Used by permission

The teacher’s eyes bugged out and her chin dropped as the girl read her essay about the family’s misadventures in the bad economy. Despite the obvious topic, the whole scene has student and family privacy implications.

Art Linkletter showed for decades, “Kids say the darndest things.” Nevertheless, a little parental training can go a long way. Parents would be wise to talk with their children about what is appropriate to share and what isn’t. Often children offer details of their lives without a thought as to the implications of sharing them.

Parents, it is up to you to train your children about their privacy and that of the family. And if you’d like your children to share fiction, I have no problem with that. Such assignments are aimed at getting children writing, and fiction fits the bill. It also protects student and family privacy. Plus, fiction can be a lot more interesting than reality.

But there is a concern here a friend brought up. Parents, be sure to teach your children the difference between fiction and lying. Some stories aren’t obvious.

Teachers, it wouldn’t hurt either if you changed the assignment to, “What I Wish I Had Done Over Summer Break” as a welcomed alternative.

Related posts:

Protect student and family privacy

Student and family privacy unprotected

The study set out to document the psychological adjustment of adolescents conceived through donor insemination by lesbian mothers from conception to adulthood. So, between 1986 and 1992, 154 prospective lesbian mothers volunteered for this ongoing study where the “offspring” provided the data through interviews and questionnaires, the mothers through interviews and Child Behavior Checklists.

The results are no surprise given the sources. They have a strong incentive to show themselves in “good light” and the mothers have “an enormous political incentive” to “ensure upbringing is exemplary,” as noted by Neil E. Whitehead, research assistant from New Zealand, in response to the study.

Lesbian mothers rated their children “significantly higher in social, school/academic/ and total competence and significantly lower in social problems, rule-breaking, aggressive, and externalizing problem behavior than their age-matched counterparts in Achenbach’s normative sample of American youth.”

Does that make it so? No. Pediatrician Daniel Trementozzi said, they study’s authors chose not to include sources with possible contradictory results like reports from teachers.

“On the surface it appears that the study authors are only reporting data that supports a specific, predetermined view-point., Trementozzi said. “I will not be referencing this article or results as valid until ALL of the data is made public for review.”

Also, the study was extremely small and subjects were not randomly selected. Though it would be difficult to reach these measures, the data is of little worth without them.

However, the study does show what lengths lesbian mothers and their supporters will stride in their struggle for validation. Tim Gill’s LGBT foundation and the Gay Lesbian Medical Association provided grants along with others.

Nevertheless, the study goes way beyond validating lesbian mothers. It questions the role of fathers.

“Is the implication that fathers are an undesirable component of the family, to be taken at face value?” asked Robert P. Sundel, Physician at Children’s Hospital Boston, before suggesting the need for a better study.

But the fatherhood question goes even deeper. It puts into question the “fitness of male parents, regardless of sexual orientation, placing gay father couples at risk for being seen as even less fit than couples with only one father,” said Alex I. Kartashov, biostatistician from Policy Analysis Inc.

So, while Bolden-Monifa said this study “flies in the face of public opinion against same-sex marriage and parenting,” I see this study as flawed. It does little more than to show mothers who focused on their children had favorable results through their own eyes.

I am sure whether a child is raised by a single mother, two mothers, a grandmother or two grandmothers, or fathers and grandfathers in the mix, paying attention to a set of criteria can improve the outcome based on that criteria. And praising the children can only help.

With one of many highway signs 80 miles north of the Arizona-Mexico border, the Bureau of Land Management warns, “Visitors may encounter armed criminals and smuggling,” and the BLM “encourages visitors to use public land north of Interstate 8.”

Also via the sign, visitors are told to stay away from trash, clothing, backpacks, and abandoned vehicles. If they see suspicious activity, visitors are told via the sign, “Do Not Confront! Move Away and Call 911.”

These signs signify a war, one to which President Obama must take action or we lose more of our nation’s land to criminals. Governor Janice K. Brewer of Arizona wrote Obama a letter on June 24, 2010, outlining the great need and has responded with a video message to Obama. I’m among those waiting for his response. You can see the video and read the letter at: this site.

Obamacare is also an enemy. Sen., Orrin Hatch (R-UT) has been working to dismantle it and calls it “a threat to liberty itself.” I agree with Hatch and would love to see the American Liberty Restoration Act (S. 3502) and the American Job Protection Act (S. 3501) sail through Congress. The first would remove the individual mandates to be implemented from the current law. The second legislation would repeal, as Hatch put it, a “job-killing mandate.”

