The Dropout epidemic

Kristi Kane

My daughter who is graduating from high school this month announced to me that many of her friends are not. Tonight my husband and I took our boys and their friends to a movie and saw one of our girls’ friends. She works at the theater. She had played junior varsity soccer with one of my girls and ran track with the other. I asked what she was doing. “I’m not sure. I got my GED, and I’m just figuring things out.” What the heck?!

Since when did high school graduation  become an option? It is an option for so many high school students these days that I can’t help but worry for their future. They have no desire to do anything. They’re content to stay home and play hours of video games or stick with a minimum hour wage paying job and live with Mom and Dad for the rest of their lives. One of my daughter’s friends who is also not going to graduate, lives with her mother who gives her a $200/week allowance. This same girl has no job, doesn’t want a job, swears at her mother, does no chores around the house to help her mother, and just recently used her allowance to get a couple of tattoos. Are you afraid for the welfare of the next generation? I am.

Suzanne W. Morse, President of Pew Partnership for Civic Change and Founder of Learning to Finish says this:

 “Despite repeated assertions on the part of leaders in all sectors about the importance of addressing the dropout situation, the problem today is more acute than ever. Recent reports indicate that nationally about one-third of all students who enter high school do not graduate on time if ever. Some 2,500 students leave high school every day.

For the one million or so students who drop out each year, the prospects are dire. For the communities in which they live, the dropout rate is very bad news indeed. Each year, the toll of lost wages, taxes and productivity that can be attributed to dropouts comes to more than $200 billion for the nation as a whole. That does not take into account the fact that more than two-thirds of the inmates in state prisons are school dropouts.”

I realize that not all high school students are like this. In my neighborhood, there are also kids who are beginning college as sophomores because they have taken AP classes and have successfully passed their AP tests. Some even have scholarships. However, the ratio of kids who are going to college weighed against those who are not even graduating high school is alarmingly low.

For many of my daughter’s friends, they haven’t seen their own parents graduate and so for them, they don’t care if they graduate or not. Some kids get pregnant, and drop out. Others say they flat out do not like school and don’t get along with their teachers or peers. Others feel the need to drop out and obtain minimum wage paying work to help out with the bills at home. On the other hand, some of this makes me wonder if parents are part of the problem. Are we doing too much for our kids and not giving them the drive to leave home to pursue a good-paying job by way of a college education or trade school? What is it that is making these kids so apathetic towards education?

The National Dropout Prevention Center/Network lists five reasons to stay in school:

1. High school dropouts are four times as likely to be unemployed as those who have completed four or more years of college;
2. Graduating from high school will determine how well you live for the next 50 years of your life. High school graduates earn $143 more per week than high school dropouts. College graduates earn $336 more per week than high school graduates ($479 more per week than high school dropouts);
3. Dropouts are more likely to apply for and receive public assistance than graduates of high school;
4. Dropouts comprise a disproportionate percentage of the nation’s prison and death row inmates. 82% of prisoners in America are high school dropouts;
5. School districts all over the country provide alternative programs for students who are not successful in the usual school setting.

If only these kids could see 20 years down the road to what their life would be like both with and without education. They would definitely see that long-term, education is the easier and better choice.

Mothers: Influencers Extraordinaire

Rachel Allison

I recently read the following:

I am totally convinced that once a woman has borne a child, she owes that child herself more than anything else in the first five years of his life…

I fear that raising emotion-starved and love-starved children can produce calloused, robotized adults—people who follow the group in straight lines and do exactly what everyone else is doing, because someone has said it is time.

I fear for the working mother who is deluded to believe that some kind, patient woman will tend to her child’s emotional needs until she can take over, that someone else will see that her child discovers he is unique, until she can pick him up at the end of the day—when she is perhaps so tired that the best he can hope to hear is, “It’s time to go to bed.”

