That’s sweeping the nation: Your very own, personal, Bill of Rights!
I guess the original one isn’t good enough for American’s these days, which is probably why they haven’t a clue at to what it actually says. Myself, I like to put it behind everything I write here.
The City of Portland and Multnomah County recently gathered a handful of children (400) to ‘ratify’ a Children’s Bill of Rights written by the Mayor’s wife and an even smaller number of children (30).
There was no word in any article I read on this as to whether the children who wrote it or the children who voted on it can actually recite a word from the original BoR.
You can go here and read the text of this bit of idiocy, thanks to the Orb (who, for having a rather round name is really just rather tall and not round).
Luckily, the thing is just a symbolic piece and is non-binding, but though this article questioned whether it will lead to policy changes, I can guarantee it will. The mayor whose wife wrote it is trying to get the state to up the tax income to pay Washington DC size money for schools. Now that he has this, his “For the Children!!” cry will have weight behind it. It may be water weight, but I can’t see how the Oregon Legislature can resist it.
Follow me below the fold for some of the more ignorant parts
It contains numerous “It Takes a Village” moments and a couple of the pieces that set me off in to alternating fits of maniacal laughter and RCOB moments:
Section 1, Part C – It is our right to be accepted and active members of the community.
The California Legislature has been toying with the idea of letting children as young as 14 years old vote in statewide elections. It wouldn’t be a stretch for the City of Portland to extend that right with that line.
Section 2, Part A – Extra-curricular activites, including athletics, the arts, linguistics, politics, and any other areas in which students express interest, should be made available to all students, and all students should be supported in their pursuits.
My parents had after-school archery and firearms teams and I think this generation should too. Why do I have the sneaking suspicion that this ‘extra-curricular activity’ would never be considerd?
Then the hard-core socialism portion comes into play:
Section 3, Part A: We have the right to any medical care, nutrition, and fitness deemed necessary for our health. If children and youth or their families cannot afford medical care, appropriate care should be provided for them.
Section 3, Part B: We have the right to emotional well-being, and the right to an adequate support system.
Section 4, Part B: We have the inherent right to shelter. The City of Portland and Multnomah County should continue their efforts to provide adequate shelter to those who need it.
Section 4, Part C: We have the right to access adequate nutrition, and the community should provide for this right.
They’re not asking for a Nanny in the form of the person next door’s paycheck, they’re demanding it.
And even worse than the socialism are the completely unrealistic demands that no government has any right to legislate:
Section 5, Part B: Every child should be loved, valued and respected.
Section 5, Part C: We have the right to live in safe homes and communities with people whom we trust, and who love and guide us.
Section 6, Part C: We have the right to be supported in our pursuit of a healthy lifestyle.
Section 6, Part D: We have the right to experience freedom and enjoyment in a secure environment.
But these last two are even scarier than the demands of a Nerf World.
Section 5, Part E: We have a right not to be descrimiated against based on our race, religion, sex, age, mental or physical disability, national origin, sexual orientation, marital status, family status, political views, source of income, gender identity or any other basis prohibited by applicable federal, state, and local laws.
Such discrimination poses a threat to the health, safety and general welfare of the citizens of Portland and Multnomah County and menaces the institutions and foundation of our community.
We have the right not to tolerate and disparaging or insensitive attitudes aimed at the above characteristics.
Whuh? “The right not to tolerate”.
Just think, I could have filed a formal complaint for having been called a ‘Four Eyes’ if I had had something like this when I was a youngin. Of course, my ‘Short-Bus’ taunts would have landed me in more hot water then I was usually in.
Section 5, Part D: We have the right to have privacy in our own homes.
It’s too old to still be in the RNS archives, so I’m working on memory here, but a while back there was the story of an 18 year old who had taken part in an armed holdup of a store and was bragging about it over the phone to his 14 year old ‘girlfriend’. Unfortunately for him, the girl’s mother, who didn’t approve of their relationship, was listening to their conversation on a second line in the house.
The girl was in her room and the mother was in the kitchen. The 18 year old was arrested, tried and convicted, and then released after a successful appeal on the grounds that the mother had no right to listen in on the conversation.
I don’t live in Oregon, and yet this thing scares the fo-shizle out of me. These kids are symbolically being given more rights than any adult in the nation. The worst part is that the vast majority of them don’t even pretend to pertain to actual freedom.
This isn’t a ‘Bill of Rights’.
It’s a wish list to Santa.
Jr and #2 have, and will continue to have, the same right to privacy that any Private in basic training has.
And I still don’t see how the person who pays for the phone doesn’t have the right to do whatever they want with it, including monitoring it’s use.
There isn’t enough Prilosec in the rather large bottle of it that sits in my medicine cabinet to protect my gut from the heartburn this issue would have caused me, so I refused to follow it.
The tax issue is another matter. All the polls show that Oregon is still in a fairly anti-tax mood, so there won’t be ANY increase in the 8.9% income tax. The current (unpopular) County Executive rammed through a County Income tax four years ago, but spent it so poorly that there is no chance of THAT happening again, so the City of Portland (I don’t reside in the city) is down to proposing a citywide special levy for the kiddies. The city limits contain the most virulent of the tax-and-spend crowd, so the tax will probably pass there, even though it’s being offered upon false premises: the taxers used the AVERAGE PROPERTY VALUE PER LOT to base their “estimate” on instead of the AVERAGE RESIDENTIAL PROPERTY VALUE. This results in the impact of the tax being grossly under-estimated, and is a legal FUBAR, and anyone who cares to oppose the tax can sue to have the ballot issue removed from the ballot because of it (but we have to wait until the Voter’s Guide is published, they might correct it by then. That Guide isn’t published until 3 weeks before the election).
Let them have it. Out here (15 miles East of Portland) where I live, we are just slightly more conservative. That means such a levy doesn’t stand a chance here. We also have Don McIntyre living out here. He is the chief (and only sane) antitax crusader in the State, and living in the same suburban town with him has an umbrella effect. The tax-and-spend crowd won’t even consider trying to foist off a tax increase in his backyard.
You and my dad would have gotten along just fine there, HL. My bedroom never had a door on it.
When I was attending Crescent Valley HS in Corvallis, we had a robust arts program — multiple excellent student choirs, band, orchestra, and healthy fine arts and performing arts departments, all supported by the healthy Corvallis tax base. After I graduated, I heard through the grapevine that Oregon passed a law leveling out school funding across the state. So some of the funds that Corvallis previously spent on its local schools were now going to, say, Drain, or even Rajneeshpuram. And apparently that gutted the CVHS arts programs (and athletics, too).
So I love how they’re saying every kid has a “right” to extracurricular activities, especially when they won’t allow the local citizens who want to support these things to FUND them.