The Role of Government?...

The HSLDA Court Report for March / April has a cover story titled, Battleground New Jersey: Homeschoolers fight the "child abuse" link. The article recounts the events in New Jersey with regards to the alleged starvation of four adopted children in a state-approved foster home. Visits by social workers to the home, because it was enrolled in the foster parent program, had not revealed any problems. Instead of investigating the efficiency of New Jersey's Division of Youth and Family Services (DYFS), legislators instead chose to effectively turn the blame on the practice of homeschooling. N. J. Assemblywoman Loretta Weinberg introduced a bill that would have imposed new regulations on homeschoolers. Homeschoolers througout the state responded in force with a clear message to the legislature that the failure of the DYFS was not the fault of homeschooling and that the answer was not to increase regulations on homeschoolers. Despite the response, Assemblywoman Weinberg attempted to sneak the bill in during the final few days of the New Jersey legislature's session. Over 200 homeschoolers showed up at the state house on the last day of the session to ensure that their voice was heard. It was, and the bill did not pass. Undeterred, Assemblywoman Weinberg has reintroduced the bill for the 2004 session. Why this little rant on Weinberg? Consider what she said in an interview televised on February 12, 2004:

Parents don't own their children and we in society have certain responsibilities just to make sure all our kids are safe—and that's all this is about.

So there you have it parents - straight from the horse's mouth. If we, as parents, don't own our children then who does? The State? Society? A village? If our culture wants to redefine marriage to mean something it has never meant, then why not apply the same logic to the definition of what being a parent means? or being a child? or even who truly owns our children?