I asked my twitter followers and friends on facebook what rights do they see as worth the fight? Becki Linstrot gave two answers, one too long to include here, but here’s her short answer. She said, “The basic rights worth fighting for are freedom of religion, freedom of speech, the right to equal treatment, and our country’s belief that everyone is innocent until proven guilty. Without these rights we cease to be a beacon of light to the world.”

I concur with this addition that the right to equal treatment means under the law. Also, I want to underscore my definition of freedom of religion as so eloquently explained by Cardinal Francis George, president of the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops. He spoke on Feb. 23, 2010, before thousands of students, faculty and leaders of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints at Brigham Young University.

He said: “Religious freedom cannot be reduced to freedom of worship, nor even freedom of private conscience. Religious freedom means that religious groups, as well as religious individuals, have a right to exercise their influence in the public square, and that any attempt to reduce that fuller sense of religious freedom, which has been part of our history in this country for more than two centuries, to a private reality of worship and individual conscience, as long as you don’t make anybody else unhappy, is not in our tradition. It was the tradition of the Soviet Union, where Lenin permitted freedom of worship to be placed into the constitution … but not freedom of religion.”

Those wanting religious people to keep their opinions to themselves are actually harboring the enemy within.

Now, since I am one of those old-fashioned people who doesn’t use an ATM card, I have no problem with having no overdraft protection. The new rules don’t apply to checks or recurring payments like automatic bill pay. I have my finger on the balance in my account. I don’t pull in for gas or make a purchase without knowing I have money to pay for it. Nevertheless, in the odd case I find myself in differing circumstances, I can opt in the program anytime. So, for now I’ll do without.

There is a problem for some, however. Funds could be available for one charge but not for a second one. If funds aren’t withdrawn before a second debit is requested, the second will be accepted. Unfortunately, real funds would have been spent twice. So, overdraft protection is not necessarily a bad thing.

Norwegian soprano Sissel Kyrkjebø sings “O Mio Babbino Caro.”

Though I’m not advocating society go back to the days when fathers hold power over who should marry, society has moved too far from children asking their fathers even for advice. As you listen to the Norwegian soprano Sissel Kyrkjebø sing, think what plea do you have for your father?

I know plenty of children who wish their fathers were in their lives more and plenty of fathers who miss their children. Also, I know God, Our Heavenly Father, would like to hear our pleas to him as well.

Here are the aria’s words in Italian and the translation into English:

Italian
O mio babbino caro
Mi piace, è bello, bello
Vo’ andare in Porta Rossa
a comperar l’anello!
Sì, sì, ci voglio andare!
e se l’amassi indarno,
andrei sul Ponte Vecchio,
ma per buttarmi in Arno!
Mi struggo e mi tormento!
O Dio, vorrei morir!
Babbo, pietà, pietà!
Babbo, pietà, pietà!

English
Oh my dear papa
I love him, he is handsome, handsome
I want to go to Porta Rossa
to buy the ring!
Yes, yes, I want to go there!
And if my love were in vain,
I would go to the Ponte Vecchio
and throw myself in the Arno!
I am being consumed by the torment!
Papa, have pity, have pity!
Papa, have pity, have pity!

Welcome sign outside the Conoco station at 350 McCormick St., Wamsutter, Wyo. Note the encouragement to attend church.

On road trips along I-80 in Wyoming between Rawlins and Rock Springs, I discovered a gas station in Wamsutter that encourages church attendance, posts social decorum rules as well as displays original murals in the restrooms.

On the “Welcome to Wamsutter” sign outside the Conoco station, travelers are encouraged to “Start Your Week Off Right, Attend the Church of Your Choice.” As you should note, the sign did not say which church to attend. Society is vexed with problems, so the reminder is as timely now as it was years ago when the sign was posted.

On the station’s front door is the notice: “No shoes, no shirt, no service.” I’ve seen this standard posted in myriad places. However, it stood out on my trip a few weeks ago because Boulder’s new nudity law allows women to bare their breasts in public. I hope Boulder businesses follow the Wamsutter stations’ lead and post the same rules.

Visitors to the restrooms can see murals where deer bucks ram each other in a meadow with pine trees and snow-patched mountains behind them. They can see a deer at a lake, a wolf and a deer fight, waterfalls, a soaring eagle, and Mount Rushmore and other American scenes.