I fear for the future of the child whose hunger for love and recognition must be satisfied in large groups.  I beg mothers to wake up, to experience the precious dawning of their child’s life with him.  Evening comes quickly—but the evening may be too late.”  Rita Chapman of Dallas, Texas as quoted in Blueprints for Living

As I read these words my first thoughts were, “Wow!  That’s strong medicine!” But hearing the news, and observing the heartbreak that is taking place in homes and families, I think that we all need a dose of strong medicine.  We may not like it, but if it helps to heal, we should do all we can to make appropriate change.

One of the speakers at church this past Sunday paid tribute to her mother.  Because her father was diagnosed at an early age with an extremely debilitating disease, her mother stepped up to not only provide the income, but she chose to work a night job so that she could be at home with her children when they needed her presence and watchful care. This little family was far from affluent.  In fact financially they were considered poor. But I know six of the children who grew up under the watchful eye of that mother.  They are well-adjusted, good, fun, talented, hard-working individuals and they adore their mother and each other.  What a blessing one selfless woman can be in the lives of her children. What a blessing her choices have been to the community where her children choose to settle.

Unfortunately, we are seeing mothers have to choose between their children and a myriad of interests, activities, and opportunities that promote their own fun, pride, and sense of fulfillment.  Our society is experiencing the results of children whose lives and care have been put on the back burner of their mother’s priorities… Years ago my son brought this poem home from school. I have never forgotten its message.  It has helped me determine where to spend my time, and where to give my heart.

             Mother

She laughs my laughter

Sheds my tears

Returns my love,

Fears my fears.

She lives my joys,

Cares my cares,

And all my hopes and dreams she shares.

Bully Business

Marlene Hinton

The nice little elementary school where I work is plastered with reminders to refrain from bullying, something I suspect most parents heartily endorse.  At the same time, I wonder how many of these children will grow up to be professional bullies.

I wonder that because bullying has been institutionalized in this country.  It is difficult to name a government-supported agency or -endorsed group that doesn’t actively engage in bullying.  IRS, EPA, FDA, OSHA, TSA, ACLU, AFL-CIO, NEA – acronyms all for bullying.”  Who are the targets?  All who don’t agree with them, who don’t pay “enough,” who claim a right to believe and act according to Constitutional law.  We are bullied for oppressing women, invoking God’s blessing in public, thinking babies have a right to live, believing our borders should be secure, making profits through labor and intelligence, supporting traditional marriage, taking spots in colleges or businesses that could be filled by “others” (regardless of qualifications), using electricity or petroleum, owning guns, not supporting the spending habits of politicians.

We are bullied for believing, saying, and doing anything that someone could take offense at, like offering a prayer at graduation, calling terrorism by its name, or supposing that the new life created by husband and wife – their own child – is NOT “community” property.  Consider these current news items:

In St. Johns County, Florida, the FFRF (Freedom From Religion Foundation) is threatening any school district with a lawsuit for “adopting a policy allowing inspirational messages, including prayer, at graduation.”  Such is protected under the First Amendment in addition to Florida law which specifically allows student prayer.  However, the bullies of FFRF,  ACLU,  and Anti-Defamation League are not only patrolling graduations, but offering scholarships to youth activists [Future Bullies of America?] to help make sure “everyone’s [being] reasonable” – their term for being afraid to pray!

It’s interesting that the origin of most of these groups was to protect us from being bullied by “big business.”  In fact, they have replaced smaller bullies with a menacing monstrosity that includes taking every penny we earn through the middle of May (this year; it goes up next year) to pay the thugs that ensure our compliance.  Scandals, fraud, and cover-ups define the SS-like taxpayer funded organizations that bully citizens on every front.

Other officially sanctioned bullies protect children from their parents.  Current examples include that of a California couple whose 5-month-old son was “snatched” by police after the parents took their son from Sutter Memorial Hospital to get a second opinion at Kaiser Permanente Hospital.  The Romeike family fled Germany in hopes of finding freedom to teach their children their own values at home.  Despite being granted asylum in the U.S. by an immigration judge, the Holder-run DOJ (alias “Gun Runners”) had that verdict overturned.  Some parents in New Jersey gave their 11-year-old his birthday wish – a gun.  Police showed up with a child services official (who refused to reveal her identity) and demanded to search their home without a warrant.

