Give It Up!

Living in Texas has always been something of a challenge, but probably no more so than in any other state. Life can get oversized no matter where one lives. But for the people in Nebraska, one less worry may have been semi-solved. Got a wired teenager who is out of control? Give the little twerp up to the state of Nebraska. Dump his/her fanny out at the local hospital and no one will even say anything unless you have been leaving bruises on that fanny trying to keep the kid on the straight and narrow.

So far no one—as far as I know—has taken them up on the offer, but it may just be a matter of time. I really think that this is a little like the part of the Old Testament that says that if the parents can’t control their child, they may bring him/her before the elders and state their case. Then the child can be stoned by one and all. Pretty drastic. But then so is the Nebraska law.

Had I lived in the time when stoning one’s child was considered the last resort, I would have been ashamed to think that I was not enough of a parent to love and correct the ornery kid into some semblance of orderliness. I suspect that the parents in Nebraska may have the same thought patterns. At least a child would be safer in state custody than with parents who have totally lost all perspective on family—or human—relations.

Then there is still that little speck of interest I feel toward the parents in Harrold, Texas. According to the news, the parents feel that their children are safer with a few gun-toting teachers than with someone coming into the school to take care of a grudge. And today a friend of mine reminded me that he was deputized by a city in New Mexico so that he could arrest unruly students way up on the mountain where he taught years ago. Now John is so soft spoken that it would amaze me to see him angry enough to raise his voice, but he assured me that years ago he could swing a paddle pretty well. And kids back then carried guns in their trucks.

Ok, take the ornery ones from any state and dump them off in Nebraska, and then guard the borders of all the other states with guns when the folks from Nebraska start shipping them back to us!