Originally published in the Jacksonville Observer

The Milk Party (aka The Children’s Movement of Florida) says that “the well-being and education of our children in Florida must be the highest priority of government, business, non-profit institutions and families.” The Milk Party says that “Our Children Deserve Better” and I agree with them. Who wouldn’t agree with them?

The Milk Party also says that they are non-partisan and that is a damned lie. Under the cloak of non-partisanship the Milk Party is a coalition of socialists, who like all socialists believe that all they need is your money and big government to solve the problems of the world.

What they want for children is not what I want for my children. For what I want for my children, more than anything else is Liberty. Liberty instead of slavery. So the question is will our children be free or slaves? Will they be citizens of a capitalist free market republic or drones in a socialist centrally planned society? How disgusting it is to see children being used as pawns in an attempt to manipulate the electorate. The Milk Party is not a children’s movement, it is a propaganda movement.

I want my children to have the chance to be creative and rich, even if it means that they may run the risk of failure and poverty. I want my children to be able to say what they they think even if it means that their words may offend others who disagree with them. I want my children to be able to associate with whom they choose, even it means that others may complain that they are not practicing diversity.

My children should be able to proclaim their understanding of God and the universe freely, as well as their opposition to other theologies and philosophies without fear of being attacked. My children should be able to benefit from the wisdom and experience of their parents and neighbors, and to be grounded in the philosophy and ideology of those who truly love them and want the best for them. My children should be able to strive and win or lose on the playing field and with each other; rather than be coddled for fear that some will suffer from lack of self-esteem. Disraeli said, “There is no education like adversity.” Yes, our school system does not need more money it needs less, and along with that less regulation and freedom from micro management of state and federal agencies.

Home schooling or private schooling is always preferable to public school, and if parents cannot so arrange their lives to accomplish this they should ensure that they have the final word on how their children are to be educated. The curriculum; the ideas, history and worldview with which their children are to be inculcated should be decided upon by a locally elected school board responsible only to the parents and voters in their community, free from the pressures and restrictions and brainwashing that so often accompanies state and federal funds.

Pre-school and kindergarten is never more than a poor substitute for instruction at a mother’s knee. It is infinitely better for small children to be socialized in the company of their adult relatives instead of learning to be part of a mindless, impersonal collective. When a child enters the first grade she should know that she is an individual with rights, a member of a family with a family name, with people who love her and who will stand up and fight for her. You don’t learn that in Pre-K. What you learn in Pre-K is that you have been abandoned at a tender age, and that you better toe the line and fit in if you hope to survive.

It’s for the children, you say? I want my children to be able to keep their own money; spend it, save it, and invest it as they wish, instead of having it stolen from them by bureaucrats who purport to know better than those who have worked for it what should be done with it, and who would give it to those who have not earned it. This is not the proper use of tax money. It should be opposed as vigorously as one would oppose the highway man who pointing a gun at you and asking for your wallet. State and federal tax money should be used for projects that benefit the entire populace equally. Highways do this, libraries do this. Better to give the rest of state and federal resources back to the citizens from whom it was taken and let them spend the money on their own children in the manner that they see fit. You can bet that is not what the Milk Party Stands for.

I have never been rich, and have only in these later years begun to accumulate wealth and assets that I hope to preserve so that they may be given to my grandchild, and his children. We all love our children. We all want what is best for them. The parents in the Soviet Union, and in North Korea, and in Iran want the best for their children too. That we love our children should not be used as a political argument for excessive regulation and taxation, nor should innocent children be used as a front to advance a social agenda designed to ultimately enslave them.