Spanking bill is a waste of time
By G. Michael Dobbs
Managing Editor
I don't know anything about State Rep. Jay Kaufman of Lexington except that he has filed a very stupid bill that would make a parent spanking a child illegal in the Commonwealth.
Under his proposed law, parents couldn't use corporal punishment.
Were you spanked as child? What was your parent's tool of choice? A belt? A hairbrush? A wooden spoon? Did it harm you? I'm not talking about abuse no slapping or hitting, but instead the infrequent pop across the backside when you did something truly wrong. I think most of us were spanked and as parents we have probably used that as a tool to let a child know he or she shouldn't do something.
Apparently how this law would be enforced isn't spelled out, but can you imagine savvy kids calling the cops or the Department of Social Services to rat out their folks who warmed their bottoms a bit? I can. What a mess that would be.
Is life in Lexington so sublime that this is a subject that needs to be addressed? Or is it the spanking capital of the world with parents whacking their kids so often there is a real problem?
We don't learn do we? There are many laws on the books that are not enforced and yet folks in government want to keep adding to them.
Do we enforce littering laws? How about noise laws? Leash laws? Spitting on the streets?
With everything we're facing in this state economic stagnation and loss of population are among the major problems why would anyone even suggest such silliness?
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I get the free poll results from the Zogby folks and the latest on the presidential race isn't really surprising to me: Senator Hilary Clinton would lose when facing any of the top five the Republican candidates, while Senator Barack Obama and former Senator John Edwards would defeat or tie any of them.
The mass media has been subverting the democratic process by covering Clinton far more than any other candidate. In many ways they have shoved Clinton down the voters' throats at the expense of actually doing their jobs: covering all the candidates fairly and equally.
I think many political insiders would admit that Clinton can't be elected. Her history as First Lady, her relationship to her husband, and the revelation of just how much of a political animal she is much less her gender and her status as an east coast liberal turn people off.
The Republicans would love to see Clinton as the candidate. That's why the GOP presidential hopefuls spend so much of their time targeting Clinton as if she was already the nominee.
We've been plagued by terrible presidential elections in the last few years with dirty tricks and disputed results. I see little hope for the 2008 election to be any different.
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My friend Chris Cargile at the Community Survival Center needs your help. Her agency assists deserving folks in need in Ludlow, Wilbraham and Indian Orchard, among other places, and the center desperately needs donation of food.
Particularly, they need donations of protein such as tuna and peanut butter.
When you're out shopping this week, could you afford an extra can or tuna or a jar of peanut butter?
I'm hoping we can give Chris 100 cans of tuna and 100 jars of peanut butter of course, more would be better.
Please drop your donations off to Chris at the Community Survival Center on Main Street in Indian Orchard or here at the Reminder Publications headquarters for world domination at 280 North Main St. in East Longmeadow.
This column represents the opinions of its author. Send your comments online to reminderpublications.com or to 280 N. Main St., East Longmeadow, Mass. 01028.
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