Obamacare
is no more about care than climate change is about
climate; both are euphemisms intended to persuade
the unwashed to surrender to the wishes of the
ruling class. Similarly, the mantra “it’s for the
children,” is not for the children at all. To the
contrary, today it is used to cleave the parent /
child bond and shift the rearing of children to the
collective. Progressives are crafty bastards, but
their trickery does not fool me because I learned
the truth years ago.
God blessed me with three children and each taught
me something, but it was number three, Tyler, who
truly schooled me about parenting. It was October of
1991 and I was installing a wood stove in our new
house. Earlier that morning, the trophy wife had
delivered Meagan and Chelsie to school and Tyler,
our three-year-old, to the sitter’s. I finished up
about 9:00 a.m. and hopped in my pickup to race to
the clinic. As I pulled onto 12th Street, I noticed
a small child stomping my direction in the middle of
the road. He was wearing green Ninja Turtle pajamas
and bedroom slippers and his non-verbal clues
indicated he was mad. It was Tyler. I rolled down my
window and asked “Where are you going?” He was in no
mood for conversation and without glancing up he
kept marching home. Here is why.
Our summer house project had been a labor intensive
family event and for the previous four months Tyler
and his sisters had been driving nails, pulling
nails, spilling paint, or packing off tools;
excitement he preferred over spending all day at the
baby sitter’s, so he sprinted home at his first
chance. We lectured, disciplined, and negotiated,
but his habit at the sitter’s eventually became
blink and he’s gone. It was only a half-mile trek
home, and today’s First Lady warns there are fat
kids everywhere, so the exercise was good, but his
route home crossed the Big Ditch; a body of water
with the history of snuffing the life of small
children. We faced a parenting dilemma.
For the rest of October, Tyler would start sobbing
an hour prior to going to the sitter and we tried
everything to fix the problem. Well-meaning friends
provided us popular parenting-advice magazines
written by experts; mostly adolescent psychologists
who do not have children. Finally, one morning I had
enough and declared, “This is insane. Life should be
simple when you are three and from now on, Tyler
will ride with me.” So he did.
My veterinary practice was two years old and I spent
many days rattling up and down country roads on farm
calls. Tyler immediately took to his new routine,
quickly studying each new place we visited for
swing-sets or sand boxes suggesting the presence of
children. He knew our time was short before we were
off to the next call, so he made friends fast. This
doctor-son arrangement continued until Tyler started
school two and a half years later and they were the
best years of my life. Later in grade school, Tyler
would occasionally ask, “Dad, can I ride with you on
calls this Saturday?” He needed to talk, so he rode
with me and we talked. Sadly, those days are gone.
Tyler is an engineer, married and has two little
escapees of his own. The fields of western
Yellowstone County are growing subdivisions, strip
malls and casinos rather than corn, so my road time
is considerably less than it was in 1991. This
brings me to my point.
A parent’s time with their children is incredibly
short and for the ruling class to shorten it even
more is criminal. Montana’s Governor Steve Bullock
is spinning his new Pre-Kindergarten program as
being “for the children”. It is not. Costing $37
million every two years, this program empowers the
ruling class and teacher union leadership at the
expense of three and four-year olds. The children do
not belong to the community, they belong to their
parents and they reach their greatest potential only
when they spend their younger years with their
parents. I will not be in the 2015 legislative
session to reject this taking of our children, but I
trust there are those I left behind who will. Mike,
Jerry, Keith, Ryan, Alan, and Kris what say you?
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