The station asks on several signs for patrons to help keep the restrooms clean, no smoking and no writing on the walls. James J. Ironhorse, a Lakota Sioux Indian and a station employee, painted the murals in 1987 with extra paint from other projects. Though the paintings are irreplaceable as Ironhorse died in 2003, pictures are allowed.

Though I am sure it was not the intended outcome, one rule caused me to smile: “Do not steal our signs!!” Apparently others like what the station is saying.

Mount Rushmore, a portion of a mural painted in 1987 by James J. Ironhorse, a Lakota Sioux Indian, on a restroom wall of the Wamsutter Conoco gas station,
350 McCormick St., Wamsutter, Wyo.

Four feral kittens head to Boulder for socialization and adoption.

Four feral kittens headed to dog-town Boulder a few years ago after Barb Nardone trapped them in Broomfield. They were lucky. She trapped them before they became too old to be socialized and adopted at the Boulder Humane Society. In doing so, she helped make a success story. And, it didn’t hurt any that the kittens were pretty, too.

Though Boulder has a reputation of being dog heaven, kittens like these four are adopted from the Humane Society. And just like in the surrounding communities, people likely abandon their cats, which is how feral cat populations begin. Basically, feral cats are cats that live outside all the time that someone discarded or were born to abandoned pets.

Spring is kitten season as is summer, so the time is right to talk about what we all can do in our neighborhoods to help out the feral cats. Without intervention, feral kittens are destined to struggle for food, water and shelter. It’s already a given they won’t receive immunizations and medical help. And, as trash containers become more secure, their food source, as bad as it is, decreases.

A better approach is for ordinary folks to catch, neuter and return older cats to their home areas with the commitment to provide them food, water and shelter. It’s the most humane way to treat feral cats. In the case of kittens 4 weeks to not much older than 6 weeks, the best plan is to catch them and take them to the Boulder Humane Society or other similar place. There they will be learn to trust humans and treat them as friends. It’s a much better approach than allowing the suffering in neighborhoods to go unassisted.

The city ordinance, a misdemeanor, makes it illegal for people over the age of 10 to show their genitals in public or on private property where it’s obvious to passersby, which I hope includes casual observations by those close by for any reason. The ordinance carries a fine of up to $1,000 and/or 90 days in jail and does not require those convicted under it to register as sex offenders.

Unfortunately, the law is only a move in the right direction because it is still legal for women to go topless. A women nursing discretely in public is no problem. The problem is women’s bare breasts. There is a significant different between men and women here. If that were not true, men wouldn’t go to topless bars to see women. Furthermore, those arguing a woman’s breasts are no different than other non-genital body parts are arguing disingenuously. We don’t have bars for bare feet, elbows, hands or legs now do we.

Maybe CU wants to keep its students’ discards for their own purposes. One idea cooking could be to have a big garage sale. It’s one way to bring in revenue. Students toss away items like furniture, clothes, and household items to name a few. But, the volume and quality are less than in years past because of recycling and collecting reusable items. CU has a station in every building for renewable items and the Salvation Army began picking up reusable items this year.

CU looks a little silly, however, because of the trespassing signs and other ones warning “anyone entering into or remaining inside the Dumpster is subject to arrest and criminal prosecution.” But if CU actually issues tickets and arrests, they’ll go beyond looking silly. You come up with a word. It’s beyond me.

In December 2007, Matthew Murray packed two handguns, an assault rifle and more than 1,000 rounds of ammunition into a Colorado Springs church after killing two at a youth mission training center in Arvada. Jeanne Assam, a former police officer, stopped Murray’s massacre plans with her concealed gun.

However, another tragic scenario played out with no one coming to the rescue. Seung-Hui Cho killed 32 people and wounded many more at Virginia Tech in the worst campus shooting in U.S. history.

In 2007, I generally supported the regents’ ban on concealed guns on campus. My reasoning was drunk and angry students expressing themselves with firepower would be seriously worse than couch bonfires some CU students used at the time. And, I saw a dramatic decline in or cessation of these bonfires after the Boulder City Council banned couches on porches. My assumption was that banning guns on campus would have the same results as banning couches on porches. Safety would increase.

Nevertheless, there’s a flaw in this thinking. Regents cannot guarantee students and employees will receive help within minutes of a shooter going on a rampage. On the other hand, those carrying concealed weapons could be close enough to help. The more carriers of concealed guns there are on campus, or at least the possibility of them, the more deterrents to take the bulls eye off CU students and employees.