pornography in public schools

I agree with the Sun-Times editorial that censoring books is never a good idea (Censoring books . . . , November 19).

But the current issue is not about censorship.  It’s about exposing minors to pornographic literature.  Sure, they can find it on the internet if they want, but schools exist to teach kids about life, how to live it and how to get along in it.  A person goes to school to learn good things that will help them.  Not all things are helpful here.  School libraries have to choose which books to carry.  They cannot carry everything. 

A book about a person’s self-discovery can be helpful.  If the book has pornographic content, then what help it gives is mixed.  Like two steps forward, two steps backward.  Find another one that doesn’t have the pornography.  There are thousands of other books that are helpful without crossing those lines.

After all, we have laws, and have had them for a long time, that minors should not have ready access to pornography.  Certainly schools should not be the place for a person to access it.  We can do better.  We need to. 

We need to consider whether books build a person up, teach them good things, provide them with essential knowledge and experiences that they will need in life.  They should not have to read pornography to get that.  They can find that on their own if they want it, but not in a public school.

If a student is merely offended by something they read, that shouldn’t be a reason to remove the book.  If the book exists merely to offend people, then again, I think we can and should do better.

the newest big government spending bill

I’m not a fan of the new trillion-dollar infrastructure bill.  I try to see what’s in it, and I find maybe a half trillion dollars for roads, bridges, water, airports, etc.  But what’s the other half trillion dollars for?

Whenever the government wants to spend money for your good, if you do the math, the numbers never match up. 

They tell you about all the good things the bill will do, but the price tag is always well above what is needed to do those good things.  Go try to find where the money goes.  You’ll probably need a FOIA request and a lot of patience.  Don’t be surprised if you never get your answer.

sports and stereotypes

So what’s the stereotype with a sport team’s name?  (When we talked about Native American stereotypes, November 16)

The Chicago Blackhawks have a portrait of an Indian chief.  Ever been to a rodeo on an Indian reservation?  They wear their headdresses proudly.  What’s the negative stereotype here? 

We forget that those teams that don’t have mascots of a particular minority group have names like Boilermakers, Packers, Patriots, Steelers.  I was never a packer, but I worked in the meat business all my life.  They called us butchers long after we actually butchered anything.  But I can identify as a packer.

Does anybody think that packers and boilermakers and steelers and patriots are offended by having a sports team include them in their name?

I think people are spending too much time thinking of ways they are and should feel offended.  I think they are missing out on so much of life.  Nobody is disparaging you here.  Nobody is thinking less of you.  Nobody is pigeonholing anybody, because they mention or picture one aspect of their lives. 

There is a football team called the Vikings.  I’m sure everybody pictures a certain kind of boat and a certain kind of head gear or dress.  Nobody thinks about the descendants of Vikings or less of them in any way. 

true property tax reform

Property tax reform generally does not take into consideration the biggest problem with property taxes.  (When will City Hall turn property tax hikes into property tax reform?, November 3)

Property taxes do not take into account a person’s ability to pay for them. 

I didn’t give much thought to property taxes until one year I was out of work for much of it.  And then came my property tax bill.  I said there is something wrong here. 

The government needs to move some of the things in the property tax bill to another source of revenue, like the income tax.  Since 2/3 of the property tax goes for public education, that would be my first choice. 

Now that would be real property tax reform.

the new and latest answer to gun violence

A part of me wanted to laugh out loud except that this is serious. (Pritzker gives his prescription for gun violence ‘public health crisis,’ November 2)

In typical modern American government practice, the answer to a problem is money.  Lots of money.  And a new government agency.  And lots of new government employees. 

Two hundred fifty million dollars.  Now that’s doing something.  Nobody can say that Pritzker didn’t do something or wasn’t serious about gun violence.

But gun violence is a moral problem.  And we no longer know what moral problems are.

At the root of gun violence is a complete disregard for the value of human life.  Uncontrolled anger, hatred, and disregard for the public good. 

These are all things that come from within a person.  The government can only provide external restraints and incentives.  But it won’t and can’t touch the human heart.  It can only distract people with activities and threats.  The threats aren’t working, so maybe by adding more activities we will keep people too busy to want to kill each other.

No doubt experts will point to other countries with less gun violence for the answers to our problems.  What they forget is that our country is based on freedom. 

That sounds dangerous to a lot of people.  It didn’t sound dangerous to our Founders, because they believe this freedom comes from God.  And people who believe in God learn about the value of human life and that God holds people accountable for their actions. 

So we in America are trying to live in freedom without the God who gave us freedom, and we are finding that it’s not working.  Rather than bringing God back into our national life, we want to gradually reduce our rights and our freedom and see how much or how little we will live with.