Re: Parents and Schools

[Ken Medlin <dev-plan@moscow.com>]

I don't believe that the issue here is really one of being or not being 
an anomaly in today's permissive and creative society. One way or 
another, the social individual must, through rearing, nurturing, 
educating and practicing situations learn his/her role in the group and 
larger community. Military service, shorn of a singular goal of 
destroying an enemy, and when properly conducted and with sound moral 
leadership, can contribute very meaningfully to building such social 
responsibility, to providing direction for individuals and groups, to 
inculcating collective consciousness, and to instilling needed pride in 
national purpose. I wonder what this world would look like today if the 
USA had failed to do its share in World War II (I served four years) -- 
w/o prejudicing our commitment and the Western Allies' own behaviors 
after WW I and Versailles; what it would look like if Soviet Communism 
had spread across all of Eurasia and even into North America? 
Ciitizenship training, including such things as scouting, can go a long 
way to thwarting the social and political trends that nourish such 
aberrations in governmental systems; but in the kind of world we have to 
live in, military duty has its clear function and, when appropriately 
managed, can contribute in wholesome ways to building our civic 
enterprise. But like any other institution, the military will reflect the 
values and sentiments that prevail in the broader society. If we tolerate 
corruption and abuses in our civic life, they will find their ways into 
other places (there's plenty of evidence of that!).  The number of insane 
dictators and other leaders that still roam the earth today must be 
confronted at some point in time, lest  their evil ways encroach more and 
more into other domains until massive responses become necessary. Of 
course, these cases are never totally either "black" or "white", "us" 
versus "them", but we have to know when to draw the line and take a 
stand. So it is in community life. Juvenile behaviors that run amuck, on 
the scale of recent years,  are already signs that there's deep trouble 
in our socializing practices. It's time those "in control" restructure 
things, or it'll simply get worse. Considerations of media licensing and 
reinstalling some forms of discipline and uniform (not necessarily 
clothing) practices in schools and youth organizations are well past due. 
Unless parents and children agree to conform, all will be lost.
Ken Medlin (I'm not a fossil)

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William K. Medlin
Dev-plan associates
930 Kenneth Street
Moscow ID 83843
208/892-0148
dev-plan@moscow.com