Something To Believe In I have a new kid.

As most of you know, I adopt younguns like the crazy cat lady adopts strays lol. I love kids. I've always given them all that I could to help them on their way thru this life. Equiping our teenagers and younger kids is our job and greatest priviledge. It's also the hardest task we can have. We have to give our kids a chance to learn things we might not know. We can't go around in stilling our fears in them either. Just because you have a problem with snakes d oesn't mean that your sweet little boy should. I've heard of a few suicides lately. It wasn't old people trying to maintai n their dignity, it was teenagers. In my town there's been 2. I've heard of othe rs, in the past month, in other small towns. I have a question: Is it just me or do our kids see so much of a hopeless world they want to skip it and try "the other side"? Not all of these kids showed signs of "troubled teen" but some did. Not all of them were "in the closet" either. There've been a few of both of tho se but there's just as many that are just waking up one morning and saying, "Fuc k it. I'd rather not deal with the mess the past generation has made." They have no hope. They have nothing and no one to believe in. God was taken out of schoo ls. God is on trial in our nation's capital all the time. God has become a bad w ord in a lot of communities that used to have standards. Patriotism has become a bad word as well. There are kids out there today that couldn't tell you who our first president was or the Pledge of Allegiance. WHY??!! Mainly because they ha ve been taught "tolerance", "entitlement", "ease in life", "government knows bes t", "dependence." What the hell have we done?!? We've spent so much time "protec ting" our kids from "the dangers of this world" that we forgot to teach them tha t life isn't fair, nobody owes you a damn thing, if you fall down, get your ass back up and try again, if somebody knocks you down let them know they can't do t hat, if you get a scratch or bruise you'll live (it's too far from your heart to kill you; walk it off), pain is a part of life but you need to learn to deal wi th it not give in to it. What ever happened to telling your kid that taking cand y from strangers is bad but if you find yourself lost ask somebody to help you f ind your way home? The police have become boogymen that do nothing but arrest in nocent people and do all the drugs they confiscate. I knew a few cops, when I wa s young, that could out smoke, out drink and out snort any teenagers in our town . I also knew a few that told the truth, treated everybody like people and stood for "To Protect and Serve." Sure, there's a lot of twisted idiot cops in this w orld but turning all of them villainous is just rediculous. Our government has no business in our backyard or our living room. If you w ant your kid to wear a helmet while they ride their bike, tell them to. If, like our own parents, you decide that falling off a bike and getting a goose egg on your noggin is not going to kill you, let your kid go ride and have fun. DO NOT go to your local government and tell them that your kid should be made, by law, to wear a helmet and so should everybody else's kids. What another parent tells their kids about safety is none of your concern. If your kid gets to feeling lik e you're being too pushy, FINE! THAT'S YOUR DAMN JOB NOT THE GOVERNMENT'S. As fo r other people's kids, there's an old saying that goes, "it takes a town to rais e a child." When I was a kid the neighbors had as much right to correct my bad b ehavior as my parents. They were ALWAYS a lot nicer about it than my mother was. If you have neighbors that you can trust, why not let them help if they see you r kid messing up? They don't have to beat your kid to correct them. You, on the other hand, DO SOMETIMES HAVE TO SPANK YOUR KIDS!!!! In case you can't remember, or you weren't spanked as a kid, a spanking involves 3-5 swats on the butt of y our kid with your hand. It's not going to feel good for their butt or your hand. That's why it's a LAST RESORT!! I don't know if anybody ever told you but you'r e job is not to punish your kids but to correct them. Back to the point of all this; kids need something to believe in. A lot of kids idolize sports heros, celebrities and just about any public figure you can imagine. What ever happened to kids wanting to be like mom and dad when they gro w up? Mom and dad have become wusses, abusers, druggies, criminals, idiots, 9-5 pencil pushers with no time for a life. Where are your religious beliefs in your

kids' eyes? Did they get your "truth" crammed down their throats or did you int roduce them to "God" and let Him deal with them? There's a lot of atheistic kids out there that have no idea what direction "truth" is. I'm not even sure there is such a thing as "God" but I know that I have a belief system that serves me w ell. What belief system did any of us, as parents, give our kids? What did we gi ve them to believe in? Was it a sports hero that uses steroids to make more mone y? Was it a celebrity that snorted or drank or shotup or smoked their way into a n early grave? Or was it a faith in something better and more than who they are? Was it a belief in a reality that supports honesty, hard work, truth, kindness, a recklessness that includes common sense, an honor code that includes trust an d dignity and even chivalry? But most of all was it a belief in respect and love ? I'm not full of wisdom. I'm not the answer guy for all occasions. I only kn ow that when a kid comes to me (of any age) I give them the truth as I see it. I give them the best answers to their questions that I can find, no matter where they come from. Yes, I do read the Holy Bible to kids that have questions about God. I also read the books of Wicca to kids that want a natural outlook on relig ion instead of an organization. I'd even read a Quran to any kid that wants to k now the reality of the Muslim belief system. If that makes me a bad parent, That 's too bad. There seems to be an awful lot of kids that look me up to ask questi ons their parents can't or won't. I haven't spent all these years on my ass slee ping. I've studied to try and find truth. You know what I found? I found that lo ve, respect, honesty and a good opinion of yourself goes a far distance in this world. If you don't want to see your kids' name on the next obituary page, try g iving them something to believe in.