It’s tough to be a parent.
In fact, raising your child these days to develop into a healthy, happy, responsible adult has never been harder. Violence and sex saturates television and movies, popular music is filled with profanity and rage – even video games often focus on the darkest edges of human behavior.
It is bad enough that the culture seems at war with parents. But more disturbing are the actions of courts to damage the link between parent and child. And no group has done more to inflict damage on parental rights though the courts than the American Civil Liberties Union working with its zealous allies.
The ACLU defines itself as the “nation’s guardian of liberty” dedicated to preserve the individual rights and liberties of all Americans. But in reality, this leftist legal organization has devoted itself to destroying the rights of parents to raise children in the manner they deem appropriate.
This is not some sort of unfounded “right wing” allegation. Sadly, there are many examples that illustrate the ACLU’s desire for the state to supersede the parent in raising children.
In December, the ACLU praised a Washington State Supreme Court ruling that prevents parents from listening to their minor children’s telephone conversations. The high court determined that a mother violated the state’s Privacy Act when she monitored a discussion between her 14-year-old daughter and her daughter’s boyfriend. The content of this conversation helped convict the boyfriend of a violent crime.
The ACLU filed a friend-of-the-court brief in the case against the mother and in favor of overturning the conviction. Douglas Klunder of the ACLU explained the group’s position stating, “I don’t think the state should be in the position of encouraging parents to act surreptitiously and eavesdrop on their children.”
Attorney Randall Gaylord, the prosecutor on the parent’s side, was rightfully incredulous. “I’m concerned that a 14-year-old’s right to privacy now trumps the parent’s right to be a parent,” he said.
The ACLU is also undermining parents’ right to teach their children traditional moral and religious beliefs. One of the latest battlegrounds in the organization’s war against parents is Boyd County, Ky.
The fight began when the local school district settled an ACLU lawsuit over the right of a student group, the Gay-Straight Alliance, to meet on campus. Part of the agreement mandated that all students, staff and teachers view a one-sided, hour-long video promoting “tolerance” of homosexual behavior.
Understandably, many parents objected to the content, resulting in the desire of about a third of the students to opt-out of the program. Angry at this exercise of basic parental rights, the ACLU threatened new legal action if every student didn’t view the propaganda.
“Parents don’t get to say I don’t want you to teach evolution or this, that, or whatever else,” said James Esseks, litigation director for the ACLU’s Lesbian and Gay Rights Project. “If parents don’t like it, they can home school, they can go to a private school, they can go to a religious school.”
Mr. Esseks doesn’t seem to get it. Public schools should be just that: open to the public. That means open to everyone. Is the public school system merely for students who aren’t Christian and who can afford to go to private schools? Indoctrination in the homosexual agenda is not the same as reading, writing, and arithmetic, and most Americans know that. Attorneys with the Alliance Defense Fund are currently battling on behalf of the parents to ensure that their constitutional rights and those of their children are not violated by this so-called “diversity training.”
Even on decisions of life and death, the ACLU wants to cut parents out of the picture. The group is strongly opposed to any type of law mandating parental notification when a minor seeks an abortion. In their fact sheet on the issue, the ACLU seems scandalized that parents might have a role to play in this most major of decisions: “These bills would give parents such absolute control over their children’s lives that, in some instances, the minors’ own constitutional rights would be threatened and their health and well-being endangered.”
Howard Simon, executive director of the ACLU of Florida, elaborated on the group’s position: “When the state forces parents to be involved, the consequences are often catastrophic.”
Parents, Mr. Simon, are not the problem.
In an age where leaders everywhere are crying out for parental involvement in the lives of their children, the ACLU stands out-of-touch – proud to be an obstacle pursuing its own agenda without regard for any of the consequences.
Sadly, the ACLU has proven time and time again their ill intent toward American parents. Despite their claims of standing up for the individual, this arrogant band of leftists is attacking a most basic human right: that of nurturing and protecting one’s child in an often-dangerous world.
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