Guest Opinion/Commentary*

Friday, November 11, 2011

The KinderCare Generation
  Nanny State piece by Guest: Michael R. Shannon

For those in two–income households who have been wondering what the long–term effects of parking children in daycare would be, the results are in and the news is not good.

Quite a few members of the daycare generation are currently occupying Obamavilles in New York City, D.C., Oakland, CA and points in between. This is a natural outcome of society’s reliance on strangers to raise our kids. The daycare generation’s formative years led them to become accustomed to large, mostly benevolent, third–party organizations that dried their tears, filled their tummies and enforced the rules for sharing.

Inside this primary–colors utopia the daycare generation finger–painted signs, beat on the furniture, sang songs and it was absolutely free! At snack time Juanita never charged little Belgium or Saskatchewan for the goldfish or juice boxes.

It’s only natural, now that the daycare generation no longer depends on KinderCare, that they turn to the largest organization of all and ask Uncle Sam to make everything all better.

I had the opportunity to experience this firsthand last weekend at The Koch Konspiracy, better known as the American’s for Prosperity Conference, held at the D.C. Convention Center. During Friday’s Reagan dinner an occupy type attempted to disrupt the keynote speech. It started with a ripple of movement toward the front of the ballroom and then escalated into the same incoherent shouting you see in coverage of the New York City occupiers, only closer.

During breaks in the action during dinner, attendees went to the windows and watched occupiers block the street in front of the convention center. This is a familiar community organizing technique based on the theory that adding to gridlock with impromptu traffic jams is a sure way to generate support for your cause.

Once blocking traffic grew boring, the occupy mob attempted to storm the doors of the convention center and force their way inside. Security prevented this, but when the event concluded around 10:00 PM, the mob blocked the doors preventing the attendees from leaving.

These brave voices for the 99 percent used very small children in some barricades, putting them in front of the class warriors and against the door, so it could not be opened without hitting little Buffy. Other exits were blocked by jamming wooden poles through the door handles. All the entrances were treated to the usual smug tautological signs (“I am a human being”), drums and aggressively screamed obscenities.

A well–run police department would have responded by sending the civil disturbance unit. The D.C. department sent a handful of outnumbered officers who did little to clear the doors.

(As an aside, ask yourself what the city’s response would have been if NRA members had blocked the doors to Busboys & Poets or some other D.C. hotbed of failed ideology?)

D.C. Council member Tommy Wells (D–Delusional) was quoted by the WaPost as saying; “This is a very difficult job for police. Their job is keeping the protesters and people coming out of the convention center safe.”

No. The job of the police is to keep the peace and protect the law abiding. It’s not to observe the tantrums of this narcissistic mob and make a pathetic attempt to mediate between the innocent and the inciter.

On Monday, Police Chief Cathy L. Lanier said she’s had all she can stand and she can’t stands no more, describing the occupiers as, “increasingly confrontational and violent.” She promised the department will “adjust tactics as needed to assure safety.”

Somehow I don’t find a 60–hour response time to a near riot very reassuring.

Mayor Vincent Gray (D–Detached) pleaded with the rabble to “show restraint” so the movement is not “discredited by violence.” But as usual he’s not exactly abreast of the news.

In Oakland almost 100 occupiers were arrested after they threw pipes, chunks of concrete, firebombs and fired Roman candles at police. In Boston crack dealers were arrested at the occupy site. In Dallas, New York, Cleveland and Baltimore there have been reports of rape in occupy sites and I’m not talking about the corporate kind.

And in San Diego street cart vendors who made the mistake of initially giving free food to occupy denizens found themselves under attack by enraged blood and urine–throwing protestors when they decided to start charging for food.

There’s essentially no difference between these pampered and petulant occupiers going on the rampage against the nebulous offense of “corporate greed” and the three–year–old in daycare throwing a tantrum at the conclusion of recess because “it’s not fair!”

They are only older – certainly not wiser.

Michael R. Shannon

Posted by Guest: Michael R. Shannon on 11/11/11

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