There may only be 2 of our Republicans willing to publicly stand up against this very organized and funded takeover of our children's minds - but history has proved, it only takes 1! Thank you ! You have the vote of the majority!
1) I was raised in a fairly-"sheltered" way, by parents who, in general, protected me from the majority of the "destructive" and/or "unwholesome" aspects that existed, around (and "in close proximity to") the "world" that was our family; so, there was A LOT OF STUFF that was going on, in the world (and, even, "in the USA" and "in my own, particular region of the USA"), that I knew NOTHING about.
And I'm GRATEFUL, for that!
In general, I was provided with the ability to "be a kid" whose "job" it was, "to learn as much as I could, of what the schools were teaching, so that I could grow up to be a good, responsible American who would be capable of contributing --and upholding-- society and the country.
(Not "staging a hold-up" of society, but "upholding" society!)
Whatever I learned or read, whether in school or "from the library", ALL of that material entered my consciousness "in the light of" my family and the world-view I had, that I was "brought up" with.
So, that's why I wasn't "damaged" by that stuff.
2) I was a teenager, like any other teenager; and I "rebelled", just like everyone else. But, I found ways to do that, other than having sex and doing drugs.
I wore my hair [somewhat] long; and I read books that, looking back, maybe my folks wouldn't have liked, if they'd known about it.
But, in general, they had confidence in me, and trusted me.
And maybe they had good reason to; because, I made good grades, and didn't hang out, outside the convenience store, trying to get someone to buy me beer or cigarettes.
So, ANY recollections or anecdotes I might have, come from THAT kind of perspective.
While I was a typical, human teenager who DID, in fact, give his parents PLENTY of gray hairs and heartache, are some kinds of problems that I did NOT give them.
So, I have no idea what it would be like, to be the parent of a kid whose "connection" with his family and with law-and-order is more tenuous than mine was, when I was a kid.
And it's for THAT reason, that...
3) I am NOT going to try to stop parents from insisting that their kids' schools' libraries refrain from carrying certain books.
4) I'm glad I'm not a kid, nowadays; and I'm sorry that I gave my parents the problems that I gave them. And I'm glad I don't have to raise kids, in the environment that exists, today.
5) Parents and kids, today, have my compassion; I know they're experiencing many challenges and trials. I'm trying to provide such comfort as is possible, for them, to receive, in "the world as it is, today;" I do NOT wish to bend other people nor their beliefs about "the world, as it is", to MY "way"; because, "my way" might not be "right", for everybody.
I know that. So, I "put it out there", as a sign that I support the existence of a good, wholesome environment, in the City and countryside, in Pennsylvania; especially, by means of doing my best, to "stay in my lane".
You know that, in the 7th Grade, I read Mary Stewart's "The Crystal Cave" as "assigned reading" [probably one of two or three books that we (with our parents) could have chosen, to read and write a book-report on].
My mother was shocked, to discover that there was a "scene", in that book, in which a young Merlin (not yet "the Magician") narrowly (and awkwardly) escaped a "romantic entanglement" with a young lady who lived in the vicinity.
FYI: The "scene" was quite "tame", even by the standards of the mid-1970s. Yet, my mother was not altogether happy, to have discovered that my "assigned reading" included the account of such a "scene".
At the time, I thought that my mother was "prudish".
Nowadays, I imagine that it was not the existence of the "scene", which had unsettled her; but the recognition of the fact that she had discovered the existence of that "scene" by having allowed the book to "fall open" to the most-frequently-read passage that existed, in that book.
(Hadn't it been "just yesterday", when I had been learning to read, by memorizing the Mother Goose nursery-rhymes that she had read to me, from that boot-shaped book with the shoe-laces that held it closed?
How could the "little boy" who had read all about Moses and Jesus, over and over again, in "The Golden Children's Bible", spend so much time, referring to the same two pages, in "The Crystal Cave", that the book would "fall open" to "that, particular spot"?)
"The Crystal Cave" was "assigned reading", in 7th Grade.
"Flowers for Algernon" was "assigned reading", in 9th or 10th Grade.
[NOTE: In the interest of providing some comfort, to parents:
At no time, in any high-school English class, did any of my public-school English teachers call the attention of us students to ANY of the passages, within ANY of the plays of William Shakespeare, that we read, that were sexually-suggestive puns, allusions, and double-entendres.]
But, yes, it's true, that, after "The Exorcist" and "The Omen" became such "hits", at the box-office, my high-school library had a fairly-extensive selection of books on witchcraft and black magick (although NOT Satanism); and Carlos Castaneda's books were also available, to me, at the public library, if not in school.
I read them ALL.
I graduated high-school in 1978, having read ALL of that stuff. AND YET,...
1) I was still a virgin;
2) when I stopped being a virgin, I managed to survive the onslaught of AIDS, without getting sick (or dying, whether from AIDS or from a drug overdose);
3) I've been fairly (if unremarkably) solid, upright, upstanding, and law-abiding, all my life, never having done a great many things that appear in the kinds of books and movies that parents (and the Government-sponsored censors) try to protect "impressionable" kids from exposure to,...
...DESPITE my having seen a fair amount of such stuff.
