I didn't need a village to raise my kids

Ah, but will that village stay out of the way if other villages ask?
Maybe their type try to create one village to rule them all?

I'm not sure what she meant. To a Progressive a village may mean all of the government agencies attributed to the so called village.

This is less true, though, than it was when I was a kid. If we stayed home there were a few TV channels and a few radio stations, most of which carried adult programming. If you wanted a different point of view, you'd have to go to the library and read a foreign newspaper.

Kids today have access to way more information, maybe sometimes before they're ready for it; information that no gov't or other central authority has masterminded.

I agree the mindset of "if it makes life a tiny bit safer, whatever it is, we must do it" is contrary to freedom. I don't think kids are exposed to a narrower gov't-approved set of ideas today compared to 30 years ago.

The job of any policeman is to enforce the law, find the guilty and deliver them to the State. Protecting the innocent, finding justice, keeping the citizens safe, etc., is not, officially, the job of the policeman. These are occasional by-products, but don't count on it. However, arresting someone (or writing a ticket) is the policeman's primary goal and job. Any suspect becomes a viable suspect once he is a suspect. It really doesn't matter if the individual cop is really a good person (or could have been a good person), what matters is that you are a target in every interraction with the police. Perhaps some people are oblivious enough to reality that they don't mind being targets, hoping that the cop will have enough sense to act "right," but I prefer not to place myself into a position of a target. And the moment you open a mouth a tell anything to a cop, you've just given them ammunition to be used against you.

If you think of them as a collective, you are right. If you think of them as individuals, then some are and some are not.

Hi Blarman:
Here is the origin of the data quoted:



Collecting and Sharing Data to Understand the Problem
Through the National Violent Death Reporting System (NVDRS), the Injury Center gathers, shares, and links state-level data on violent deaths. The system’s comprehensive, accurate data allow policy makers and community leaders to make informed decisions about violence prevention initiatives.
Through the National Intimate Partner and Sexual Violence Survey (NISVS), launched in 2010, the Injury Center gathers data to describe the prevalence and health consequences of sexual violence, stalking, and intimate partner violence. These data can be used to inform policies and programs; establish priorities at the national, state, and local level; and over time, track progress in preventing these forms of violence.
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One lesson to remmember - never talk to the police! They are not your friends, ever. These children are getting this lesson early; wish others, including the adults, were to get it as well.

Not to dispute the facts, but you also need to do the rates in comparison to total population or the numbers don't mean much. If the numbers double, but population doubles, there isn't a "real" increase.

Now I do believe that the total quantity as well as the rates HAVE gone up - and that due to the changing norms in society, but let's just make sure that when we present evidence that we provide enough context to make an apples-to-apples comparison.

Ridiculous reaction from the "authorities" on this one.
Reading the comments on this post brings back fond memories of wandering far and near as a kid in the 50's. As long as I was home for the evening meal, it was okay with my parents. My siblings and I were freer than we ever realized back then.
I guess I'm lucky I survived all the perils, imagined and otherwise, that could have harmed us.

So Blanchester is in Ohio. Lets all ring them up to file a complaint against "Do gooder" idiot cops not using reason in a situation that clearly didn't require an arrest. Hopefully the judge will dismiss it.

At the age of 5, I would walk across town ALONE to the library basement (children's section) to read for hours.
At age 6 (when my Mother was having one of her "crazy days") my brother and I told her early in the morning that we were running away from home. She replied: "OK. ...Just be home before sunset ". ... and we were.
Later we moved to as rural location and would spend all day catching crawdads by hand in the creek, narrowly avoiding snapping turtles and often coming home with a severe rash from burning nettles.
We survived ... and because of those experiences learned to thrive in spite of pain.

I grew up in Ohio, walked to school every day, wandered the neighborhood for at least a mile from home all weekend, home by dark. But when we pulled a stunt like that 8-year old, we got paddled... and we didn't do it again. Now, a parent can get arrested for paddling, for almost anything including a child making a comment at school. I'm one of those "40's" babies, and I feel sorry for today's kids, who are wrapped in cotton wool (oops, today it would be polyester) and protected right out of growing as independent human beings.

50 years ago a boy that age would have been given a .22 or at least a BB gun to keep him amused during his travels.