Now we have a Common Core State Standards Initiative to give some government-supported private corporations privileged (up until now) information regarding intimate details of your child’s life, including psychological testing and treatments.  In fact, those corporations get to CREATE the testing instruments that determine your child’s behavioral health as well as academic status.  You parents, however, play an important role.  You pay for it.  And if you’re not happy about that?  Well, talk to the Bully Department.  But you may have to take a number and get in line.

 

Proselytizing compared to rape? Really?

Rachel Allison

There are bombs going off on more fronts than I can name.  The attacks are relentless and escalating.

Abortion—Now the truth is coming out about the “safety” and “compassion” of abortion clinics.  And we thought the supposed “back-alley abortions” were bad?

Euthanasia—being legalized and accepted as “killing with compassion.”

Marriage—If the Supreme Court redefines marriage, marriage, completely severed from its original purpose, might never pull out of its death spiral.  Religious freedom and rights of conscience will be severely compromised.

Educational decline—we have all witnessed its decline, and with Common Core being rammed through at break-neck speed, it will continue to be an agenda driven program run by non-elected federal agencies.

And there’s so much more…

What’s most alarming, a majority of the people seem to be totally unaware and even apathetic to the bombardment.

The most recent bombshell: Court marshals for those who proselyte  in the military.

I quote Bethany Monk from CitizenLink

The Pentagon has released a statement, confirming its policy that would punish service members who share their religious beliefs.

That follows a private meeting last week between Mikey Weinstein, president of the Military Religious Freedom Foundation (MRFF) and the Pentagon. Weinstein said military personnel who proselytize are guilty of sedition and “treason.” He said they should be punished to quell a “tidal wave of fundamentalists.”  

“If this policy goes forward, Christians within the military who speak their faith could now be prosecuted as enemies of the states,” according to the Family Research Council. “This has potential to destroy military recruiting across the services as Americans realize that their faith will be suppressed by joining the military. Our brave troops deserve better. If chaplains and other personnel are censored from offering the full solace of the Gospel, there is not religious freedom in the military.”

As I have studied this and other relevant reporting it looks like the Department of Defense has had this particular regulation in place prior to Weinstein’s demands.

“Air Force Culture, Air Force Standards,” published on Aug. 7, 2012.

Section 2.11 requires “government neutrality regarding religion.”

“Leaders at all levels must balance constitutional protections for an individual’s free exercise of religion or other personal beliefs and the constitutional prohibition against governmental establishment of religion,” the regulation states.

Military leaders were admonished not to use their position to “promote their personal religious beliefs to their subordinates or to extend preferential treatment for any religion.”

Tony Perkins, President of the Family Research Council has said Weinstein’s hands are all over this work.  I wish I understood better whether MRFF could actually have had imput into the writing of the militaries’ regulations. Weinstein, an avid atheist is now demanding that the DOD start implementing it.

I quote Todd Starnes from Fox News

President Mikey Weinstein and others from his organization met privately with Pentagon officials on April 23. He said U.S. troops who proselytize are guilty of sedition and treason and should be punished – by the hundreds if necessary – to stave off what he called a “tidal wave of fundamentalists.”

“Someone needs to be punished for this,” Weinstein demanded to Fox News.  “Until the Air Force or Army or Navy or Marine Corps punishes a member of the military for unconstitutional religious proselytizing and oppression, we will never have the ability to stop this horrible, horrendous, dehumanizing behavior.” He compared the act of proselytizing to rape.

“It is a version of being spiritually raped and you are being spiritually raped by fundamentalist Christian religious predators,” he told Fox News.

He said there is a time and a place for those in uniform to share their faith – but he took issues with fundamentalism that he says is causing widespread problems in the military.

Perkins and members of the Family Research Council were stunned that the Pentagon would be taking counsel and advice from the Military Religious Freedom Foundation.

“Why would military leadership be meeting with one of the most rabid atheists in America to discuss religious freedom in the military,” Perkins said. “That’s like consulting with China on how to improve human rights.”

