From: "Perry E. Metzger" <perry@imsi.com>
Date: Sun, 31 Jul 94 17:13:49 PDT
To: mpd@netcom.com (Mike Duvos)
Subject: Re: Children and the Net
In-Reply-To: <199407312151.OAA26107@netcom14.netcom.com>
Message-ID: <9408010013.AA06752@snark.imsi.com>
MIME-Version: 1.0
Content-Type: text/plain



Mike Duvos says:
> Why am I getting the feeling that there are no limits at all here?

Why do you have such an unhealthy fascination for how others raise
their children? I have enough trouble running MY own life without
telling people what to do. I know of no one who is such a paragon of
perfection that their views may be used as a benchmark by which all
child rearing may be judged.

I do not yet have children. However, I am absolutely certain that in
half the societies on earth I'd be considered someone dangerous to
children. Why? I'm a political "nutcase". I don't believe in the state
controlled version of the institution of marriage (although I believe
in permanent committed monogamous relationships) and thus refuse for
political reasons to marry. I believe in open access to information
for children and a far more liberal view of the rights of children
than most people have. I suspect that when I become a parent, any law
that could be used to "cure" the children of fundamentalist
christians, Amish, etc, would be applied to mine right off the bat --
after all, I'm a dangerous man.

Live and let live, I say. I don't want others judging my child
rearing, and I have little or no desire to judge theirs. Leave them
be unless their idea of discipline for children involves The Rack or
The Firing Squad.

Perry