I’ve got a friend who recently found out that he and his wife are having their seventh child. Seven! Charlene and I just had two which sometimes felt like seven. Both of my grandparents on my Dad’s side came from families of seven kids each. We had some epic family reunions in the summers every year.
But I will top all of that by making special note that a good friend of mine in high school was in the middle of a pack of 15 kids in his family. I guarantee that anyone who went to Grissom High School from the early 70s through the 90s had one of his siblings in school with them. And what a great family they were! Fifteen kids, but the attitude of sharing and sacrificing and looking out for each other was something to behold. Their mom passed away last year - a much-loved lady, who had 15 children, 25 grandchildren, and six great-grandchildren. What a legacy!
Charlene and I are grandparents times two now, and yes, it is every bit as awesome as they say it is. I’ve got to tell you, I’m a sucker for little ones: they tell me to do cartwheels, and this old man will start going head over heels across the living room.
Good Lord, my daughter could also wrap me around her little finger when she was a little girl. I will never forget when she was just three that she wanted her ears pierced. I was not into that idea at all, but for some reason, Charlene was okay with it and just left it up to me. It seems trivial and maybe even frivolous now. But it was a real dad concern for me 27 years ago. Well, that three-year-old launched the charm offensive of the decade trying her best to bat her eyelashes and wear me down. Finally, one night I was tucking her in and she was saying her prayers and she up and said in that little three-year-old voice, “Daaaaddddy… are you gonna let me get my ears pierced?” I responded feebly, “Oh girlfriend. It will make you look so big.” No lie, that little conniver reached up and grabbed my face and said, “I’ll still be your little girl.” I fell into a pile of mush – it was a total ambush. So, while she was holding my face and without knowing the words were even coming out of my mouth, I just said “Ok. You can get your ears pierced.” I never saw it coming.
Truthfully our kids didn’t lack for discipline and minding their P’s and Q’s. In our house it was yes sir/yes ma'am … clean up your room … do your homework … take out the trash … don’t get home late … of course it was. But there was a lot of laughter and inside jokes, and you were only called by your real name when you were in trouble. We also made sure that our kids knew from day one that they were much loved, unconditionally, with no strings attached, and that their mom and I would have their backs if something happened.
Kids - what do you do?
Well, I’ll tell you what we do. We fight for them. We fight for their right to remain children while they are young and to have the opportunity to move from innocence to wisdom at a pace that is commensurate with God’s intent and parental consent.
There is a fight ongoing, and it is a fight worth having. It is not just a fight for our children’s innocence. It is more than that. It is a fight for their very lives, for their hearts and minds, for the right of parents to love their kids, raise their kids and educate their kids. And yes, it is a fight worth having.
Watch the daily news cycle and in the midst of stories on foreign policy, wars and rumors of wars, economic trends, judicial action, and who is running for what office, you will also find that there are near-daily stories that deal with what I would call cultural issues. Attempts by the left to transform the values, mores, thoughts, likes and dislikes of our very culture, and I would hazard the guess that over half of those stories deal with how the left seeks to grab the hearts and minds of our children and supplant the rights of parents to raise their own children. I wish that it were as simple as worrying about daughters having their ears pierced at an early age. What we see today from progressives makes that fatherly concern of yesteryear seem so far away. And while my daughter may have caught me unawares with the ear-piercing plea that night many years back, I am wide awake and seeing clearly what the left is doing to children now.
Take a look at this past week’s action in the Alabama State House, and you will see nearly a full day of legislative action on some of the most controversial actions of the entire quadrennium, and all of it dealt with pushing back on the social reconstruction of our children and the environments in which they learn, live and play.
Why is it considered necessary (or, for that matter, controversial) to state that children should have a right to privacy and security in the bathrooms at their school without concern of another person of the opposite sex using the same facility?
Why is it that we have to actually legislate that mental health counseling at school should only occur with parental consent and with parental input?
What in the world is going on when Disney has senior employees and the CEO of the whole corporation insistently advocating for the right to teach gender fluidity and cross-gender lifestyles to children in K-5?
What doctor in good conscience would actually listen to a 6-year-old saying that they identify as the opposite sex and want their little selves forever altered through medicine or surgery and actually do it? Added to that is the fact that the current President of the United States advocates for such treatment himself.
There is also the very real horror of some parents discovering that materials being used in schools to train their child’s teachers encourage the use of the child’s chosen pronouns without telling the parents. Such materials are in use in Huntsville City Schools even now.
The Alabama legislature dealt with every bit of that in the final hours of the 2022 legislative session.
We are in an age where right is called wrong and wrong is called right. The left knows that if we raise up our children in the way they should go that when they get old, they will not depart from it. So, they have taken the tactic that THEY should have unequal access to raise OUR children. Progressives know that if they can co-opt parents’ authority and responsibility then they will have our kids where they want them, and they will be more likely to grow up to promote leftist ideals.
Folks, they want our kids. They want our grandkids. The fight is ongoing right now. It is real, and it is every day. Make no mistake when I say that it is a fight. But it is a fight worth having. It is a fight to save a generation of young hearts and minds that we love.
It is indeed a fight worth having.
Phil Williams is a former State Senator, retired Army Colonel and combat veteran, and a practicing Attorney. He has served with the leadership of the Alabama Policy Institute and currently hosts Rightside Radio M-F 2-5 pm on WVNN. His column appears every Monday in 1819 News. To contact Phil or request him for a speaking engagement go to www.rightsideradio.org. The views and opinions expressed here are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the policy or position of 1819 News. To comment, please send an email with your name and contact information to Commetnary@1819News.com.
