Saturday, December 15, 2007

Priscilla the Knife

More years ago than can be counted on both your fingers and toes and mine, I was an elementary school student at West Elementary School in Grand Forks, North Dakota. Admittedly, it was a different time, but the principles involved are the same. The stated goal of the government children's prison system is to help parents prepare youngsters to be able to function as adults in the real world. Today, the children's prisons are failing--not only by ineptitude, but by conscious intent. They are trying to make herd animals out of our youth!

I'm not sure they weren't already working in that direction in my skool daze; after all, most people my age are eight-hour-a-day wage slaves just as are those graduating colleges today. Seems like many of the high-profile successes 'bout whom we read in the business journals and society gossip pages got where they are after slipping the yoke in their own youth.

Now, I like what I do, and actually look forward to going to work most days, but sometimes I wonder why I'm not a movie studio executive or a famous writer or a crocodile hunter. Well, with age comes wisdom, and I finally realized that my difficulty is that I've always been afraid to take risks regarding my livelihood. Fact of life. Now, I have to ponder the question of whether it's too late to change.

But, I'm wandering away from the subject: the abominable and purposeful failure of the government children's prison system, and its stubborn and deliberate inability to make educated and functional adults out of children. Parents are also failing at their part, as well--they were inmates of children's prisons in their youth.

Yesterday, according to a story on the website of Local 6 News in Orlando, Florida, a ten-year-old girl, an inmate at the Sunrise Elementary School in Ocala, was arrested for having a knife on school property--a felony in Florida. She had a steak knife that she'd brought from home, and was using it to cut her lunch into bite-sized bits.

There was no allegation that she'd used the knife in a threatening manner. She was transported down to Juvie Hall, presumably to be flogged, then stretched on the rack until she admits membership in a pre-teen terrorist organization. Look for a much taller Priscilla if and when she's released (or when her cabal effects an escape for her).

The long-ago time I referenced earlier in this missive saw me and many of my contemporaries carrying knives to school, and everywhere else, routinely. We called them jackknives, and they were often given to boys as Christmas gifts by fathers and uncles. They were a permanent part of our trouser pockets, and we used them to make slingshots and to carve our initials into the bark of trees. As Cub Scouts and Boy Scouts, our jackknives were an indispensable tool, to be used to do the tasks required to earn achievement badges.

I can only assume that young girls learned (in those days) to do Girl Scout things with knives, not to mention to learn to cook and bake under the tutelage of their mothers. And, of course, we all had to learn to handle tableware to dine without taking on the appearance of islamic savages.

What is it this that the Florida Children's Prison System is rejecting? The notion of eating meals like a civilized human being? Will the use of hands next be rejected? I can almost imagine the guards and wardens of the Florida Children's Prison System nodding in approval at the sight of the youngsters bent over the tables, faces in their plates and making snarling and snorting sounds while trying to snarf up gruel at the school cafeteria.

How long until walking upright will be forbidden?

Darwin was wrong. It's Devolution.

Warm regards,

Col. Hogan
Stalag California

7 comments:

MathewK said...

Heaven help her if she had been attacked at the school and used that steak knife to defend herself.
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No wait, this is a public school right, no place for God and such there, sorry child, you're on your own.

Col. Hogan said...

Little thugs learn quickly, and they don't use their knives to cut up their lunch--they keep them hidden until they see a chance to steal a kid's lunch money. Thus, as in adult life, the little thieves are armed, and they pay no heed to the "no weapons on school grounds" rule.

This little girl merely wanted to slice up her bratwurst and eat it in a civilized manner, instead of grabbing it in her fist and biting off a chunk--as the little thug would likely do.

If my youngsters were still in school, I'd get together with the parents and try to talk them into having every youngster bring a steak knife to school one day, and use them with their lunches, by way of protest against the moronic stance they're taking.

This kind of crap only works if you let it.

KG said...

Spot-on Col.
(but don't worry about missing out on the crocodile hunter thing--it's dirty and hot and messy. Been there.)

Aurora said...

Col., devolution is right on. Sometimes when I think society is imploding, I see extraordinarily good parents and decent kids and I have hope that there will be a strong remnant who will make it through the government brainwashing centers. As parents (as I've heard you say), we need to talk to our children and let them know that the lower form of human life that they see in some of their teachers and school staff are not the real deal.

Col. Hogan said...

Aurora,

Story after story (of this nature) pops up in the news on an almost weekly basis. That only counts the ones that hit the I-media.

This is a big part of the reason I continually admonish that individuals remove their kids from the government children's prisons. It must be done before they have truly lost the capacity to reason. I know it's tough, but it has to be done, and it has to be done by masses of families, in order that individuals can't be prosecuted. They can't put everyone in jail.

Things will change if we make them change. And, at this juncture, they can no longer change for the worse.

Anonymous said...

Hey, Col your piece got linked at tailrank. # 3 behind Balko and some undisclosed usurper.

TWC

www.winecommonsewer.com

Aurora said...

I agree Col. that while it's still permissible, it's far better to homeschool your kids or put them in a small private school where you can trust the teachers. The public school system is an absolute disgrace. I speak for Australia (but I know it's pretty bad over there too)