If Weinstein has his way, and apparently he has the attention of military leaders “it threatens to treat service members caught witnessing as enemies of the state.”  “Non-compliance,” the Pentagon suggests, “even from ordained chaplains could result in court-martialing on a case-by-case basis.”

Does this sound like something that should be happening in the United States of America…or Hitler’s Germany?

With all the social, moral, and religious bombardment taking place we need to choose our battles wisely…but for America’s sake let us choose to fight! Apathy is a killer.

The FRC has launched a petition drive urging Defense Sec. Chuck Hagel to protect the religious freedom of troops “and not to proceed with the purge of religion within the ranks called for by anti-Christian activists.”

The Boy Scouts of America: A New Member of NAMBLA?

Kristi Kane

The Boy Scouts of America is a wonderful organization that teaches boys the importance of goal-setting, community service, teamwork and leadership. What a marvelous and superior alternative to pornography and countless hours of video gaming that seem to plague boys these days.

So, if I were on the National Advisory Board of the BSA, one of our new mottoes would be “NO SURRENDER!”

“No surrender!” to companies like AT&T, UPS, Intel and Merck who have taken the road of the morally obtuse and politically-correct by refusing to fund the BSA because the BSA won’t take the risk of having a boy or man who is open and vocal about being sexually attracted to boys and other men working within their  private organization.

(By the way, the only mention the BSA makes of sexuality in any way, shape or form, is in their pamphlet that comes with all scout books on the prevention of sexual abuse and what to do if you are ever in a situation that you feel you are being sexually abused. This is a pamphlet that scouts and parents are to go over together. And when I had that discussion with my then eight-year-old son that there are other people who might like to touch his privates to get their jollies, it was sobering.)

The United States Supreme Court’s decided on June 28, 2000 (in Boy Scouts of America et al v Dale) that the constitutional right of freedom of association allows a private [emphasis added] organization like the Boy Scouts of America to exclude a person from membership when “the presence of that person affects in a significant way the group’s ability to advocate public or private viewpoints. The case was closed for everyone but the homosexual lobby.  After several years of intense pressure by way of literally defunding the BSA until they yielded, the BSA has penned the following “resolution” to be voted on this month (May).

You can read the proposed BSA Resolution here.

By way of strong warning, “Lessons from Gay Scouting in Canada,” Bradlee Dean states:

 “In 1998, Canadian Scouts (CS) decided to allow females, atheists, agnostics, homosexuals, bisexuals and transsexuals to join the CS. In 1999, they approved the establishment of an all-homosexual troop, which now marches in Canada’s “gay pride” parades. Within five years, scouting membership dropped over 50 percent. Many scouting camps and offices were closed, and staff was laid off.

Boys who become scouts to receive a healthy, moral upbringing are instead becoming lifetime victims of criminals who prey on children. Even worse is the lack of justice these young boys receive. Canada’s epidemic of child sex abuse is largely swept under the rug to protect pederasts.”

This is the result of “compromising” and “yielding.” My question is this: If the homosexual lobby and their sympathizers cared about the future of a private organization like the BSA, and knowing their presence would in effect nearly destroy that organization because their beliefs and the “Scout Oath” are so polar opposite of  each other, why would they want to be members? Look at what happened in Canada. And it can and will happen again right here in the United States if the resolution is carried.

For a brilliantly written article that shines further light on this debacle, go here.

To voice your opinion, please contact the Boy Scouts of America.

BSA National Council: 972-580-2000.  Or, email:  nationalsupportcenter@scouting.org

Better yet, contact your local Boy Scout Council and ask that the person who will represent the council as a voting member receive your input.

Are you wondering about the acronym NAMBLA?  It stands for:  North American Man Boy Love Association.

 

So This is What Happened to the Country I Love?

Rachel Allison

The nation I love and honor seems to be disintegrating into a place I hardly recognize: The dress standards, the language, the disrespect, the lack of motivation and self-reliance, the “what’s in it for me” mentality, the blatant political partisanship on any and every subject…and in the most recent years the purposeful destruction of innocent lives.  How can we in just five decades evolve from a nation focused on family, God, self-reliance, and a strong moral compass, to a society that is focusing it’s efforts on destroying the family, a government that encourages free handouts, right is called wrong, wrong is called right, and religion is looked at as a crutch for the weak?

