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Parents: Don’t Let Kids Drink the Kool-Aid
Townhall.com ^ | September 19, 2011 | Rebecca Hagelin

Posted on 09/20/2011 10:41:11 AM PDT by Kaslin

Kool-Aid. It conjures up contradictory images.  On the one hand, it brings to mind thirsty gulps, drink-stained lips, and happy children.  On the other, it suggests the shadow of the Jonestown massacre, where a cult leader killed his followers, including children, by spiking their sugary drinks with poison.  It tasted good going down but led to inevitable death.

These days, too many of our children are drinking spiked Kool-Aid. ]

And it’s being served to them by unwitting educators, dysfunctional celebrities, government leaders, and the whole of pop culture.

What’s in the Kool-Aid? The sweet flavor of unrestrained sexual pleasure (consequences? what consequences?), the languid taste of easy government money (“They better not cut my benefits—or grants—or services”) and the invigorating rush of ‘personal autonomy’ (“I can make my own decisions. Who needs parents--or God?”).

And our children are swallowing in gulps, as they listen attentively to classroom lessons that denigrate capitalism, watch “family” shows that feature gender-bending characters, and listen to iPods that spew filthy words and perverted images. Undiscriminating, they slurp down the cultural flavors. But dire consequences lie just ahead for our children, unless we act now.

I just finished a hard-hitting new book, called Don’t Let the Kids Drink the Kool-Aid: Confronting the Left’s Assault on our Families, Faith, and Freedom, that’s a must-read for all parents who love their children. Written by the witty and insightful Marybeth Hicks, a Washington Times columnist and mother of four, the book delivers a devastating critique of our culture—and some solid ideas about how to turn things around.

A compelling and fast-moving book, Don’t Let the Kids Drink the Kool-Aidsounds the alarm about the liberals’ aggressive assault on morals, the free market, and the family—a campaign that’s steamrolling ahead under the Obama Administration. The Left is driving hard to redefine what it means to be a human person—to normalize behavior, such as homosexuality, promiscuity, abortion, that damages society as much as it injures the soul, psyche, and body of the person engaging in it. 

In her book, Hicks lays out a dismaying—shocking, really—array of examples that show how the Left is “shaping our kids into a generation completely ignorant of the principles that have made America the extraordinary nation it is.” In their “pursuit of the liberal utopia,” the liberal ‘Kool-Aid’ distributors are “toppling the three-legged stool on which our nation rests:  religion, the traditional family, and free market capitalism.” 

Like Kool-Aid that spoils the appetite for wholesome food, the Left’s agenda “inculcates our children with the beliefs, attitudes, and opinions that will predispose them to a socialist America.”  Worse, the Left serves a poisonous substitute: an “alternative core belief system” of “secular progressive collectivism---with all its attendant moral relativism and political correctness.”

Parents---indeed, all of us who care about children—need to put a stop to this. And nothing short of a “recalibration” of each child’s “moral compass” will solve the problem.

 How to Save Your Family: Read Don’t Let Your Kids Drink the Kool-Aid

Her book’s goal, says Hicks, is first, “to convince you that Leftists in positions of power and influence over our children are seriously undermining the values and virtues essential to our national character and to American citizenship.” 

But second, it’s a call to action for each one of us to “offer more of what is right,” by paying greater attention to our children’s moral development instead of focusing, in a short-sighted way, on grades, achievements, and social skills.   Developing moral character is hard--hard work for parents and children alike. But it’s a task we dare not neglect. 

Hicks provides the concrete suggestions and impassioned encouragement that parents need:  we are the ones who can—and must—instill virtue in our children. Our work begins by protecting our children from unhealthy and corrupting influences. And it succeeds when we--parents, grandparents, and like-minded families—teach our children to believe in God, work hard to develop strong character, and proudly profess heartfelt patriotism and commitment to our exceptional American freedoms.  


TOPICS: Culture/Society; Editorial; Extended News
KEYWORDS: corruption; crushliberalism; hagelin; hicks; jonestown; koolaid; liberalfascism; liberalism; liberalprogressivism; liberals; marybethhicks; moralabsolutes; moralrelativism; obama; politicalcorrectness; progressives; publiceducation; rebeccahagelin; socialism; socialistdemocrats

1 posted on 09/20/2011 10:41:13 AM PDT by Kaslin
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To: Kaslin

2 posted on 09/20/2011 10:47:59 AM PDT by Puppage (You may disagree with what I have to say, but I shall defend to your death my right to say it)
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To: Kaslin

bookmark


3 posted on 09/20/2011 10:49:55 AM PDT by GOP Poet (Obama is an OLYMPIC failure.)
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To: Kaslin

*************
“the liberal ‘Kool-Aid’ distributors are “toppling the three-legged stool on which our nation rests: religion, the traditional family, and free market capitalism.”
***********

Thanks for the notice on this book. (What - I can’t just let the school raise my kid?!)


