Honesty

A bear can only be poked so many times before it wakes up and looks you in the eye. You can only taunt him for so long until he takes a swipe at you. And in this case, my friends, this mama bear has been poked and taunted too many times. And so, as any good mama bear does to protect her young, the claws are out and swinging.

In case you follow my blog regularly, you'll have noticed by now that I have been silent for a very long time. To be honest, there are many posts that are in the editing stage, but when I started to review the content, I realized that every single post has negative things to say . Such is my way of thinking at the moment. Frustration, stress, sleeplessness, anger, and irritability all boil down to one single thing: a lack of control. In the fight for marriage equality and a greener earth, there is one fight that we seem to have forgotten. A fight that, for me, has become of the utmost importance since becoming a mother. We seem to have forgotten the fight for the innocence and safety of our children.

I can't control the people who choose to text while driving, endangering their own lives and the lives of others on the road, including those of my kids. I can't control the fact that sexual expression has overrun our society, to the point where kids as young as 7  these days find it halarious to post humiliating videos of their enemies, purposely getting them naked and in compromising positions, and then sending it to a web site for all to see, or hearing a 6 year old talking about his daddy's porn collection while his 4 year old brother is gyrating on the patio to "I'm sexy and I know it". I can't control that song S&M by Rihanna seems to play on repeat at certain grocery stores, despite it's X rated lyrics and the fact that the singer herself was surprised it got airplay.  I can't control the fact that during class a teacher will show an online video of a lunatic killing, having sex with, mutilating and then eating his victim. I can't control the fact that all around us children are being exposed to things so sinister, so dark, so disgusting, and parents just shrug their shoulders and say, "Oh well, it was bound to happen. Oh well, you know, boys will be boys. Oh well, kids can be cruel. Oh well, they need to learn to toughen up. Oh well, you just need to do a better job as a parent."

I ask you, WHAT IN THE HECK ARE WE DOING TO OUR CHILDREN?????  In the fight for freedom of expression, freedom to do whatever we like, to be entertained, to post whatever tickles our fancy, freedom to explore our deepest darkest desires, our children are the ones being burned. Our children are the ones that will have seen 100,000 murders on television before they turn 18. Our children are the ones that will have porn images burned into their brains for the rest of their lives, affecting their future relationships and jobs (see the Mcleans article on men and porn if you don't believe me) Our children are the ones that are learning to bully others from what they are shown from the adults. We can't even watch a hockey game without teaching our children that fist fights are exciting, or that the only way to have fun is to get drunk while dancing around practically naked, and that you can only wear that bikini if you look hot, and that looking hot is where you get your sense of identity from. That you are only valued if you are good in bed. That if you choose to with only one person in your life, you shall be mocked, jeered, and humiliated for wanting to keep beautiful something so intimate. Forget that the legal age for consent is 16; from the time our kids are babies they are being exposed to sexual images, lyrics, and the idea that life IS sex (and dirty naughty sex at that), not that sex is just a beautiful PART of life.

In a world where an episode of the Kardashians sums up everything our culture seems to strive for, we have cheapened our children's lives. We are cheapening our own lives. I can't even take my kids to the grocery store without them seeing magazines with dead or naked people on the cover, articles screaming in bold letters "His Wildest Sex fantasies come to life!", the drugs, the scandals. I can't go to a family restaurant without the "Dr Love" store that moved in beside it have their display window full of sex toys and giant wall sized images of naughty nurses right next to the restaurant door.  I can't let my kids run and play outside by themselves because of the knowledge that the little 6 year old, when innocently playing doctor, is going to act out what he's seen on the computer on another unsuspecting little child.

Frankly, I am sick of it. I've been pushed to the brink of fed-upness. I hate the feeling that everywhere I turn, my impressionable little ones are being fed false messages of worth and value and being exposed to adult activities much too early. Sure, I could move to a cave. I could keep my kids inside all day, never venturing out in the light of day. But I don't want to. I want to be a contributing part of society. I want that for my kids. I want to be able to take them to the store and teach them how to count, what foods to buy, and what to look for on the labels. I want to be able to have an evening out with my family at a restaurant. I want my kids to be able to play with the neighbours. But I want this without their senses being ASSAULTED by damaging images of adult activities and false messages of worth.

And so, today, I'm out to warn you that I am on a war path. Call me a prude. Call me a cow. Call me unenlightened. Call me overprotective. Call me unsatisfied.  I don't care. My JOB is to protect the innocence of my impressionable kids. To help them to grow up to be kind, loving, honest individuals who get their self worth from being a child of God and not how some random person rates their looks on a sexiness scale of 1 to 10. To teach my kids that every single person is of equal value in the eyes of God, and that our hands are to heal, not destroy. Our mouths are to speak truth and love, not jealousy and spiteful words. That even when we are hurt, our actions must remain kind.  That life is not fair, but in the unfairness there is beauty. That true beauty comes from a pure heart. 

To the grocery stores, I am boycotting you until you put covers on those magazines and start playing G-rated music. Farmers markets, here I come! To the MPs, I am asking you to create laws prohibiting gore and sexual humiliation sites. I'm also asking that it be made a crime to watch child porn from live streaming, not from just possessing it. To all the adults, I'm asking you to think. Think long and hard about what your freedom of expression is doing to our children. Is it worth all the hurt and pain in their lives?  The depravity that our kids are beginning to manifest? To the parents, I'm asking you to start fighting for your children. Start fighting for their right to innocence. Start fighting for their protection. Start teaching them right from wrong. Start teaching them that each person counts.

 It only takes a small stone to start an avalanche, and that is what I'm hoping to do.

There. I'm not done my rant by any means. Like I said, mama bear has awoken and the paws are swinging. Please help me in my fight to keep our kids innocence for as long as we can. For their RIGHT to innocence.  If you do feel the same way, (and I KNOW that I am not the only one), start writing letters to your MP and your local stores.  Together, we CAN change the course of society, at least for our children's sake.

Thank you.