Save The Children

I finished reading the arguments against California proposition 19, the Tax Cannabis Act, in the California General Election guide published by the Secretary of State. As I fully expected, the argument against the legalization of marijuana comes down to the safety of our children. Horrors if a school bus driver can arrive for work with marijuana in his or her system! School districts would have their hands tied tied! because they couldn't require bus drivers to be drug-free -- until after tragedy strikes.

This is more societal yammering about "saving the children." "Protect" the children! "Help" the children! "Save" the children!

Know what I say? Fuck the children.

There's too much emphasis placed on children's safety these days and it goes to extreme, schizo-paranoidal lengths. We're not just talking about laws requiring helmets during batting practice; no, it goes all the way to a parent who accompanies their child during the first day of school to "direct" them to the best seat in the class where their odds of being gunned down by a shooter are minimized.

So much emphasis on safety. We operate under the assumption that every third housal unit in Elk Grove harbors a sex offender, where any hope of allowing your kids to play outside with chalk on the driveway has long since vanished, because they might vanish. Kids can't ride bikes to school, not just because of those sex offenders but because of the danger we've created by such brutal traffic having to shuttle these kids everywhere from structured play dates to tuba practice. No one is allowed to walk anymore. I expect in the future, say by 2023, walking outside your housal unit if you're under the age of 16 will be a goddamn crime in Elk Grove...passed by a right leaning city council under the guise of "Protecting Our Children." Of course, there will be notable exceptions, such as allowing our children to walk between the doors of our consumption depots and their parent's motorized vehicles. This would have to be exempted, to ensure adequate retail sales tax revenue for the city.

"...until after tragedy strikes."

Is this for real?

Yes, it is. Pull out the old "save the children" card, hold it high overhead, tug on our parental heartstrings, and think that we're saving our children when all we're doing is turning them into young adults who will have no autonomy, no independence, no way to navigate themselves through early adult life. And you know how they're gonna cope in a world that's not geared towards "protecting" them like you do? They're gonna get loaded! They're going to do the same thing we all do -- drink, smoke, load up on prescription meds, roll a joint and shelter ourselves in the carapice of an automobile 'till the end of time. If you were a kid these days I think you'd have to get stoned...to cope with all you neurotic, over-protective parents.

This is how we argue against proposition 19, even though I know a half dozen people who can't climb into a vehicle without getting loaded first...and so do you. It is a false argument in my mind, yet "children's safety" might just push this proposition towards failure. Fair enough. It makes perfect sense for us to use those who we deem the most vulnerable, tender and precious as peons for influencing the legislative process. Yep, that's what we do. Our children are but tools, used to advance our social agendas.

If you want to protect your children from abductors, rapists, and sexual assaulters, then keep them away from their family members, including you...because far and away, the most likely sources of abuse comes from people they know. If you want to "save" your children...leave them the fuck alone!