[Congressional Record Volume 145, Number 57 (Monday, April 26, 1999)]
[Senate]
[Page S4160]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
PARENTS ABDICATE; FAITH IS ABANDONED
Mr. HELMS. Mr. President, I had tried numerous times without success
during the weekend to reach by telephone a remarkable young mother whom
I had never met. I learned about her while reading a newspaper back
home in North Carolina that published on April 23 what is most often
referred to these days as an ``op-ed'' piece headed, ``Parents
Abdicate; Faith Is Abandoned''.
(An op-ed piece, of course, is the short-form identification of an
article published on the page opposite a newspaper's editorial page.)
The op-ed piece which so impressed me was authored by Mrs. Ashley
Ethridge of Mebane, N.C., a former school teacher who decided to spend
her time raising her two little girls. (She and her husband are
expecting a third child later this year).
I mentioned at the outset my having tried for much of the weekend to
reach Mrs. Ethridge by telephone. Sunday afternoon those efforts were
successful--and I must say, Mr. President, that my conversation with
Mrs. Ethridge could not have been more meaningful.
Senators who read her ``op-ed'' piece will agree, I think, that this
lady is a gifted writer. She is a graduate of N.C. State University and
she has completed graduate work. She is excitingly profound in her
analysis of what ails America in our time.
I must confess that I myself have long been alarmed by America's
drift away from the moral and spiritual principles and priorities upon
which our nation was founded more than two centuries ago. Many of my
generation often lament the trend. But Mrs. Ethridge has diagnosed the
moral malady better than I, and she offers the prescription to turn the
nation's direction around more precisely, more specifically than I ever
have.
Mr. President, I don't often do this but in the case of my remarks
today, and Mrs. Ethridge's clarity and counsel, I shall urge my fellow
Senators to read what this young mother in Mebane, North Carolina,
feels that all of us ought to consider.
So I am glad that I tried, one more time, Sunday afternoon to reach
Mrs. Ethridge. It was a blessing to hear her voice and to sense her
understanding of the course America simply must take --now.
So, Mr. President, I say to Ashley Ethridge: God bless you for the
clarity of your wake-up call to the most fortunate people on earth--we
citizens of the United States of America. Mr. President, I ask
unanimous consent that the text of Ashley Ethridge's observations be
printed in the Record.
There being no objection, the material was ordered to be printed in
the Record, as follows:
Parents Abdicate; Faith is Abandoned
(By Ashley Ethridge)
Is it just me, or has the entire country gone completely
mad?
In recent editions of the newspaper I have learned that it
is good fun when sexually explicit and violent Marilyn Manson
shock-rock concerts attract swarms of young adolescent boys--
presumably sans parents--cheering Satan; that magazines for
teenage girls are emblazoned with headlines such as ``How To
Totally Turn Him On''; and that parents are paying $800 a
month to put infants in institutionalized day care while the
mommies and daddies keep tabs on baby's milestones via
surveillance camera. People frown upon giving a 3-year-old a
doughnut, but don't even flinch at giving birth control pills
to a young teen suspected of having sex.
Nickelodeon (remember, the network just for kids--no adults
allowed?) is now changing the entire slant of its programming
because its executives have discovered that children now,
more than anything else, wish for time with their parents.
In the wake of the Littleton, Colo., massacre, Wake
County's school superintendent, Jim Surratt, asked what kind
of sick society would produce people who would want to do
that kind of thing. I find the answers to Surratt's question
in my newspaper almost every morning.
In his response to the tragedy, President Clinton said that
perhaps now America will wake up to the dimensions of the
challenge of juvenile violence. I can only assume that he is
implying a need for more programs, courtesy of the government
and thus the taxpayers. More counseling, more day care, more
before-school care, more after-school care, more gun control
and of course more counselors and mediators in the schools.
I too hope America will wake up--wake up to the fact that
children need more parental love and guidance.
The parents who blame the media and other outside
influences for teen violence should be diligent in shielding
their children from the offending sources. Where are these
parents when their under-17-year-olds are filling the
theaters of the many R-rated teen flicks now playing? Where
are these parents when their children are wading through the
murky waters of the Internet? Where are these parents when
their children are buying music bearing Parental Advisory
warning labels? Where are these parents when their
children are watching questionable--at best--prime time
television shows?
How can parents remove themselves almost completely from
their children's lives and then blame ``Dawson's Creek'' when
their daughters become pregnant or Leo DiCaprio when their
sons become violent?
Clinton also says that the nation must search for answers.
This is absurd, and yet is also precisely the problem. The
answer is obvious for anyone who will see it. Unfortunately,
we are so ensconced in our spiritually empty, materialistic,
self-centered lives that we do not seem to care that we are
sacrificing our children. We applaud Clinton's initiative to
fund more studies so that experts can search for answers
because it lifts the burden from our pathetic shoulders.
Why is it that so few people seem to believe that parents
have a responsibility to raise their own children, to spend
time with them, to help them, teach them and nurture them
toward a happy, productive adulthood? Parenting has now
simply become a process of buying children anything they
want, including guardians and homework-helpers, for as long
as they want--often well into what should be adulthood.
Stop searching the psychology journals and parenting
magazines and federally funded studies for answers. Search
your hearts and make your children, your families, your first
priority.
Clinton says that more must be done to help children deal
with anger. This sounds like hiring more school counselors.
Why not look to the cause of so much anger among our young
people? Could it possibly have something to do with the fact
that they know that their parents really don't want to be
bothered with the task of raising them?
Frankly, I don't think the schools are equipped to handle
situations such as these, lamentable as they are, nor do I
think they ought to. And I think some parents are just
looking at school as a place to stick their kids to get them
out of their hair.
Over 400 years ago, Martin Luther warned that if God were
removed from education, schools would prove to be the gates
of hell. What happens when we remove God from our families
and homes, forsaking our children as well? What happens when
we remove Him from society as a whole, and worship instead
the Almighty Dollar?
Is it hot in here, or is it just me?
Mr. HELMS. I suggest the absence of a quorum.
The PRESIDING OFFICER. The clerk will call the roll.
The assistant legislative clerk proceeded to call the roll.
Mr. HOLLINGS. Madam President, I ask unanimous consent that the order
for the quorum call be rescinded.
The PRESIDING OFFICER (Ms. Collins). Without objection, it is so
ordered.
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