Prior to Boston\u2019s bombing garnering most of the nation\u2019s attention, the week previous cable news host Melissa Harris-Perry received more attention than usual for the news she made as opposed to the news she reported.\u00a0 In only a 30 second promotional ad for her network, the television host and Tulane professor said the following:<\/p>\n
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\u201cWe have never invested as much in public education as we should have, because we\u2019ve always had kind of a private notion of children.\u00a0 \u2018Your kid is yours and totally your responsibility.\u2019\u00a0 We haven\u2019t had a very collective notion of \u2018these are <\/em>our<\/em><\/strong> children.\u2019\u00a0 So part of it is we have to breakthrough our kind of private idea that kids belong to their parents or kids belong to their families, and recognize that kids belong to whole communities.\u00a0 Once it\u2019s everybody\u2019s responsibility and not just the household\u2019s, then we start making better investments.\u201d \u00a0 <\/em>[Emphasis was Harris-Perry\u2019s.]<\/p>\n <\/p>\n While the Intramuralist previously paid little attention to the rhetorical flap that has since transpired on all sides of the equation, my desire today is to briefly analyze what the TV host said and why my internal alarms are unfortunately now sounding…<\/p>\n <\/p>\n In attempts to either squelch the firestorm (or gain increased publicity \u2014 you decide),<\/em> Harris-Perry acknowledged that while she can comprehend how many are \u201cgenuinely upset\u201d by what she said, she still stands by her statement.\u00a0 She reiterated that the ad \u201cisn\u2019t about me wanting to take your kids, and this isn\u2019t even about whether children are property.\u00a0 This is about whether we as a society, expressing our collective will through our public institutions, including our government, have <\/em>a right to impinge on individual freedoms<\/em><\/strong> in order to advance a common good.\u201d \u00a0<\/em><\/p>\n <\/p>\n That emphasis is mine.\u00a0 That\u2019s where my alarm begins to sound…<\/p>\n <\/p>\n Let\u2019s be clear.\u00a0 People sometimes make bad choices.\u00a0 We<\/em> sometimes make bad choices.\u00a0 I still<\/em> make bad choices.\u00a0 I\u2019ve previously allowed my kids to sleep \u2018til noon and eat ice cream for breakfast.\u00a0 I also have zero doubt that at times I\u2019ve allowed them to believe some things that were not true \u2014 even completely, totally ignorantly on my part; yes, I have at times taught them wrongly… maybe even \u201callowing\u201d my kids to believe something that didn\u2019t advance the desired \u201ccommon good\u201d that one of the country\u2019s presumed intellectuals passionately believes in.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n But a free, democratic republic, that teaching is no one\u2019s right nor responsibility other than my household\u2019s.\u00a0 Perhaps even more significantly \u2014 and why this intelligent professor\u2019s comments strike me as a contradiction of wisdom \u2014 is because it is no one else\u2019s responsibility to teach my kids rightly.<\/em>\u00a0 It is no one else\u2019s right nor responsibility to discern what is right or wrong for my children… that applies whether the topic be worldly or weighty, no matter if even about ice cream.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n For me, that\u2019s what bothers me about this ad.\u00a0 With all due respect to Melissa Harris-Perry, I do not think of my children as my<\/em><\/strong> property; <\/em>that\u2019s not the issue.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n Each of us has been endowed with inalienable rights.\u00a0 Note:\u00a0 the Declaration of Independence credits our Creator for those rights \u2014 not any desiring overreach of government.\u00a0 One of those rights \u2014 and responsibilities \u2014 is to raise our children well.\u00a0 That is not our community\u2019s right nor the government\u2019s responsibility.\u00a0 That job is notably, divinely ours.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n So if in my responsibility I make errors in judgment \u2014 which will <\/em><\/strong>happen sometimes \u2014 and if I make errors that cause partisans on one side or another (or both)<\/em> to cringe at my teaching \u2014 it is no one\u2019s right to play the moral compass or perceived human Holy Spirit and convict my kid; it is not their right to straighten my kid out.\u00a0 Alarmingly, that argument is far more compatible with a socialist state than with a democratic republic that long ago acknowledged the individual endowment by our Creator.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n Pass the ice cream, please. \u00a0For the record, we\u2019ll be serving it for breakfast.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n Respectfully,<\/p>\n AR<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Prior to Boston\u2019s bombing garnering most of the nation\u2019s attention, the week previous cable news host Melissa Harris-Perry received more attention than usual for the news she made as opposed to the news she reported.\u00a0 In only a 30 second promotional ad for her network, the television host and Tulane professor said the following: … <\/p>\n