4 posted on 09/20/2011 10:53:21 AM PDT by 21twelve (Obama Recreating the New Deal: http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2185147/posts)
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To: Kaslin

Koop Aid by today’s definition is any idea promoted by the democrat party, a disgusting organization with ideas so good, that they are mandatory for all despite their fatalistic and otherwise poisonous effects on all subject to them. Today’s democrats are just like the damn fools who followed Jim Jones down to their senseless deaths to Guyana.


5 posted on 09/20/2011 10:54:12 AM PDT by Prole (Please pray for the families of Chris and Channon. May God always watch over them.)
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To: Kaslin

Kool Aid by today’s definition is any idea promoted by the democrat party, a disgusting organization with ideas so good, that they are mandatory for all despite their fatalistic and otherwise poisonous effects on all subject to them. Today’s democrats are just like the damn fools who followed Jim Jones down to their senseless deaths to Guyana.


6 posted on 09/20/2011 10:54:26 AM PDT by Prole (Please pray for the families of Chris and Channon. May God always watch over them.)
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To: Kaslin

When I was a small kid my dad was too cheap to buy Kool Aid.
He bought some competing product called Funny Face Drink Mix.
Each of the flavors had it’s own cartoon character. Some were politically very incorrect, like Chinese Cherry and Injun’ Orange. Those just disappeared off the store shelf one day.


7 posted on 09/20/2011 11:35:18 AM PDT by Buckeye McFrog
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To: Kaslin
I saw Marybeth Hicks interviewed in The 700 Club the other day. She is very astute and very correct. Parents need to teach their kids early and often that not all they hear and see in school is correct. Teach them that some teachers will try to teach them lies. Essentially, install bull$h!+ detectors in your kids.

I did for mine and now that they are in college they are well prepared for the coming assault. I get regular stories on "...you should hear what my prof said..."

8 posted on 09/20/2011 11:53:55 AM PDT by Bloody Sam Roberts (Deploy. Dominate. Disappear.)
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To: Buckeye McFrog

They were Pillsbury; I remembered who made them, but not the fact you didn't have to add sugar

9 posted on 09/21/2011 3:48:04 AM PDT by gusopol3
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To: Bloody Sam Roberts
I have a better idea.

Shut down the godless, socialist-funded, government schools. Raze the buildings. Dig up the foundations, and salt the earth.

10 posted on 09/21/2011 4:07:16 AM PDT by wintertime (I am a Constitutional Restorationist!!! Yes!)
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To: wintertime

Well, yeah. That’s option 1. But...ya gotta have a backup.


11 posted on 09/21/2011 5:45:05 AM PDT by Bloody Sam Roberts (Deploy. Dominate. Disappear.)
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To: Bloody Sam Roberts
Well, yeah. That’s option 1. But...ya gotta have a backup.
^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^

Really?....Think about that.

Even if there were no “back up”, it would be better for our nation's children to NEVER step foot in a godless and socialist government school! I seriously mean this. Illiteracy and innumeracy can be fixed. People do it all the time. But...For 85% of our nation children to be learning to think and reason godlessly in godless government schools has hellish consequences for our nation and **eternal** consequences for the child personally.

So?...Really, what do you think would happen if government schools just suddenly evaporated off the face of the earth tomorrow?

This is what would happen:

There would be chaos and moaning and groaning for about 3 months while working parents found babysitting alternatives and worked out informal tutoring programs for their kids. Churches would soon be pressured by their congregants to open schools. Some church schools would be tution-free and run by volunteers. Former teachers would open “day care-homeschools” in their homes. Day care centers would quickly hire teachers and run one room schools in their centers. Private tutoring would thrive. Internet education would boom. All team sports would be quickly privatized and subsidized by the big leagues. ( Coaching would**immediately** improve.)

It would take about 3 months. There is **one** exception. The Mormons would have schools open and running smoothly for their kids in about 2 days.

12 posted on 09/21/2011 6:14:36 AM PDT by wintertime (I am a Constitutional Restorationist!!! Yes!)
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