Strictly an Observer January 17th 2015

       I've been told over the years that the older you get the more your apt to forget.  In my case that maxim seems to be working in the opposite direction.  Specifically in the way our government has become a nursemaid.  I remember full well a time, not too long ago, that did not have our elected officials deciding what's best for their constituents.  It seems that what I've forgotten is when we as a society decided to give our federal, state and local legislators this power.  I remember voting for certain candidates but I can't seem to recall them building their campaign platform on parental guidance.  The government I remember growing up didn't seem to care about what I ate, if I smoked, drank or wore my seat belt.  With all the problems our country is facing, it amazes me that our politicians have the time or the tax money to debate and decide what's best for us.  Oh, wait a minute...... they don't.
      The first thing that they seem to have snuck by me due to my recent memory lapse is that not only are they telling us as adults what to do, they are also directing us in how to raise our children.  Yet again another miraculous discovery of funds and time.  Our daughter recently started attending our local public school and although I expected some things to have changed since our son attended fifteen years ago, I was taken aback by certain new guidelines.  Now I have to say that there seems to be no limit to the new government requirements for raising a child that have been thrown onto our parental backs, so I'll limit my rants to the highlights.  For starters, we as parents are now told what our children are allowed to bring to school to eat.  That's right..... food.  All the food they bring in has to be on the "approved" nutrition list.  Really?  We allowed our legislators to argue over what our kids can eat in school?  What do they think, that we're going to send our daughter to school with a bag of Milky Ways for lunch, Oreos for dessert and a six pack of Coke to wash it all down with?  And even if we did, it seems to me that it's my family's business and our politicians should keep their noses out of it.  How much did this cost the taxpayers?  Moreover, what vital issue was put on the back burner to make way for the public school children mandatory nutrition program because parents these days aren't smart enough to make these decisions themselves legislation?  When was the last time any of these Einsteins tried to tell a six year old they couldn't have a Chips Ahoy?  If they had started with that approach, there wouldn't have been any debate to begin with.
      Another political correct gem in our schools today is that we are constantly coming up with new non-offending names for the holidays.  No Merry Christmas, Happy Hanukkah, or Kwanzaa.  We now have to instruct our children to say Happy Holidays.  No Christmas parties either.  We can't be having any holly jolly, deck the halls, Santa Claus is coming to town celebrations here.  This holiday season our daughter attended a Reindeer party.  And at that politically correct party the children were not allowed to have candy canes, gingerbread, chocolate Santas or any other kind of treat that we adults associated with some of our fondest memories of the season.  Why do our elected officials seem to want to ruin all the fun for our children and hide behind the camouflaged statements that it's all in their best interest.  It's just another perfect example of how our children lose out because the adults can't play nice.  Now let's be realistic if not nostalgic for a moment, shall we?  We all said Merry Christmas growing up.  Had Christmas parties where we ate candy and brought Nutter Butters in our brown paper lunch bags.  We all seem to have turned out alright, haven't we?   Apparently not, as we all seem to be accepting these changes in stride with virtually no opposition.  Are we all really that dissatisfied in how our parents raised us?  I believe that with each new law that we implement along these guidelines we do them a terrible injustice.  No parent has any idea what they are doing when they first have children.  It's a learning experience from the start.  The best any of us can do is learn as we go.  No governing body can guide us in this task due to the fact that you deal with family situations on a day to day basis.  There is no one size fits all rules to raising a family and we all should be smart enough to keep our government out of our family decisions.
      As a final thought, I'd like to remind everyone reading this that is close to my age of a time when we didn't have to worry about seat belts, trans fats, political correctness or tax fines for not having health care.  Back to a time when you and your siblings fought over who got to ride in the back of the pickup on your way to the drive in.  A time that when you got to the drive in, you ate popcorn with tons of salt and butter and watched Blazing Saddles or some other movie that we all loved but is looked down upon today because certain people find it offensive.  A time when our government didn't punish you financially because you couldn't afford health care.  I remember those days well and I look back on them with fondness.  We did what our mother's told us.  We minded our own business and for the most part, the government minded theirs.  What doesn't come to mind is when it started to change and how it changed so fast.  I think that there in lies the problem.  The more that we forget about the way things were, the easier it is for our government take away our freedoms little by little.  Strictly an observation.  If you'll excuse me, I have to find some ginkoba and a Subaru Brat.

View my other articles and like Strictly an Observer on Facebook

Follow Strictly an Observer on Google+

Follow Strictly an Observer on Twitter