Governments Fostering a Nation of Ninnies, Commonwealth of Wimps

[Geee]

American Spectator:

In the majority decision in Brown v. EMA, in which the U.S. Supreme Court struck down a California law restricting the sale of violent video games to minors, Justice Antonin Scalia touched on several points only peripherally related to the case but warranting deeper analysis. Although it may be in the state's power to protect children from maltreatment, Justice Scalia argues, the government cannot impose laws restricting what is arguably "objectionable," such as video game violence.

Scalia cites numerous examples of death and gore in children's literature, from the attempted poisoning of Snow White to the incineration of the witch in Hansel and Gretel. He also discusses the violence in Homer's Odyssey, Golding's Lord of the Flies, and Dante's Inferno, the blood and gore in each more considerable than the last. Many of these books are read and analyzed in schools as an inseparable part of the core curriculum.
Since the birth of our nation, American children have been exposed to violence during their childhood. Scalia's examples may be a bit outdated -- I don't see many modern preadolescents drawn to fourteenth-century epics -- but many more instances of violence permeate deep into our cultural fabric.

Before video games, American children had other ways of amusing themselves that were much more violent than the digital bloodshed of today. The adolescents of yesteryear were hunters and sportsmen, gutting fish and skinning elk. American sports such as football, boxing, and hockey are all violent, bloody, battles in which participants repeatedly bash into each other in pursuit of some objective, often injuring themselves in the process. What Thanksgiving Day would be complete without such an event?

[righteousmomma]

In a similar attempt to create a more "inclusive" environment, schools are doing away with time-honored institutions such as valedictorian status and honors societies. This apparent "leveling" of the playing field, however, harms students at both ends of the academic spectrum by holding back high achievers and providing a false sense of security for those who need extra help.

Such measures do the nation's youth a great disservice, softening up generations who will find themselves competing with people from societies that instill into their youth principles of discipline and fierce competition. A ferocity and thirst for liberty unknown to the world in 1776 are what made the United States the great nation it has been.