I recently read a review of Ross Douthat’s book “Bad Religion: How We Became a Nation of Heretics.”   Obviously Douthat has more insight and understanding on the subject than I do.  I found his explanation fascinating.

Douthat, now a New York Times columnist contends, “America doesn’t suffer from excessive or insufficient religion, but from bad religion that exacerbates rather than heals our sociopolitical ills.” Douthat writes that the “slow-motion collapse of traditional Christianity and the rise of a variety of destructive pseudo-Christianities” have been disastrous for the nation.

Where Religious conviction used to include commitment to the Trinity…, the Ten Commandments, a “rejection of violence,” a “deep suspicion of worldly wealth and power,” and a “stress on chastity,” many in our society have found that heresy is simpler and much easier to live. If it feels right to the individual, then it is right. Moral demands are irrelevant.

Douthat writes about the years following World War II and the horror of the Holocaust.  These historical events exposed the weaknesses of secular humanism. True humanism, the nation saw, “needed to be grounded in something higher than a purely material account of the universe, and in something more compelling than the hope of a secular utopia.”  Only religious premises could adequately support and give understanding to “basic liberal concepts like equality and human rights.” As a result, there was at mid-century a revival of robust Christianity. Church attendance was up, clergy were held in high esteem, religious schools, hospitals and churches were constructed at record paces. Even popular culture was onboard, with movies like Ben Hur and The Ten Commandments.

Douthat focuses on four key figures who embody this spirit—Reinhold Niebuhr, Billy Graham, Fulton Sheen, and Martin Luther King, Jr.—”a Protestant intellectual, an Evangelical preacher, a Catholic bishop, and an African-American prophet.” Each leader had both a distinct community and the nationally respected authority to promote models of Christian orthodoxy for the modern world. The result, Douthat argues, is that “both institutionally and intellectually, American Christianity at midcentury offered believers a relatively secure position from which to engage with society as a whole.”

All of that fell apart in the 1960s and ’70s. Church membership peaked, and then rapidly declined. Douthat identifies five causes for the institutional collapse:

“1.  Political polarization (first Vietnam, then abortion, now everything),

2.  The sexual revolution (“a large swath of America decided that two millennia of Christian teaching on marriage and sexuality were simply out of date”),

3. An increasingly global perspective (multiculturalism leading to relativism and then indifference),

4. Ever-growing wealth (a prosperous people rely less on God, and religious vocations become less appealing),

5. A new class divide (elites showering scorn on traditional religion).”

Churches tried their best to accommodate this new trend of thinking by making Christianity relevant by eliminating its unfashionable ethics and values. Predictably, churches accommodating the world had less to offer it, and people stopped seeing the point of attending.

Douthat explains that one influence that the “modern thinker” bought into was Elizabeth Gilbert’s beliefs published in her book Eat, Pray, Love.  Her book peddles the “God Within” theology: “God dwells within you as you yourself, exactly the way you are.”  Douthat notes, “trying to remake ourselves “in the image of God” this is not. Why search for God in ancient texts when he is really inside each of us?”

Ironically, this search for happiness from within ends up leaving us “more isolated, lonelier, and more depressed.” Americans pay hundreds of thousands of therapists to listen to us whine about “everyday life problems.”

The God Within certainly doesn’t confine our behavior. The “promptings of one’s inner self aren’t necessarily identical to the promptings of the Holy Spirit,” Douthat writes. “Sometimes the God Within isn’t God at all, but just the ego or the libido, using spirituality as a convenient gloss for its own desires and impulses.” How sad when a society thinks that the only commandment we should adhere to is “Don’t be a jerk.”

The end result:

“A nation of narcissists turns out to be a nation of gamblers and speculators, gluttons and gym obsessives, pornographers and Ponzi schemers, in which household debt rises alongside public debt, and bankers and pensioners and automakers and unions all compete to empty the public trough.”

