This weekend we had the privilege of seeing The Child. What an eye opening video. You see our rights as parents have always been "understood". We decide where we'd like them to go to school (private, public, Christian, homeschool), we decide when and if they will receive medical treatment such as vaccines and surgeries and we decide how to discipline. Most parents make those decisions with much caution because WE as the parent have to live with the consequences! Well, that could change soon and not for the better if we don't all become aware of what's going on in Washington and around the world.
The United Nations has a treaty called Conventions of The Rights of the Child or the UNCRC. I believe this treaty was probably established for good reasons, to help protect children from slave like labor, prostitution and gross neglect. MANY countries have signed this treaty and on the surface it doesn't look too bad (although it's track record at making things better is not so great). The problem is that in the United States if this treaty was signed it could overrule state law and because we have nothing in writing in the Constitution to state our rights as parents it would become the "law of the land" when it came to decisions of the family. What that means is a panel of 18 "experts", none of whom are from the United States would get to decide what's best for our children and if challenged our judges would have to follow what they decided. Other countries can choose to ignore parts of the treaty based on their laws but the way the United States is set up it would become the law.
What could this look like? Courts (or really the UNCRC) deciding what kind of school is best for your child, what kind of medical treatment our children "should" have, and it could even go so far as deciding what we can and cannot know about our own children's health so as not to show a "lack of privacy" to the child. Two scary examples of this happening are both with teenagers. One boy's father brought him into the doctor (I can't remember what for). While there, they asked if he would like the boy to have a urine drug screen. The father decided yes he did and he, the father, had to consent to have it done. When it was done he was then told that they could not give him (the one who had consented and who also has to PAY for the test) the results because that would violate his sons privacy. If his son wanted to show him that was fine but the doctors could not/would not show the father. ???? What?? Another example was during a short time that some ideas that are in this treaty were in place in the state of Washington. A teenager complained to his school counselor he felt he had to go to church too often (3x's a week- twice Sunday and once Wednesday). The counselor called it in and the child was removed from the home until the court could decide. The judge then decided that one time a week of going to church was plenty! That would be the kind of things we could see if this treaty is passed. We tasted a small part of this in our family when Addison was a baby and H1N1 was going around. A nurse at my doctor's office told me if I chose not to vaccinate my children with the new vaccine we knew little about, she would call the state on me. I told her to go for it! But think of the outcome if I was then taken to court and told I would lose my children if I did not vaccinate. Take it one more step and say I then under pressure vaccinated and one of my children had a severe reaction and was severely brain damaged or died... who would be living with that?? Not the government who forced it, but me the parent. A parent needs to have the right to make decisions like these for their children.
What can we do?? Get our rights as parents to decide what's best for our family and children IN WRITING and INTO the Constitution. How?? Check out this website parentalrights.org. There is a petition to sign and information on how to pass the word on and help get things moving. Lets face it, not many of us are involved in the political process and I will be the first to say I don't know much! What I do know is I do NOT want to sit on the sidelines complaining about the direction our country is going when I could be doing something about it. There is no excuse for that! We should not be a spectator. We should not be a bench warmer. The beauty of America is anyone who wants to play a part in how our country is run, can! If you want to be heard you just need to speak up! The first thing to do is get informed. As this issue heats up you can guarantee misinformation will start to take over. Know the truth. Read the treaty if you want. Read all the information on the amendment trying to be passed. Know that sometimes what we think are our rights are not. I'm sure our founding fathers did not see reason to say a parent takes care of their own child and makes the decisions. It seems like a no brainer, but we need it in writing because apparently at this point in history it is not.
Here is the proposed amendment-
Section 1: The liberty of parents to direct the upbringing and education of their children is a fundamental right.
Section 2: Neither the United States nor any State shall infringe upon this right without demonstration that it's governmental interest as applied to the person is of the highest order and not otherwise served.
Section 3: No treaty may be adopted nor shall any source of international law be employed to supersede, modify, interpret or apply to the rights guaranteed by this article.
Please check it out. There's lots of info at the site and places to ask questions if you have them. Please do not trust all the bloggers of this world to get it right. Check it out for yourself. You can purchase The Child to show in your area or look online to see where it may be showing around you.
We know our country and times are changing. It is up to us not only to preserve and protect our rights but to think of how this will affect our children parenting our grandchildren. It's time to step up like our grandparents showed us! To be proud not only to BE an American but to be PART of how our country grows and flourishes. I know it can be scary... but not nearly as scary as the alternative!
Forgive me for the repetition and sounding like an infomercial here but please go to parentalrights.org to see how you can be involved.
