As in, what he said that was racist. McDonald's CEO Chris Kempczinksi commented on two of the many murders among young people in Chicago:
"With both, the parents failed those kids which I know is something you can’t say. Even harder to fix," Kempczinski texted Lightfoot.
"Thanks, Chris. Great to see you in person. Such a great work space, and your folks were terrific. I said to Joe I would be happy reach out to the operator to offer support. He and his team members have got to be traumatized. Terrible tragedy. Thanks again, Chris," Lightfoot responded.
So, what was racist? The assumption that parents, who have recently been told they could be terrorists or that they in fact can't have say in their kids' educations, are therefore responsible for something? I'm not seeing it. Perhaps he shouldn't have spoken to these two particular cases without knowing the details. But racist? By the way, clearly he was right in saying this is something you're not allowed to do, however many thousands of America's youth die in the meantime.
Though I think it's safe to say that as a society, we've been grooming parents to fail their kids for many generations. Ever since we decided Dr. Benjamin Spock was right to tell us everything we ever knew about raising kids was wrong.
Seventy years later, and suicide is now one of the leading causes of death for children as young as ten years old. We have debates about arming teachers because of the penchant for mass murdering fellow students that has arisen in the last several decades. Drug use and dependency among young Americans is at all time highs, along with suicide rates.
It's almost like we shouldn't have listened to a sawdust for brains ideologue and should have trusted in some ages old wisdom when it comes to things like parenting, morality, personal responsibility and being mature adults. Heck, it might even be that we abandoned God and his revealed wisdom for how to act as human beings.
Nah, that would be like saying we've been wrong all these years. And there's no end to the youth of America we're willing to let die rather than admit to such a thing.
"Racist" is code for 'talking above station'. In the 'minds' of these characters, he's not permitted to hold any unapproved party responsible for the crimes in question.
ReplyDeleteRacist is, as often as not, merely a word used to replace the label 'non-leftist.'
DeleteSpock had a huge role in providing fertile soil in which generations of children would experience permissiveness rather than direction and discipline from their parents. Parents began being friends to their kids rather than parents. Nothing wrong with being friends with your children but it is the parent that has the last word, not the friend. Spock's book "Baby and Child Care" became the bible of many new parents in the late forties through the fifties and sixties breaking from generations of child rearing techniques passed down through the families. Funny how the first generation of Spock's societal experiment ended up being the hippy generation. That generation then proceeded to breed instantly gratified children with whom we are very familiar. We've been going downhill ever since.
ReplyDeleteI think in ages to come, we will be that era that believed any stupid thing, and then hunkered down rather than admit we were wrong, no matter how bad the misery and suffering that resulted. The funniest example being a NYT article from last year IIRC, saying that despite fewer parents spanking, and crime and violence and suicide among children at all time highs, trust us - spanking still leads to violence. I'd like to think Medieval Peasants wouldn't be that thick headed.
DeleteI'd consult Christopher Lasch's writings on this topic. I know he addressed the subject at length (informed by personal experience as a father of four). Some of his correspondence is now available in archives and it shows his private thoughts on various challenges in re his children.
DeleteBenj. Spock's book sold exceptionally well. My mother's copy was well-fingered. Interestingly, she did not take it all that seriously. She said she got to the point where he advised to never hit your child in anger and she put it down; she said she wouldn't be hitting her children if she weren't angry with them. I think it was part of the kultursmog. Another purveyor of advice was Haim Ginnott. Thinking back on it, he was recommending a program that might have been satisfactory in a professional class Jewish household, a situation in which few people live.
After warning my son(6 at the time) not to play near the street I finally capitalized my warning with a spanking to his bum the next time he defied me. My reasoning? It was much healthier for him to have a stinging spanking on his bum then having me, his father scrape his remains off the street after being struck with vehicle.
ReplyDeleteYep. I never spanked my boys much. But then my parents spanked us, but in the end, not that often. It was for things like that. When one of my sons bolted and ran into a parking lot in front of a car (that thankfully was driving carefully and able to stop), I spanked him there and then - for the same reason. And he never ran out in front of a car again, from what we ever saw.
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