The teacher role has been slowly downgraded to curriculum monitor rather than a profession to inspire creativity, imagination and the wonderful world of knowledge.
While Ms. Perry’s statement goes against everything I believe in and contradicts what our Constitution so clearly states regarding individual rights and freedoms, I am not angry with her. She is simply promoting Obama’s socialistic “Forward” campaign of redistribution of wealth and government ownership. My outrage is how we as a nation have allowed the waters heat up around us. Where are the Constitutional leaders who will stop government control from being the ultimate authority? Who will speak up in such a clear manner for my rights and my personal liberty to raise my children in the manner in which I choose? When will the socialistic and Marxist philosophy be challenged? Why have we as American citizens let the government been the ultimate authority on so much of our lives? Is it because this process has been so gradual that we have failed to recognize the signs in front of us?
So now we have become a nation fighting personal liberties over government control. From nationalized health care to the almost ridiculous food restriction legislation of a big cup of soda, we have relented to fight and the biggest victims are our children. My kids do not belong to a collective community. My children are a gift from God and He has entrusted me to raise them. My Constitution has given me the right to oversee their health and well being as I choose. Will the Constitution uphold these rights for my family and me? Now the fight is gun control but will we soften and bend under the government’s manipulation of fear and the false pretense of the protection and safety of our children. Wake up America! The pot is boiling. Is it too late to get out?
“The safest road to Hell is the gradual one-the gentle slope, soft underfoot, without sudden turnings, without milestones, without signposts.” – C.S. Lewis
