Christina’s Common Sense

The more I see of California, the more I think the movie 10.5 should become reality. At the end of it, California ends up floating in the Pacific Ocean, completely separated from the rest of the United States. That may not be such a bad fate for one of our looniest states.

The Golden State has once again demonstrated its lunacy in a state Supreme Court ruling last week. The Court struck down California’s ban on gay marriage and ruled that same-sex couples may begin to marry by mid-June.

It’s tempting for folks on my side of the aisle to blame the gay rights crowd for this. But it’s not their fault. The fault lies with us. Christians have fallen down in our duty to protect marriage. We’ve given in to no-fault divorce laws to the point that our divorce rate is as high as non-Christians’. And when asked to defend marriage, we stumble and bumble and drool all over ourselves. Is it any wonder the lefties laugh us off the stage?

It may be unpopular, but the truth is that a large homosexual population is not good for society. Since homosexual marriage has been legalized in Scandinavia, illegitimacy rates have climbed and marriage rates dropped. This has not been good for their society, so why should it be better for ours?

It won’t be. It’s politically incorrect to say this, but marriage and family are the bedrock of every healthy society. When they disappear, so does the healthy society. This has been proven again and again. Do we really want to end up like Scandinavia? Think about it.

It seems like there’s an advocacy group for everything these days. Everything from disability to skin color runs to the government for money and advocacy. The blind are no different. Yesterday, a DC appeals court ruled that the government must redo paper currency so that blind people can identify what denomination of bill they are holding.

I know I’m going to come across as heartless and cruel here, but are blind people starving to death because they can’t figure out what bill they need to pay for their lunch? I sincerely doubt it. They’ve obviously figured something out. Beyond that, how much is this going to cost? I don’t have an exact figure, but it can’t be cheap. Can blind people not think of any way to design their own system for categorizing bills?

I’m sure they can. But we don’t live in a society where we do things ourselves anymore. We live in a society where we run to the government and hold the rest of the country hostage when things don’t go our way. The country is now going to have to spend billions of dollars to take care of something that can be taken care of without government help.

Loss of sight is a terrible thing to live with. But so’s a learning disability. I happen to have the latter. There are certain limitations that come with it. One of these is that I will probably never be able to balance my own checkbook. That stinks! But I’m not going to go to my bank and demand that they revamp their checkbook so my life can be easier. I use a calculator, or ask my parents for help. This is part of having my particular disability, and I’ve managed it without help from Uncle Sam. Is it impossible that blind people might be able to do the same?

In a post earlier this month, I wrote about a court case in California that effectively outlawed homeschooling. Naturally, that put homeschoolers across the nation up in arms.

Fortunately, homeschoolers have some big advantages in this matter. There’s a lot of them, they’re well-organized, and they make a lot of noise. They also have HSLDA on their side. Now, Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger is on their side too. In a statement earlier this month, the Governator blasted the court’s decision, saying that it penalized parents for acting in the best interests of their children.

“If the courts don’t protect parents’ rights,” Schwarzenegger said, “then as elected officials, we will.”

While I’ll admit to having enjoyed a few (all right, more than a few) Arnie movies in my day. I’ve never been too fond of most of his policies. But I’m quite fond of this one. California homeschoolers may be squirming right now, but they’ve got some very powerful allies: HSLDA, their governor, and most importantly the truth. Nearly everywhere homeschool rights have been attacked in this country, they have prevailed.

It is not likely that a hard and fast decision in this case until June, as American society hasn’t yet gotten rid of lawyers and sped up the justice system as revealed in Back to the Future Part II. Even after the case is decided,this is likely to be a long and anxiety-ridden battle, but I am confident that homeschoolers will emerge victorious with one more tally mark on the Government vs. Homeschoolers scoreboard.

Homeschoolers really deserve a break. I mean, they’re stereotyped as unsociable loners with no friends who’ve never seen another human being in their life and just sit around watching Star Trek all the time (OK, so maybe the last one’s partially true). And on top of all that, they’ve got the government hanging over their shoulder watching their every move.

The California Supreme Court has ruled that all homeschooling parents, regardless of how long they’ve been homeschooling, have to go back to school and get teaching credentials if they wish to educate their children at home. If upheld, the ruling would wipe nearly all homeschoolers off the map.

And that’s exactly the point. You think they’ll stop here? Have you ever seen a government stop unless forced to by its citizens? The government will start with homeschoolers. Then it will go to Christian schools, other religious schools, private schools, and everything else until a government-run public school is the only way to educate (and I use the term loosely) your children.

Even if you’re not a homeschooler, ask yourself: Should the government have this kind of power? Should it be able to dictate how you raise your kids? Unless you’re a liberal, the answer, is probably no. Mark Twain once advised not to let classes interfere with your education. I’d advise not letting the government anywhere near it, either.