Especially for Parents

News and Commentary by Sharon Secor
February 2004

The Right of Childhood, A State of Mind

At the turn of the last century, progressive-minded people were concerned with the state of children, and sought to rescue childhood from the grasps of the factories and the mines, from the fields and the mills. We, too, face a similar set of circumstances in the early years of our new century. Today, we also see a corporate, big money threat to childhood, stripping its innocence and selling it at a profit. However, unlike the last century, today it is all too often the so-called progressive-thinking people who facilitate the efforts of those who would profit from the destruction of childhood.

A heart-breaking story, reported in the February 9, 2004, edition of the Philadelphia Daily News, offers a perfect example of this. At Center City Library, a library that "caters to area schools", according to the report by Kitty Caparella, 23-year-old Brian McCutcheon allegedly beat, raped and choked an 8-year-old girl in the restroom of the library. Unconscious, bloody and crammed behind a toilet with her pants down, she was found by another child.

The Philadelphia Inquirer reported on February 10 that, according to library staff, McCutcheon usually used the computers for viewing pornography. The policy of the library, as stated within their Mission and Philosophy of Service, is that while "some uses of the Internet may not be legal and/or appropriate for a public library ... library users must exercise judgment." According to their guidelines concerning the use of computers and the Internet, they do not filter material. The staff must provide "access to workstations without restrictions based on the age of the user." The library "assumes no responsibility for any damages, direct or indirect."

Our elite, liberal thinkers insist that filtering pornography from the computers in the public libraries is a violation of rights. Apparently, the rights of those who cannot, for whatever reason, view pornography via the Internet in their own homes and the rights of those who have no homes in which to view Internet pornography are of greater importance than the rights of children to be safe in a public library. This, despite the fact that children are widely encouraged to make use of public libraries to enhance their literacy skills and many students are required to do research at libraries to complete school assignments.

Remember the days of childhood, wandering the library on your own, breathing the scent of all those books in one place, all that potential? Oblivious to all but the excitement of the pursuit of that special book, the next adventure, the next discovery? Remember them well, because they are gone now. Today, we take our children and mustn't let them out of our sight. We nervously watch over them and train them to protect themselves from an assault between the stacks. Or in the restroom. The little girl that McCutcheon allegedly assaulted was at the library with her grandmother and two other children, a 3-year-old and a 4-year-old.

This type of thinking—disconnected from the realities that we who live in the real world, as opposed to the world of ideals, face daily—has become prevalent in so-called progressive, forward thinking society, particularly among those at the helm of many of our secular societal institutions. Indeed, on the same day that the Philadelphia Daily News reported the heinous act of brutality against an innocent child in a public library, Associated Press writer David Pitt reported that federal judge Robert Pratt "struck down an Iowa law that prohibited convicted sex offenders from living within 2,000 feet of schools and day-care centers."

According to the judge, despite the fact that rates of re-offending are among the highest for sexual offenders, the law "unconstitutionally infringes" on the rights of those convicted of sexual crimes. In other words, the rights of the person who has proven that he is a threat to society take precedence over the rights of those most vulnerable to his barbarity.

Unfortunately, this state of mind is not limited to one judge in one state. The Philadelphia Daily News reported that in June of 2001, Brian McCutcheon "pleaded guilty to misdemeanor simple assault in a similar case involving a 9-year-old girl." Thanks to his plea bargain down from "aggravated assault and related crimes" and light sentencing, he was out on the street again.

Earlier this month, 11-year-old Carlie Brucia, of Sarasota, Florida, was abducted and killed. The child was doing what so many of us used to do—she was walking home from a friend's house, just a short distance from her own.

The alleged murderer, Joseph P. Smith, 37 years of age, has a criminal record of "numerous arrests", including "charges of kidnapping/false imprisonment, felony aggravated battery and domestic violence," according to a CNN.com report of February 5. Yet, as Bill O'Reilly pointed out on FOX News Channel's The O'Reilly Factor (which aired on February 6), despite repeated probation violations, Florida judge Harry Rapkin refused to send Smith back to jail.

Judge Harry Rapkin seems to have an interesting judicial record. According to O'Reilly, "Rapkin denied the state's request that convicted child sex offender Richard Lee Walker be sentenced to prison for violating parole." Now, Walker is "a suspect in the disappearance of a 14-year-old girl."

In July of last year, Manhattan Federal Judge Gerard Lynch protested strongly his obligation through a mandatory minimum to sentence 18-year-old Jorge Pabon-Cruz to 10 years for the distribution of child pornography via the Internet. It was "without question the worst day of my judicial career," said the judge, according to a New York Post report of July 23, 2003. A July 29, 2004 press release from the U.S. Attorney's office offers details of Pabon-Cruz's criminal operation, which distributed thousands of images of children being sexually abused.

These "progressive"-minded people are to be found within the education system as well. Sex festivals and porn workshops on college campuses are, sadly, old news now, as are the bizarre SIECUS recommendations for school sex education, which state that children between 5 and 8 years of age need to be taught about masturbation and elementary school children need to be taught about homosexuals and bisexuals. Earlier this month, in Massachusetts, according to a February 11 World Net Daily report, "students and staff at Amherst Regional High School" performed the vulgar Eve Ensler play The Vagina Monologues. Harvard students will soon be producing their very own porn magazine.

Corporations that use the lowest representations of sexuality to make money certainly shoulder a large degree of responsibility for our current cultural climate—but they are not alone. It is also those who create the ideological environment in which these corporations can take hold and blossom that hold an equal if not greater part of the culpability.

This ideological environment in which we currently find ourselves, however, is often not a reflection of the values and standards of the majority. For example, according to a March 2002 poll, done by Wirthlin Worldwide, a survey research company, "eight out of ten Americans (81%) believe federal laws against Internet obscenity should be vigorously enforced." Numerous surveys conducted by various parenting organizations throughout the nation demonstrate that the majority of parents believe that there is too much sex and violence on television. The results of Zogby polls have clearly demonstrated that "parents overwhelmingly reject comprehensive sex education when they understand what this education teaches their children," according to the Coalition for Adolescent Sexual Health.

The social minorities that have constructed today's ideological environment are often aggressively vocal and politically active, something that the "silent majority", too often, are not. It is the silence that allows so many of these things—pornography, broadcast indecency and the destructive influence of rap and pop music—to flourish.

When the "silent majority" speak, they do get results. The most recent example of this is the incident that occurred during the Super Bowl half-time show and its aftermath. The outrage expressed by so many Americans so quickly and so forcefully brought quick action. We were heard. Broadcasters, the NFL and Congress all reacted, with broadcasters even acting quickly to limit nudity in upcoming programming and adding a delay to future risky live broadcasts.

Rather than allow the quality of our lives, and that of our children's lives to be determined by a small minority of thinkers and theorizers moving forward with social and political agendas that have little to do with the well-being of our society as a whole or the safety of the individual within it, we must make these people accountable for their actions.

Let public library officials know where you stand. If judges won't do their jobs, make your voice heard and follow up with local officials and at the voting booth. If schools refuse to respect community standards, perhaps it is time to leave these public schools behind, taking their per-student public money with us. As parents, we need to let these people know that we are not buying what they are selling. And with these truly progressive ideals, we, too, will be able to restore the cultural state of mind that supports the rights of our children to experience childhood.