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From the website: PARENTING
WITHOUT PUNISHING 1. XMAS SHOPPER PATROL Eleven states recently rushed legislation into law banning same-sex marriage. They felt that gay couples threatened the institution of family as we know it. Yet, altho family violence breaks up many families every day, getting legislation passed prohibiting spanking and other violence against children is like pulling teeth. Legislators demand bloodshed and broken bones for that. And even that fails to morally awaken them, despite that corporal punishment delivers trauma that keeps on disturbing for life. Meantime, 28 states have prohibited CP in public schools, and a dozen European countries have banned it altogether: homes and schools. That USA remains the most violent of nations gives reason for pause. Can it be that when violence is done to kids, that they grow up to be violent? With ethically comatose legislators at State, and serial spankers in county and city governments, what is one to do to stop the abuse? (All corporal punishment is child abuse, by definition.) In my narrow valley here in Arizona, the supervisor of the school district, instead of forbidding violence against children in his charge, defends the use of CP and comes armed with his oak paddle and his PhD from BYU. Thus he legitimizes child battering in our community. Red faced that I should mention his paddle in a board meeting, he sprang from his chair, screaming at me. At the county health office, my suggestion that it be a zone "where children are safe from spanking" was as if I had announced the apocalypse. The idea so disturbed them that I was all but ejected from the office. The local "behavioral health" people are equally hostile, as they counsel carrot-and-stick "behavioral modification". Only the CPS is still speaking, having presented me with a Certificate of Appreciation some time ago. Here, I have found, is what works for me: This valley hosts three supermarkets: IGA, Basha's, and Safeway; there's also WalMart's and Walgreen's. My friend Jordan Riak sends me a roll of stickers whenever I ask. Attractively printed, they read, "KIDS' SAFE ZONE" and a small "spanking" with a red circle/slash. With a score or two of these stickers, I approach a parent asking permission to give their kids a sticker. Out of hundreds, only one parent has refused. All kids love stickers. The parents are glad the kids get a break from the market boredom, and many tears I have stopped with, "Oh, he needs a sticker!". All thank me. This is more effective than my earlier method of seeking out complaining kids and impatient parents. And much better than when I began, which was to simply wait until the yelling, spanking and screaming started. Here I make friends by the dozens among parents, children, and market employees. At Basha's I'm welcome with a smile, and for three years have kept posted on their two bulletin boards copies of Riak's "Straight Talk About Spanking". At IGA the employees nearly unanimously support spanking, yet all remain cheerful acquaintances. Walgreen's, recently opened here, has not objected to the stickers. Alas, the giant Safeway (a misnomer not of my making,) is the exception. A deeply disturbed young woman at the customer service desk spotted two kids wearing the stickers, and called for the ass't manager. He opened with a series of accusations: I was "leafletting", "distributing political propaganda," "soliciting", and "disturbing customers". I always ask the parent's permission, I said. Only you and the desk "mom" are upset. "But some customer MIGHT disagree with the message!" The odd thing is that he never asked me to stop handing out stickers, to which I'd have complied. Instead he tried to kick me out. Failing that, the martinet called the cops. Talk about "disturbed"! Yet, in this religious-right, edge-of-panic valley, there are bright and encouraging signs of change. In WalMart's I regularly supply one of the greeters with stickers, my having deputized him a "children's advocate". A young woman at the post office also hands out "Kids' Safe Zone" stickers, and they are even handed out at the county sheriff's office. I tell them they can order more free stickers from me, or from friend Jordan Riak: http://www.nospank.net In the past months I let my white beard grow. Now topped with a Santa's red hat I infiltrate the madding crowds as they grapple for the illusive gratification promised by material Xmas stuff, handing out "Kids Safe Zone" stickers to smiling kids. "Ho-ho-ho" If only Safeway management could be as cheerful as I. "Ho-ho-ho." - Norm A CALL TO “STEP UP” AND SIGN ON TO THIS COMMITMENT |
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