The Rules

As a child I vividly remember some of the rules my father hand for me as a grew up as well as the punishments I would receive for breaking those rules. Such an impression this made on me that it has shaped my life, my opinions, and how I treat others that frequently break the rules. I cannot say that his rules were always fair, at least not from my point of view, but they did cause me to understand things I might otherwise not have understood. I was reminded of these when a recent incident in Tennessee caused a police officer to handcuff a bunch of children that were engaged in bullying another child. The media is really playing this up and the new police chief (on the job just 3 weeks) certainly has his hands full trying to sort out what, if anything, needs to be done with the police officer.

As I look around the world through the eyes of the news and other similar reports, it has become apparent that parents around the world seem to have become extremely lax when it comes to making and enforcing rules. Of course, we cannot blame the parents on some of these because society has chosen to step in and punish too many well intentioned parents for child abuse when we that are older simply recognize that there comes a time when the parent must lay down the law and strictly punish the child in order to get the point across.

Worse yet, our legal system simply is not equipped, nor are our lawmakers equipped or courageous enough to sit down and draw up a reasonable, sensible, and workable set of rules because … well, I suppose it is because there are so many variations that one set of rules would be simply impossible. Perhaps that is why, when I was a child, we decided to trust the adults & parents to do the right thing and allow the community to judge them rather than a judge and 12 strangers that probably never have met them.

There is a certain rational is the concept that it takes an entire community to raise a child. Parents and other adults must work together, share information, and support the poor parent that is having to deal with an unruly child as well as recognize and reward those that comply and obey the rules. No matter if it is standing up for a football commissioner or a simple police officer that are trying to make an impression and teach a person the right and wrong of life.

Nobody said it would be easy and it certainly will take as many generations to straighten it out as it took to screw it all up. We have to share our successes and our failures without fear of retribution. We have to open ourselves up to suggestions & criticism, but most of all, we need to learn. No matter if it is the Ten Commandments or the written scrawl that dad posted on the bulletin board. They are rules, intended to teach, reward, and punish … all in an effort to help us raise a better child into being a responsible adult we can trust.

We have Mothers Against Drunk Drivers, Anti-defamation Leagues, Young Republicans, The Boy & Girl Scouts and so many more. Why can’t we have something like Parents United or Adults Unlimited? We need a strong organization that can get and keep the attention of every budding parent, adult, lawyer, police officer, judge, politician, and anyone else willing to promote this concept. I’m not suggesting the end is near, but take a look at the world around you and tell us just how long you think the world will last with so much war, threatening behavior, and rule breakers that simply don’t know to care about the results. We need it and we need it now. It will take lots of time and most of us will not live long enough to see the eventual success, but it’s time to get started … for everyone’s sake & survival.