Exclusive: A New Government Surveillance Program: Our Kids?


Author: Bob Parks

Date Published: 2007-10-12


 

Do you have any bad habits? Unfortunate vices? If your kids know about them, they could use them against you in state-sanctioned snitching. FSM Contributing Editor Bob Parks warns “just wait until socialized medicine goes national.”

 

A New Government Surveillance Program: Our Kids?

 

By Bob Parks

 

I’d like to talk a little bit about a government surveillance program…

 

In a Boston Herald op-ed by Michael Graham, he wrote, “They’re watching you right now.

 

“They counted every beer you drank during last night’s Red Sox game. They see you sneaking out to the garage for a smoke. They know if you’ve got a gun, and where you keep it. They’re your kids, and they’re the National Security Agency of the Nanny State. I found this out after my 13-year-old daughter’s annual checkup. Her pediatrician grilled her about alcohol and drug abuse. Not my daughter’s boozing.  Mine.

 

“The doctor wanted to know how much you and mom drink, and if I think it’s too much,” my daughter told us afterward, rolling her eyes in that exasperated 13-year-old way.  “She asked if you two did drugs, or if there are drugs in the house.”

 

“I turned to my wife. “You took her to the doctor. Why didn’t you say something?”

 

“She couldn’t, she told me, because she knew nothing about it. All these questions were asked in private, without my wife’s knowledge or consent.”

 

Mr. Graham is lucky he’s on good terms with his daughter. This had the potential to get real ugly.  If, for example, he previously told her she couldn’t stay out past his curfew, or didn’t buy her the CD she wanted, or told her the cellphone texting was costing him a fortune and knock it off, who knows what she could’ve told the doctor, and who knows what the doctor could have done to Mr. and Mrs. Graham?

 

We all know that kids today have been taught that when we scold them, they can rat us out to a teacher, and we can be reported to DSS for emotional abuse. We all know should we need to spank a child, we can be reported to the state’s Gestapo for physical abuse. Our kids know the rules and can play us accordingly.

 

So what’s our recourse? How do we deal with the nanny state when it turns our kids into little snitches?

 

Remind your little darlings that instead of spending all of our hard-earned dollars on ourselves, we scrimp and save to make sure they have a place to rest their little heads at night. Remind them we do all we can to make sure they have food in their little bellies, and clothes (no matter the style and cost) to wear. Remind them of the daily sacrifices we make so they can live carefree.

 

I’ve personally reminded my own kids that they need be very careful should they play this game with me. Most kids operate under the assumption that should they rat us out and DSS threaten to take them away, I’ll be on my hands and knees begging my little ones for forgiveness. I’ll be begging DSS to leave the little brownshirts at home.

 

Not so fast….

 

My kids know the day they try and blackmail me and call DSS because I wouldn’t let them have their way, there will be no begging on my part. If DSS wants to take them, I’ll pack their bags.  Sure, I’ll miss them, but someone has to teach these kids not to burn the very people that have put their entire lives on hold for a couple of decades (per child).

 

Don’t get me wrong; child abuse is a legitimate problem that need be addressed when legitimate.  But parenting is not child abuse, and kids need be taught that they have to be responsible for all of their actions. State-sponsored terrorism against parents is something none of us should tolerate.

 

But for those of you, who can’t find it within your hearts to be that direct with your children, try this…

 

Go to myspace.com. Open an account, and whenever your little ones act up, blog about it.  Snitching can go two ways. They want to talk to the state; you talk to the world.

 

Tell everyone about the little hissy fits and drama that go on when you ask your kids to clean their rooms. Let everyone know how long it’s been since they showered. Tell the world how lazy they are and refuse to get a job, and that’s why they’re always bumming money from their friends.  Heaven forbid, they were bed wetters…

 

The doctors grilling our kids are only hearing one side. There are two sides to every story.

 

The state has a lot of power over our kids and us. They can use information against us. In some states, they can even take a daughter out to get an abortion without telling a parent who didn’t even know she was pregnant. Our daughters are encouraged to keep such details from us if they think we may get upset.

 

Kids know they can carry on ad nauseum, and threaten us with losing them should we attempt to try and correct bad behavior. They need to know how different our lives could’ve been if they weren’t around, yet we chose to have them, raise them, wipe the crust out their eyes, change their diapers, love them, and put up with their nonsense.

 

There’s a world of information, you as a parent, can use to even the score should your kids attempt to get even with you. The state has a lot of power over us. Just wait until socialized medicine goes national.

 

“The preceding was a public service announcement from Black & Right.”

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FamilySecurityMatters.org Contributing Editor Bob Parks is a nationally syndicated political and social columnist. In addition to writing radio commentary, Mr. Parks appears on the award-winning television program, "Black & Right" (http://www.blackandright.

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