Walking Therein

Emergency Alert: AB 2943 will arrest parents who spank!

Your immediate action is needed. Please contact all the committee members and your own representatives too. AB 2943 is scheduled for a hearing and vote Tuesday, April 15 in the Assembly Public Safety Committee. There are four Democrats and two Republicans on the committee. If this ratio holds firm and one Democrat votes "no" or abstains, AB 2943 would be stopped.

Campaign for Children and Families | Randy Thomasson, President
savecalifornia.com | saveamerica.net

Please forward to pro-family Californians and Americans
 

Good parents in California could be jailed 

Californians must rise up now to oppose the new spanking ban, AB 2943. The first vote is Tuesday.

Send a powerful pre-written email to Sacramento

April 10, 2008: The legislator who wants to arrest and jail good parents who occasionally spank their children is back with a vengeance.

Assemblywoman Sally Lieber, the termed-out Democrat Speaker pro Tempore from the San Jose area, has gutted and amended her bill AB 2943, tranforming it into last year's highly-controversial bill punishing any parent who uses an “implement” to spank their children.

AB 2943 would label good, loving parents -- who occasionally use a little paddle, a ruler, a little stick, or a brush to correct their youngster's misbehavior -- as official "child abusers" in the eyes of the law.

 

Under AB 2943, police officers, district attorneys, juries, and child protective services will view ALL parents who spank as suspected child abusers worthy of investigation.

This bad bill would mean good parents could be arrested and spend the night in jail. Their children would be removed from the home and placed in foster care for "protection." If convicted of using an "implement" to spank their child (even if it was only one time), the parent would be ordered into "nonviolent parental education" and their children could be taken away for four years or more.

AB 2943 is scheduled for a hearing and vote Tuesday, April 15 in the Assembly Public Safety Committee. There are four Democrats and two Republicans on the committee. If this ratio holds firm and one Democrat votes "no" or abstains, AB 2943 would be stopped.

Your immediate action is needed. Please contact all the committee members and your own representatives too.

1. Contact the committee members and your own elected representatives in Sacramento

- How to call the committee members, what to say, and a pre-written message you can email them
- How to contact your own California state representatives

- Call and email Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger

2. Bring yourself and your children to the April 15 hearing at the State Capitol. The committee members need to see and hear from good mothers and good fathers that AB 2943 would tranform into suspected child abusers. We need California moms and dads and their children to pack out the committee room!

Please rearrange your schedule, cancel other activities, put aside your fear, put on faith, and show up to the committee room on Tuesday, April 15. Be prepared to go to the microphone to say your name and why you’re opposed to AB 2943. Ten seconds of speaking is all that is needed. Yes, you can do it.

State Capitol, 10th and L Streets in Sacramento
Room 126 on the first floor near the north side entrance
Assembly Public Safety Committee begins Tuesday, April 15, 2008 at 9 a.m.
(Plan to park by 8:15 a.m. and get to the committee room by 8:30 a.m. for limited seating; the committee hearing is expected to last until lunchtime)

CAMPAIGN FOR CHILDREN AND FAMILIES (CCF) is a leading West Coast pro-family organization empowering citizens to live out their values. Sign up today for CCF's free email updates at www.savecalifornia.com. Your partnership empowers CCF's innovative work on behalf of children and families in culture, media and government. Please support CCF by making a secure online donation or by sending a tax-deductible gift of any size to:

Campaign for Children and Families
Randy Thomasson, President
P.O. Box 511, Sacramento, CA 95812
(916) 265-5650
www.savecalifornia.com
www.saveamerica.net

Untitled Comment

7:38 AM, Friday, April 11, 2008 .. Posted by myheartsjoy

Thank you for the heads up on this. Even though we are not in CA, one never knows just how pervasive this type of legislation could become in our country. I will pray!

Untitled Comment

8:19 AM, Friday, April 11, 2008 .. Posted by Anonymous

I do not think it should be against the law because it it has many flaws but it is abuse to hit a child. Spanking is for lazy parents.

