Parents' rights ammendment

I have a friend who really believes that the Parents' Rights Amendment is an important thing. She has a T-shirt and everything. So I decided to check it out.

The United Nations is trying to get the United states to pass the Convention of the Rights of the Child, which is widely available online, and is basically a child's Bill of Rights. It includes things like the right to a good education, access to information, and a right to recreation. I really like the idea of a right to play.
The Parents' Rights amendment is a group that wants a new amendment added to our constitution. This amendment would guarantee the right of parents to control and direct their children, and would specifically prohibit the United states from making any treaties that would interfere with Parents' rights.
Because of the structure of United States Law, if the United states were to approve this convention, then we would have to abide by it as well. The Parents' Rights group believes that this would be a bad thing.

I read through Parentalrights.org, the site for this group and I was very disappointed. The site mentions several cases o Parental rights being taken away, but further investigation reveals that these examples are all exaggerations or outright lies. If this is a major issue, than they shoudl choose better examples for their website.

This Amendment has no chance of passing, or even being put out for a vote. It is redundant and supercillious. The 'threats' to parental rights seem to involve medical records, sex education, removing children from their parents because of religious differences, and of course homeschooling.

Why is someone putting together this mass campaign for a lost cause? Why pretend that parenting is under attack with exaggerated and inaccurate legal cases?

btw..there are legitimate parenting laws out there. I was hoping for a discussion of Pennsylvania vs. Yoder which established the precedent for allowing Amish families to remove their children form school at 14 . There is also the California law that allows 13yr old children to get birth control servcices including abortions without their parents' knowledge.

This movement is not about actually passing an amendment or opposing a UN treaty. It is meant to scare people so they will become more politically active. This is a cheap right wing trick to stir people up and make them angry so they will show up at a TEA rally. It is shameless political pandering and it is disgusting. I am not that smart, and I saw right through it.

Is this just a Left-Right Issue? a democrat/republican deal? Oh no, plenty of people on the right "fringe" oppose it as well. Including Home Ed Magazine.

We are on the same side of this issue, and probably not any other, as Home Ed Magazine is sort of crazy, as is evidenced by this "parenting tip" from their website;
under the heading "avoid preschool, mental health and other screenings whenever possible"
we find this gem of paranoia;
"Testers, school staff, public schools, schools of education, social workers, testing companies, drug companies, family and juvenile court systems, psychologists and psychiatrists, police, and prison systems benefit when children are screened, labeled, and then treated for an alleged disability, often with drugs such as Ritalin. "

That's right people. Bring your kids in for a hearing check, and the Prison officials will give them Ritalin.
And we wonder why the children of homeschooling parents have trouble blending into society.

Blooming Butterflies

we recently visited Olbrich Garden's

Blooming Butterflies exhibit. They let a bunch of butterflies loose inside the Bolz conservatory. There are butterfly identification cards, that show each of the species. Caleb was able to identify this lovely tigerwing butterfly. He was very excited to match the butterfly with the picture. Hee told everyone around us the name of the butterfly.
Everyone enjoyed the butterflies. We will come back next year!

hannah szene

I listen to the stuff you missed in history podcast, and I recently learned about Hannah Szene, Hungarian Jew who successfully emigrated to Palestine, then volunteered to parachute back into Hungary just days before the Nazis invaded and began their brutal systematic murder.

I had always thought of stories like this as a double tragedy, the needless murder of the Innocent people and the needless death of those trying in vain to rescue them. Because of this poem, I think that I better understand how a person could do such a thing. I love this poem and it is my next memorization project.

Blessed is the match consumed in kindling flame.

Blessed is the flame that burns in the secret fastness of the heart.

Blessed is the heart with strength to stop its beating for honor's sake.

Blessed is the match consumed in kindling flame.