Column for Jan 3, 2008

The Sissification of America

If you are like me, you fail to comprehend the use of the term "progressive" as it refers to current ideology. Often times, the term should instead be "regressive". Just in the past month or two, I have been extremely frustrated with some alleged "progressive" thought patterns. I am very thankful for those around me who keep me sane by maintaining old fashioned values that were and have always been progressive.

I have had the great fortune to be able to play "big brother" to a youngster lately. For years, I had pondered volunteering in a Big Brother/Big Sister type program, and now through a mutual connection, I am doing that very thing with a youngster. What I find refreshing is that this little guy is being raised as I believe a boy should be raised, meaning that he is allowed to be a boy. I have been able to wrestle, play with toy guns, will be buying some Super Soakers, and doing all the boy things like playing baseball, basketball, and football with him.

I recall the days of my youth spent running through the woods. A stick was the only toy I needed, since it served as a toy gun. The fellow children in the neighborhood also had the opportunity to play as boys do. We threw lawn darts, had pocket knives as toys and tools, we went into the woods and shot at each other with BB guns, had slingshots, rode in cars without seat belts or air bags, and wore large Buck knives on our hips to school every day just as in the show, "The Dukes of Hazzard". Young boys played with toy trucks, moved dirt with the assistance of Tonka, dug for worms, caught bullfrogs, and caught fish with our own fishing poles. Nowadays, children are told that catching fish is cruel, that every pocket knife is a dangerous weapon rather than a tool, that toy guns lead to violence, and we put children in booster seats with a paranoid guarantee of certain death. Children get suspended from school for drawing pictures of guns, carrying nail clippers, or making a joke about physical violence.

Would we have been able to fight World War II if little boys were never allowed to play with toy guns, wrestle, play physically demanding games and athletics, and only kept them sheltered from any and all harm? I doubt it highly. We would have had such a sniveling bunch of sissies masquerading as men that I doubt we could have ever had the resolve to win a war. It is that same "sissification" of American children today that has undermined the entire war effort in Iraq and Afghanistan. I have heard many comments made by our soldiers that they just want to be able to win. The major proponents of a sissy-boy approach have opposed the sending of more troops into Iraq but later had to admit that the "surge" tactic has worked effectively.

Remember, I was not in favor of the war in Iraq. I did not agree that Iraq was a threat to our national security and wanted a formal declaration of war before any invasion. Sure, I thought that Hussein was an evil dictator that needed to be toppled, that Iraq did and still does have weapons of mass destruction (fighter jets were just found buried under sand dunes this past week), and that there may even have been a connection between Iraq and the events of September 11, 2001. Fortunately, the men and women we sent into harm's way were not sissies and were able to get the job done and continue to do so. However, when I read the repeated rhetoric of opposition to all things Bush, I want to scream. I personally am no fan of George W. Bush and am glad that his eight years is coming to an end. However, I do give credit where credit is due. I would rather have had "W" on duty than Al Gore on September 12th, 2001 and forward.

The Sissification of America, or as I have often called it, The Wussification of America, is something that greatly disturbs me. I have heard it said by one popular Raleigh preacher years ago that "girls are not just long haired boys". The reverse is also true. Boys are not just short haired girls. Men and women are created differently. I know that is news to some, but for the six thousand years of recorded history, we have already known this fact. Let boys become men and girls become women. Boys are male by birth, but become men by choice. Girls are naturally female, but become women by choice, and hopefully, ladies.

If we do not take control of the simple fact that we need men and women, not some unisex sissies in this country, I can see that our nation will falter in our families, our communities, our governments, and eventually, our sovereignty. I don't know about y'all, but I am going to do my part to see that youngsters upon whom I have influence know, appreciate, and practice the difference between men and women and don't become sissies.