Untitled Comment

4:12 PM, Friday, April 11, 2008 .. Posted by charles0322

This is not the first time CA has attempted to pass this law. As I have stated before, our rights are not written in stone, they are written on paper and we must continually fight for them.

Also, in regards to the comment before mine. I see why they did not leave their name. I would not either if I left such a foolish statement. If you are going to make yourself look like a fool, please stick to comments on subjects you know about. Your comment shows you know very little about raising children .....correctly.

Anonymous~ Lazy parenting is subjective, as is your definition of abuse

5:28 PM, Friday, April 11, 2008 .. Posted by JacqueDixonSoulRestES

I agree that spanking can be abuse. So can feeding your child, speaking to your child, educating your child, medicating your child, having your child do chores, buying them things... do you get the picture??

Do you really want the government telling you that you can't feed them Lucky Charms or hot dogs? Maybe they will legislate that a child doesn't need that fourth pair of designer jeans or to go to that snobby uppity private school. Perhaps you will go to jail someday because you swore in front of your child. Or yelled at them. Or read them the Bible. Have you read the Convention on the Rights of a Child??

Is all of this lazy parenting? I would have to say yes, some of it, from my perspective, is. We won't talk about sending a child to be taught by other teens and strangers whose beliefs one has no idea of is, and whether or not that is abuse.

This is why we have rights in this country. We are innocent until proven guilty. Spanking a child does not mean we are automatically guilty of abuse. What was our country like when parents actually *did* spank their children? Have you ever read about that?

Perhaps you enjoy seeing the school shootings and rapes and murders, hazings and other things that selfish, spoiled rotten, demanding, and lazy children do. I do not. We are raising our children in love. For many parents, spanking is a part of that, just as telling them, "No, you may not do that" is.

I am interested in how you teach a child to stay away from the road. One who is persistent in going to the road. Do you just say, "Well, when you get hit by a car, then you will understand."? Lest you forget, I am a mom of eight children. All children are not compliant, nor do they all give a hoot about time-outs or taking away their favorite toys. Some children need a swift swat to understand that there are consequences to disobedience, before that consequence is being hurt or killed in the road, or being burned on the stove - or burning down their own house. How do you people live?

If you are not someone who adheres to the Bible and its standards, there really is no more discussion here. Actually, if you do adhere to it, there is no more discussion. I mean, really now, God allows bad consequences for disobedience.

Proverbs 13:24
He that spareth his rod hateth his son: but he that loveth him chasteneth him betimes.

Hebrews 12:6
For whom the Lord loveth he chasteneth, and scourgeth every son whom he receiveth.

You are correct that hitting a child is abuse. Spanking can be abuse. One cannot just label it lazy parenting, because they disagree with it any more than the government should be able to haul good parents off to jail because of it. In many cases, it is not abuse, but loving and proactive teaching to future well-behaved, considerate adults.

Spanking

4:08 AM, Saturday, April 12, 2008 .. Posted by Faith McJarrow

Dear Jacque

I am South African, but have lived in the UK for 8 years now. Your article was spot on. I could not have put it down so well myself. I homeschool 4 girls as well and take flack for doing it "Spare the rod, spoil the child". Children need boundaries, not freedom to do as they please. As they grow and mature and learn what is right.

right with ya!

10:19 AM, Saturday, April 12, 2008 .. Posted by Sisterlisa

I can tell you as well, from experience that children MUST have boundaries. My husband is a recovery pastor in a 12 step Christian alcohol and drug center. He teaches a 'boundaries' class. We see the product of an undisciplined child every single day. These GROWN men tell us that they WISHED their parents would have lovingly spanked them.

In my opinion, all this started back when mothers left the home to go to work and thought they had a 'right' to be successful. They lost sight of the fact that being successful is meant to be in their homes.

Untitled Comment

1:28 PM, Saturday, April 12, 2008 .. Posted by HeartnSoul

I like your comment Jacque. I would love to see exactly "how they live"... but I bet they really are the lazy ones, expecting (or complying with) the govt. to raise their kids for them. When they end up with bad fruit, that fruit is taken care of for free in prison.