Uncle Sam Trying to Be Dad

After the bang-up job our government is doing on immigration, education, poverty, housing, crime and their war on drugs, I suppose it shouldn't be a surprise to me that many of the enlightened would want to try their hands at parenting their subject's children too.

Where once it was determined that men, blessed by freedom and the morals divined of faith, would and could best provide for themselves, now it is the collective that is often expected to do the heavy lifting. Not only have good people ceded their own personal responsibilities for their own lives and families, the government, led by social planners and activist judges, have actively pursued penetration into personal realms where they have no business.

One such realm is parenting.

Today we witness officials in Oregon aggressively pursuing lordship over children that do not belong to them. From KATU.com/AP

McMINNVILLE, Ore. (AP) - Two 13-year-old boys accused of slapping girls' bottoms and poking or cupping girls' breasts at school apologized on Monday as a judge dismissed charges against the two, ending a six-month case that drew national attention.

The charges triggered a debate over whether such behavior in school should be considered criminal.

Four girls listed as victims by the prosecutors had asked the judge to drop the charges against Cory Mashburn and Ryan Cornelison.

Yamhill County Judge John Collins did so on Monday, saying it was in the "interest of justice."

A number of young girls were in the courtroom during the hearing. They included at least some of the four who asked that the charges be dropped, attorneys said.

During the brief hearing, the two boys faced the girls and apologized.

"I never intended to hurt you in any way," Mashburn said.

Cornelison told the girls: "I hope we can still be friends."

The News-Register newspaper of McMinnville reported that a "civil compromise" reached by prosecutors and the defense called for both boys to apologize, to pay each of the four girls $250 and to complete a "boundaries education" program.

The "boundaries education" afforded me when I was a child was applied in sessions only a few seconds long by the palm of my Father's right hand. I can only remember four or five such sessions, always reserved for the worst of offenses, their purpose apparently to demonstrate to me that there are consequences for behaviors unbecoming (at least that is what I learned.)

We don't need a government that tries to do the work of parents, we need parents willing and able to fulfill the responsibility God gave to them. Most parents know this. I fear government does not.

h/t Michelle Malkin