Douthat suggests four reasons for hope:

“1. The rootlessness of our postmodern age will finally motivate a return to Christian orthodoxy’s satisfying account of human origins and destiny;

2. Our culture’s corruption will accelerate the growth of communities of virtue;

3. The flame of faith will fan out from the increasingly Christian global South;

4. The new millennium’s various crises may well revive faith, as the ravages of war did before.”

All this, Ross Douthat insists, will require a faith that is “political without being partisan,” “ecumenical but also confessional,” “moralistic but also holistic,” and “oriented toward sanctity and beauty.” As Douthat pleads, “only sanctity can justify Christianity’s existence; only sanctity can make the case for faith; only sanctity, or the hope thereof, can ultimately redeem the world.”

Today’s Peace Signs

Rebecca Mallory

National headlines from the past news week have undoubtedly set most Americans on edge. Shocking scenes of the tragedy at the Boston marathon finish line and the fiery images after the explosion of a fertilizer plant in Waco, Texas leave us all bewildered and baffled in the aftermath of unspeakable human suffering. Similar tragedies such as 9/11, Hurricane Katrina, Indonesia’s tsunami, and countless others leave us wondering where we can turn for peace. Perhaps you have specific sources of comfort on which to rely.

May I suggest some universal truths that apply to all?

Unfortunately, our destructive politically correct society has dictated the way we are “supposed” to react and respond to life’s tragic events.  Thank goodness many Americans in Boston, Waco and countless other great American cities ignored that memo this week. How refreshing it was to see the streets of Boston lined with selfless Americans forming a gauntlet and linking arms while singing “God Bless America”, praising the first responders, and supporting the victims of that tragedy. Their automatic  reaction was a testimony to human nature and the true American spirit that blasted meaningless PC nonsense and further verified that human behavior cannot, and never will be, mandated just because a few “feel good” politicians deem it so through legislation.

Anyone remotely familiar with history is no doubt reminded of the universal truths that made America the greatest nation in world history.  Through the U.S. Constitution, wise founders prepared for the frailties and selfishness of man by preparing a document unrivaled by any other nation. It is a system of checks and balances that prevents kings, dictators and imperialists from controlling a free people. Our Constitution brilliantly provides for man’s innate desire to be free and pursue his/her own happiness through liberty and the dictates of his/her own conscience. It has been the envy of every other nation. Why has it lasted so long? Why is it being threatened today? Will it survive?

Something that I have observed with each terror attack, or horrid crime committed, is how the government attempts to band-aid the situation after the fact. Everyone rushes to the scene after the damage has been done. The shocked media then puzzles away. “What happened? What possibly could have prevented this tragic event?”  The answer is in our history books. It lies in the universal truths about different forms of government and the governed – Rome, England, Greece, France, China, etc.  What do they all have in common? All world super powers crumbled and failed because of interesting similarities: an obsession with the rich and famous, with sports and entertainment and loss of moral compass. They wanted to be taken care of… They wanted things to be easy – a “give it to me now” entitlement mentality. Sound familiar?

To cure what ails us in these uncertain times, there’s a simple solution to achieve a higher degree of personal peace. Not easy, but simple.

Individual responsibility, integrity, respect and love of fellow man, and hard work. That’s it. Imagine how the world would change instantly if everyone truly adopted those universal principles. Or even made an effort! Until we take responsibility for our own character flaws, stop blaming others for our misfortunes, and correct our own selfish desires, we imperfect humans will allow other imperfect humans to govern us. There are those who “think” they know the rules better and they should be able  to  imposed them upon us. Is that a free country? (Incidentally, America isn’t even ranked in the top 20 “most free” nations in the world. And you thought we were #1, right?)

There are those who complain that Capitalism and the American ideal is somehow evil and does not work, even though history shows that more people have risen from poverty and squalor because of Capitalism than any other system.  But it is not without a price.  Capitalism and a free Republic can only be successful with an honest and self-governing people.

