Mayoral Consideration on smacking

---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: Blair Anderson <mildgreens@gmail.com>
Date: Sep 12, 2007 11:33 PM
Subject: Re: Mayoral Consideration
To: Natashia <natashiad@gmail.com>

re: my opinion on anti-smacking.

 

First can i say, as  i kid I had my arse whupped more than once... most of the time i had it coming !! An old WWI 'folded double' army belt. It left welts. They lasted for days... My Dad would be in jail were he judged by today's standard. He was a good man and an excellent father.

 

It may come as some surprise that (as a candidate for mayor) I fully understand why your concerns are raised at the local level, I believe that it is communities that direct central government not the other way around. I do a lot in drug policy, both legal and illegal. I use a high policy analytic standard to formulate a position on this vexing subject. I have to. The issues surrounding drug use as with other biopsychosocial issues surrounding raising kids are complex. There will always be a diverse range of views. I am mindful of where this intersects 'policy' and where the measured outcomes across a range of public health parameters that measure of the wellness of a community. 

 

Our ability to get best outcomes stem from empowered parents and community. The Netherlands is one such example. Youth suicide, teen pregnancy, trouble with the law, sexually transmitted diseases and early entry into drug use are atypically 1/5th in any one age grouping across the teen demographic. Puzzled by this seemingly succesful social outcome I subsequently came across an excellent paper on the subject of disenfranchised parental guidance titled.  

 

Doing it for The Children: The drug war against local control and parental responsibility " There may soon come a time when conservatives ask how national drug policy became a proxy war on parental rights" Independance Institute, http://www.i2i.org  

I came to the realisation that usurping parental guidance to the state had negative an deleterious consequences for us all. We all pay the burden of failure but none more so than each and every tragedy the befalls the individual families that are weakened by the destructive and insidious 'nanny state' professing to know whats best for you, and you and you,  and which remains unanswerable to policy failure. (in drug policy, we are yet to do a cost - benefit analysis despite the policy by any standard, evidently failing to deliver the desired result.)

 

Thank you for your interesting question. I am happy to speak to it in any forum you might like to suggest. I know these views are quite the opposite of the likes of Celia Lashley and Norm Hewitt who addressed the Mayors forum, but then it was Garry Moore who declared to all the Mayors assembled at the civic chambers, that I had nothing to add to the debate. Instead we gathered an assemblage of supportive views at the Town Hall and called it a success. 

 

 I would hate to see how they measure failure if the current youth outcomes are posited as a success.

 

In order to correct this trend we have to have the required debate in the community and wrest control back to, and empower, those who are ultimately responsible for the outcomes. Parents. 

 

/Blair

 

On 9/12/07, Natashia <natashiad@gmail.com> wrote:

Good day.

I am writing to you to enquire about what your thoughts are on the "anti-smacking" bill recently passed by parliament. I am very concerned about this bill and this would be the deciding factor in my choice for who to vote for mayor.

I am reasonably happy with how our city is run. I know that the anti-smacking bill is a national government issue but it is important for me to know what the personal opinion of our mayoral candidates are, in regards to this matter.  As I'm sure you are aware this is a very sensitive issue but one I feel very strongly about.

I look forward to your replies.

Kind regards,

Natashia du Plessis

 

'Mayor Blair' Anderson  ‹(•¿•)›

http://blairformayor.blogspot.com
http://blair4mayor.com

ph (643) 389 4065   cell 027 265 7219