A note I should have added in the above, when I go out in December, we stay at the Porto Fino at King Harbor. One of my high school buddies owns it (and a lot of other hotels)

So the only stimulus the kids get comes from approved governmental sources. They are being forced to be indoctrinated to hate and abhor freedom; that only when being controlled and watched over can they survive.

When I was a teenager I was on a trap and skeet team, and same story - took the shotgun to school, checked it in and out. In High School, the boys with pickups all (and I do mean all) had rifle racks in the truck window, which were occupied by at least one firearm. During deer season, heck, I'd usually drive my daddys Pickup (with said rifle rack) whcih was usually occupied by dad's 30.06, my model 70 308, nd my kid brother's .243. I would hazard a guess most Americans couldn't drive that truck - it had a 4 speed manual transmission, with a grindbox 1st.

My god, now days the Governmental Agents posing as teachers would have kids arrested for saying the word gun.

We... as a species... have devolved into a puppet existance of serfs. The worse part is... we demand and expect to be treated as children, mental defectives, and idiots, because we are taught we deserve no better. We are brainwashed to think "Government=Good, Freedom=Bad." So what are we going to do about this?

ARRGHHHH!!!!!!!

I was one of those kids the bullies liked to pick on... until I (finally fed up) struck back. Same result - no problems after.

I was raised in the 60's... it was nothing to go hang out in the local toy store, or 5 and dime, we knew who the town weirdos were, knew what was the "bad" part of town, and we'd vanish for the day without need of "checking in" or having our parents go psychotic paranoid. Heck, in the early 70's, living in San Francisco, I'd jump on Muni (all by myself) and see the city, go to the park, downtown, even to a couple pawn shops down in the lower mission. Didn't need a leash, didn't need cops to go arrest my parents beause they trusted me.

Now, parents don't trust kids, mainly because they've been brainwashed that:
(1) everybody - EVERYBODY - else is a axe murdering psycho sex fiend child molester,
(2) The television has been brainwashing parents since they were kids that the world is Sesame Stereet NYC
(3) The dotgov has everyone so paranoid (just like they did in Nazi Germany) that you trust no one, and turn in everyone for anything, because the guy next door may be OSAMA!!! (Yiii!!!!)
and (4) The dotgov education system, run, ruled, and curruculamed by the dotgov, the same ones that started to brainwash the parents as kids, are fully brainwashing their children to mistrust and hate everyone, including their parents... but not the beautiful, benevolent, and kindly government and gestapo, who are their only friends...

Orwell was only off by 30 years. But he was as Right as Rand!

I'm not quite as old as you digger (1958) but at 15 I was hitchhiking about 20 miles every day to go to work. Yes, we were always gone till dark. We had no worries but one time I was picked up by a gay guy and he took me to my destination and then asked if I wanted to cruise around with him. I said no and I got out of the car. There were less things to worry about in our day but unfortunately things are a little different today. You are absolutely correct that the government needs to stay out of our lives. I thought they worked for us????

Children are curious, and I think the father and child are fine. Its the local law that is screwed up. We have allowed this to happen, the feeling that no one is save in there neighborhood.

Robbie: check this out... Violence against children has steadily increased:

In the United States...
An average of 13 young people ages 10 to 24 are victims of homicide every day.2
More than 750,000 children and youth are treated in hospital emergency departments as a result of assault each year—that’s more than 85 every hour.4
More than 3 million referrals for child maltreatment are received by state and local agencies each year—that’s approximately 6 referrals every minute.1

The arrest was completely ridiculous. No mixed feelings at all.
I have no problem with parents who let 8-year old play outside in the neighborhood (or leave the house to get into a church van).

You are right, the South Bay was great. I lived in North Redondo, just off Manhattan Beach Blvd, which my mom called the slums because it was so far from the rich people down by the beach. My dad paid $9600 for the 2br-1bath house in 1948, sold it for $46,000 in 1975. It last sold for $600,000. I went to "Stinkin'" Lincoln Elementary (which is still there) and Aviation High School (Go Falcons!!). The "Jap" fields where the strawberries grew also had lots of jackrabbits and blacks from Watts and South Central LA would bring greyhounds out to chase the jack rabbits down and take them home and eat them. We would all go out to talk to those guys and watch the chasing and never felt threatened or afraid. Every other first-week-in-December I drive out from Wyoming to meet with friends I went to school with, some were in elementary and high school with me, and we all realize how lucky we were.