It's a Fundamental Duty Thing

Dear America,

happy thursday.

sometimes I feel like a chicken with her head cut off...I turn around sometimes and feel like I have lost days, sometimes even entire weeks, jumping from one thing to do to the next.  And sometimes, even taking on Other People's Things To Do, totally believing I am helping, not harming.  This is especially in reference to my girl -- and more specifically, her things.

But I've realized something.   Sometimes this Type A, highly overzealous activity, may serve as a disservice to the both of us.   She doesn't learn how to "multi-task," nor does she begin to recognize how the everyday tasks -- the ones that  maintain order all around her -- magically get done.   And the other side of this, of course, is that I just get too damn tired.  And with that, it begins to show in the quality of work of the things I DO...and let's  face it, G gets a wee bit cranky.

The truth is, she is getting older.   She is actually dangerously close to experiencing for the first time being away from home.  What does this mean?  She can begin to see more into the actions taken by the mysterious little fairy that bounces into her world to do her laundry, vacuum her room, clean the girl's room, shop for groceries, and pull together an array of meals every single day of the week, including Sundays.   And not only see it, but DO it. 

Over time, her responsibilities can adapt to her level of rising maturity; this kind of compound interest, shaping her growing and impressionable young mind, helps her grow more independent.  It's a slow, methodical process taking advantage of all the tools available -- concerned and engaged parents, school, athletics, technology and communication, one's faith, all working in concert with one another....kind of like a village, but not really. 

The thing is, it really doesn't take a village.  It takes a good family.

From John Locke's Second Essay Concerning Civil Government, we gain incite as to how this idea applies to the framework of early America:

"The power, then, that parents have over their children arises from that duty which is incumbent on them, to take care of their offspring during the imperfect state of childhood.  To inform their mind, and govern the actions of their yet ignorant nonage, till reason shall take its place and ease them of that trouble, is what the children want, and the parents are bound to [provide]."

and goes on to add:

"When he has acquired that state [of maturity], he is presumed to know how far that law is to be his guide, and how far he may make use of his freedom, and so comes to have it; till then, somebody else must guide him, who is presumed to know how far the law allows a liberty...Till then, we see the law allows the son to have no will, but he is to be guided by the will of his father or guardian, who is to understand for him..."

We are about to dramatically alter our second amendment rights by Executive Order.

What we are watching right now -- in Washington -- is Biden, and Congressmen, and even our president, scrambling around in an area it doesn't belong.    Chickens with their heads cut off -- dropping everything and jumping into the confiscation of guns, ammo, and an everyday right for everyday citizens of everyday America.  

Bureaucratic energies...all going to the wrong place. 

Misguided for all the right reasons (as it appears to be), they are in the midst of providing a great disservice to the American people, as well to themselves.

More gun control is not going to fix our problem; that simply takes the responsibility of understanding the law and the task and how it works out of the hands of good citizens, and thereby protecting the unlawful use of the law and the task and how it works safely into the liberty of bad citizens.

We have more gun violence upon innocents because we have more crazy people raising crazy people; we have more abandonment of parental responsibility to raise children into healthy, law abiding, thoughtful adults; we have more mental illness, drug and alcohol abuse,  and the like, directly affecting the welfare of entire communities and surviving without the proper resources or attention.

It's a fundamental duty as parents to be fully responsible to our duty as a parent! for the good of our own children and to the community we are surrounded.  I don't even care if that sounds like I was being redundant.  It's called having a lot of duty going around.  Crazy town duty.

But our society has grown so rampantly dysfunctional, we consider it to be totally normal.

And what do we do?  We respond, we overreact like fool's rushing in to solve the symptom, not the cause.  How do we immediately make a course correction on the fly?  We take away personal responsibility, self-reliance, accountability, and duty; our knee jerk, chicken-footed, reaction looks like we take away an everyday liberty from all of us.

Yes.  Tragedy happened in Sandy Hook.    Unspeakable, unimaginable, unconscionable, tragedy. 

But today, it feels like the entire nation is running around with it's head cut off.

This is a fascinating twist, go here.   Who knew, right?  Surely, we hate the law, Obamacare, but gotta love that news!   But the greater truth is -- we knew this attack on "the right of the people to keep and bear arms, shall not be infringed" was coming from the Left.  It was just waiting for the crisis to appear.

We have more to talk about; but we will have to save it for another day; G has things to do...

... need to leave a little love note for my girl, outlining just a couple things for her to add to her list of things to do today.   [joy to the world...]

Just between you and me, let me leave things on this note:   Duty never sleeps as a parent, as Allstate, and as a citizen of these fine United States.  This much is true today as it was yesterday, just as it ever was two hundred years ago; and this duty never, ever goes away...even when they go away to college...even when 'the collective' gangs up upon the individual, using bully tactics to fundamentally transform everything this country is good for.

Make it a Good Day, G