Democracy is a tough business. Maintaining a thriving Republic is even tougher. Most of us have never experienced anything but freedom and prosperity and cannot fathom anything but. How can we expect it to survive if each of us refuses to take an active role in preserving it? What will you sacrifice to insure a prosperous future for your children? If “you’re just too busy” or “politics just isn’t your thing”, then don’t complain when your freedoms are further eroded and safety is compromised. Today’s peace signs will be allotted to you as the government sees fit. Don’t be surprised when your parental rights are slowly usurped by that same government.

The great news is- though a small window – you and I still have a little time. Within our four walls we can affect change by teaching our children and grandchildren personal responsibility, integrity and hard work; not to sit around and wait for someone to come “save” them. They are capable of anything they can dream of. They can do it themselves. They need to hear it from you every day.  And that, my fellow Americans, is where we can turn for peace.

Some Parents Need Your Help!

Diane Robertson

Four years ago Swedish socials service officials took, seven-year-old, Dominic Johansson from his parents as the family boarded an international flight. Armed police seized the boy without arrest warrants.  Swedish officials placed him in a foster home. The boy has still not been restored to his parents, Christer and Annie Johansson.

What heinous crime did the Johansson’s commit? What did they do to their son to warrant such extreme actions from the Swedish government? They homeschooled Dominic. This happened before homeschooling was made illegal in the nation.

After 3 years, the Johansson’s finally got their case reviewed by a district court in Gotland. The court said it could not ignore the unanimous and extensive testimony of firsthand accounts of friends, family and others that Domenic Johansson was being properly cared for by his parents. The court restored the Johanssons’ parental rights. However, social services persisted and a mi-level court over turned the decision. Domenic, now at 11, has not been allowed to see his parents for 3 years!

Alliance Defending Freedom along with the United States based, Homeschool Legal Defense Association (HSLDA), has appealed Christer and Annie Johansson’s case to the highest court of Sweden.

HSLDA Director of International Relations Mike Donnelly and attorney with ADF has said:

“As the district court found, Annie and Christer Johansson are good parents. It is unconscionable that the court of appeals–or any court in a democratic country like Sweden–could somehow think that it is in Dominic’s best interest to remain separated from his parents. The pain, suffering, and harm done to this family are incalculable.”

Alliance Defending Freedom and HSLDA are encouraging concerned people from all over the world to participate in an HSLDA-sponsored letter-writing campaign that asks the Supreme Court of Sweden to accept the case Johansson v. Gotland Social Services and return Domenic to his parents.

Please take a moment and help this family, and parental rights around the world. Here is how to contact that Supreme Court of Sweden.

 Swedish Supreme Court (Högsta domstolen):

Email: hogsta.domstolen@dom.se

Mailing address: Högsta domstolen, Box 2066, 103 12 Stockholm, Sweden

A 1-oz letter from the US will cost $1.10 through the Postal Service

Fax: From outside Sweden: +46 8 561 666 86  If you fax from the U.S., you will need to replace the + sign with “011” and then dial 46 8 561 666 86  From inside Sweden: 08-561 666 86

Unpopular Opinions

Diane Robertson

To have the opinion that the definition of marriage should not be changed to include same sex couples is very unpopular this spring.

Dr. Ben Carson, renowned, pediatric neurosurgeon at John Hopkins has stepped down as Hopkins Commencement Speaker.  Some Hopkins students and faculty petitioned against Carson as the commencement speaker after his comments at the National Prayer breakfast and his comments about gay marriage while on the Sean Hannity show.  When asked about the Supreme Court cases regarding gay marriage Carson said:

“Well, my thoughts are that marriage is between a man and a woman. It’s a well-established, fundamental pillar of society, and no group — be they gays, be they NAMBLA, be they people who believe in bestiality, it doesn’t matter what they are — they don’t get to change the definition.”

Rotham, the dean of John Hopkins medical school, criticized Carson’s comments as being “hurtful”.

Carson apologized for his comments, but still opted not to speak. In an email to Rotham, Carson said:

“Someday in the future, it is my hope and prayer that the emphasis on political correctness will decrease and we will start emphasizing rational discussion of differences so we can actually resolve problems and chart a course that is inclusive of everyone.”

