| 4-3-98
By Luke Ford
Dennis Prager spent his first hour discussing the ACLU who went
to court to defend the rights of teenage boys to wear skirts at
their Connecticut public high school.
Prager says he does not care what kids want to wear.
Kids need to feel that adults are in control. They fear chaos
more than strictness.
Prager is getting a bunch of calls from mouthy teens. One boy
said that homos should be killed. He was pissed that his little
brother was going into his mother's room and dressing up in her
clothing.
Prager wonders if the dark forces are winning?
A caller wondered what percentage of Hollywood is gay? A large
one. One proof, offered by Prager, is the wearing of red ribbons
for AIDS patients, rather than ribbons for cancer patients.
A large number of homosexual activists are anti-traditional family
structures.
Prager decried giving same-sex couples the same rights to adopt
as traditional couples.
Prager does not let his kids say "it sucks."
A woman phoned up to say she put lemons in different seal-lock
bags. One bag she puts on a smiley face and one she fills with bad
words? And the bad one goes moldy? (What the hell was this about?)
A caller said that if Prager thought children should have a mother
and a father, that it was equivalent to believing that all non-Christians
should be dead.
In his third hour, Prager praised and read from a Parade magazine
article that listed what kids will do differently when they become
parents.
Dennis says that he grew up in a family that did not touch much.
He has gone the other direction in his family. Prager loves to hug.
If you did not have a loving relationship with your president,
you can fill part of that hole with your child.
A caller discussed the definition of "family." Her dictionary
said a group of people living under one roof. My 1980 Oxford American
Dictionary: "parents and their children." The dictionary does not
list "nigger."
Prager says that it is important that parents never humiliate
their kids, particularly not in public.
AMERICAN CIVIL LIBERTIES UNION
( Colliers Encyclopedia CD-ROM )
AMERICAN CIVIL LIBERTIES UNION, a nonprofit membership association
devoted to the defense of individual rights under the U.S. Constitution.
The ACLU's agenda of civil liberties issues encompasses four general
areas: First Amendment rights, including freedom of speech, press,
assembly, separation of church and state, and the free exercise
of religion; due process of law, including freedom from unreasonable
searches and seizures; equal protection, including equal rights
for racial and ethnic minorities and women; and privacy, including
reproductive freedom.
Los Angeles Times Sunday March 22, 1998
On the first day of class this fall, Mulholland Middle School
sixth-grader Elizabeth Shamlian wore her new school uniform: bluetrousers
and a white, collared shirt.
Then she went home and told her parents, "I'm never going to wear
this again."
In the sea of youngsters who cross the open courtyards at Mulholland
these days, nobody else is in uniform either.
Three years after coming into fashion, uniforms have not proved
to be an elixir for Los Angeles city schools. The initial rush has
slowed to atrickle.
In 1995, 314 Los Angeles city schools embraced the idea, more
than any other public school district in the nation. Since then,
only 40 more campuses have enlisted.
At many schools where uniforms were once the rage, the look has
beenpushed to the back of the closet.
If We Really Want to Protect Children
by Andrew Vachss
originally published in Parade magazine, November 3, 1996.
The stories of children who have been sexually abused, which once
shocked us, have become almost commonplace in recent years. Much
attention is now being given to the stories of adults who, it turned
out, may have been wrongly accused of sexually abusing children.
Are we in danger of once again denying the reality of the sexual
abuse of children in America? Andrew Vachss - an advocate for abused
children and an author, most recently of the novel False Allegations
- warns us not to lose sight of what matters most: our kids.
Some people will tell you that there was no such thing as child
sexual abuse a few short decades ago - the "good old days." And
if you go to the files and read the old newspapers, you might well
believe them.
Unless you were a victim, now grown to adulthood.
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