There may only be 2 of our Republicans willing to publicly stand up against this very organized and funded takeover of our children's minds - but history has proved, it only takes 1! Thank you ! You have the vote of the majority!
Just to clarify:
1) I was raised in a fairly-"sheltered" way, by parents who, in general, protected me from the majority of the "destructive" and/or "unwholesome" aspects that existed, around (and "in close proximity to") the "world" that was our family; so, there was A LOT OF STUFF that was going on, in the world (and, even, "in the USA" and "in my own, particular region of the USA"), that I knew NOTHING about.
And I'm GRATEFUL, for that!
In general, I was provided with the ability to "be a kid" whose "job" it was, "to learn as much as I could, of what the schools were teaching, so that I could grow up to be a good, responsible American who would be capable of contributing --and upholding-- society and the country.
(Not "staging a hold-up" of society, but "upholding" society!)
Whatever I learned or read, whether in school or "from the library", ALL of that material entered my consciousness "in the light of" my family and the world-view I had, that I was "brought up" with.
So, that's why I wasn't "damaged" by that stuff.
2) I was a teenager, like any other teenager; and I "rebelled", just like everyone else. But, I found ways to do that, other than having sex and doing drugs.
I wore my hair [somewhat] long; and I read books that, looking back, maybe my folks wouldn't have liked, if they'd known about it.
But, in general, they had confidence in me, and trusted me.
And maybe they had good reason to; because, I made good grades, and didn't hang out, outside the convenience store, trying to get someone to buy me beer or cigarettes.
So, ANY recollections or anecdotes I might have, come from THAT kind of perspective.
While I was a typical, human teenager who DID, in fact, give his parents PLENTY of gray hairs and heartache, are some kinds of problems that I did NOT give them.
So, I have no idea what it would be like, to be the parent of a kid whose "connection" with his family and with law-and-order is more tenuous than mine was, when I was a kid.
And it's for THAT reason, that...
3) I am NOT going to try to stop parents from insisting that their kids' schools' libraries refrain from carrying certain books.
4) I'm glad I'm not a kid, nowadays; and I'm sorry that I gave my parents the problems that I gave them. And I'm glad I don't have to raise kids, in the environment that exists, today.
5) Parents and kids, today, have my compassion; I know they're experiencing many challenges and trials. I'm trying to provide such comfort as is possible, for them, to receive, in "the world as it is, today;" I do NOT wish to bend other people nor their beliefs about "the world, as it is", to MY "way"; because, "my way" might not be "right", for everybody.
I know that. So, I "put it out there", as a sign that I support the existence of a good, wholesome environment, in the City and countryside, in Pennsylvania; especially, by means of doing my best, to "stay in my lane".
You know that, in the 7th Grade, I read Mary Stewart's "The Crystal Cave" as "assigned reading" [probably one of two or three books that we (with our parents) could have chosen, to read and write a book-report on].
My mother was shocked, to discover that there was a "scene", in that book, in which a young Merlin (not yet "the Magician") narrowly (and awkwardly) escaped a "romantic entanglement" with a young lady who lived in the vicinity.
FYI: The "scene" was quite "tame", even by the standards of the mid-1970s. Yet, my mother was not altogether happy, to have discovered that my "assigned reading" included the account of such a "scene".
At the time, I thought that my mother was "prudish".
Nowadays, I imagine that it was not the existence of the "scene", which had unsettled her; but the recognition of the fact that she had discovered the existence of that "scene" by having allowed the book to "fall open" to the most-frequently-read passage that existed, in that book.
(Hadn't it been "just yesterday", when I had been learning to read, by memorizing the Mother Goose nursery-rhymes that she had read to me, from that boot-shaped book with the shoe-laces that held it closed?
How could the "little boy" who had read all about Moses and Jesus, over and over again, in "The Golden Children's Bible", spend so much time, referring to the same two pages, in "The Crystal Cave", that the book would "fall open" to "that, particular spot"?)
"The Crystal Cave" was "assigned reading", in 7th Grade.
"Flowers for Algernon" was "assigned reading", in 9th or 10th Grade.
[NOTE: In the interest of providing some comfort, to parents:
At no time, in any high-school English class, did any of my public-school English teachers call the attention of us students to ANY of the passages, within ANY of the plays of William Shakespeare, that we read, that were sexually-suggestive puns, allusions, and double-entendres.]
But, yes, it's true, that, after "The Exorcist" and "The Omen" became such "hits", at the box-office, my high-school library had a fairly-extensive selection of books on witchcraft and black magick (although NOT Satanism); and Carlos Castaneda's books were also available, to me, at the public library, if not in school.
I read them ALL.
I graduated high-school in 1978, having read ALL of that stuff. AND YET,...
1) I was still a virgin;
2) when I stopped being a virgin, I managed to survive the onslaught of AIDS, without getting sick (or dying, whether from AIDS or from a drug overdose);
3) I've been fairly (if unremarkably) solid, upright, upstanding, and law-abiding, all my life, never having done a great many things that appear in the kinds of books and movies that parents (and the Government-sponsored censors) try to protect "impressionable" kids from exposure to,...
...DESPITE my having seen a fair amount of such stuff.
[PS: No, I don't worship the Devil, either.]