Dr. Carson is a great man who with hard work moved from a childhood of severe poverty to world renowned surgeon. It is a shame the John Hopkins’ students will not get the opportunity to learn from a man who has lived the American Dream to its fullest potential.

In a similar story in Grosse Point, MI, the student club, “Young Americans for Freedom,” raised the $18,000 and secured school approval to have former Senator Rick Santorum come to South Point High to speak to the students about “Leadership”. When the school superintendent, Dr. Thomas Harwood, got word of the event, he cancelled it.  After enough student and parent outrage the superintendent decided to allow the event to occur.

The student group claims that the Superintendent cancelled the event based on Santorum’s views on  gay marriage and education. The Superintendent is now denying this and saying that it was cancelled because Santorum had not sent in a copy of his speech. Santorum never received a request for his speech. The students who organized the event as well as parents complained about the cancellation. Under pressure, the superintendent compromised to allow the event to continue if students attending have a signed permission slip.

Langston Bowens, an 18-year-old senior at South Point High School, said some teachers became angry when Santorum’s appearance was announced. He said they sent video clips from Santorum’s speeches to the principal and the district superintendent, demanding the event be canceled.

“The teachers called Santorum a bigot and a racist,” Bowens said. “They said he is controversial and shouldn’t speak in front of students.”

Santorum has said:

“This issue has always been about our First Amendment rights to freely share our views. Sadly, it wasn’t until the superintendent faced tremendous pressure from parents, students, the media and even a few of his colleagues at the school that he relented. It is unfortunate that students are required to get permission slips from their parents to hear a speech on leadership and public service.”

I find it difficult to believe that educators deem it educational to bring in planned parenthood and pro-gay groups that teach about explicit sexual practices in the names of “equality”, “anti-bullying”, and “safe sex” without calling for parent permission, yet the same people would require permission slips for students to hear a speech on “leadership” simply because the speaker is a strong enough person to support traditional marriage in the face of tremendous opposition.

 

 

Suicide and Sorrow

Kristi Kane

On Saturday I got to watch as my girls prepared for their school’s Prom. It was an exciting day. They helped each other with their hair and makeup, talked with their friends about how much fun they were going to have that evening, and finally, the main event: they put their gorgeous gowns on. Wow, did they look good. When their dates showed up there was a lot of whooping and hollering and more excitement coupled with lots of pictures. Off to the Prom they went for another rite of passage that gets them farther from the days of elementary school and closer to making the transition into the adult world.

Sunday morning we were all still talking about Prom. My husband and I were asking for the particulars: what they did, who all was there. Was everyone having a nice time, etc., etc. And then we received an email that evening from our girls’ high school principal. A young man from my girls’ school had taken his life that morning. Suicides always fill me with an overwhelming sadness. I feel bad for the child that did that. They had no idea what they were doing. I feel sorry for the parents. Sorry for the siblings. Sorry for the family and friends who loved that child and will never understand, but will always be haunted by that horrible act, that terrible day.

My daughter had been over at her Prom date’s home for a couple of hours Sunday evening, and when she got home, I showed her the email from her principal. If you have never heard your child cry tears of sorrow that come from the deepest regions of their heart, I will tell you that it is a gut-wrenching experience. My daughter had been friends with this young man. She had even seen his prom pictures from the evening before on facebook.

It is now Monday morning. Those people we call our children are now on their way to school. It will be a somber, quiet day. School counselors are already preparing for grieving students and parents to come to them for grief counseling. It even snowed last night, which makes the day seem somehow sadder than it already was.

Memories of one of my own dear friends who took her live five years ago have found a fresh vent through my tears today. Life will never be the same. All I know is that life is a precious gift. When someone dies, especially that dreadful and final way, I think what could we have done to change that? Were there any signs that would have let us know we could have helped? I pray for those who have lost, for those whose happiness will never be complete, for those whose grief will never be truly gone.

For coping with the suicide of a friend or loved one see:

http://www.mayoclinic.com/health/suicide/MH00048

For suicide prevention see:

http://www.suicidepreventionlifeline.org/