All this talk about schools and charities shouldn't be limited to BSA. The following is a copy of a letter my wife sent out to the schools this week concerning a problem from last year. As much as I want to say here it is without comment; I can't. Read the third paragraph carefully. In the BSA case I think the Supreme Court ruling was for the same reasons. Ken Nelson Longfellow Neighborhood To All It May Concern: A few days in front of Halloween, my daughter, Eva Nelson, brought home a box for collection of coins. It was for U.N.I.C.E.F., a charity of long standing. "Trick-or-Treat for U.N.I.C.E.F." was a common way of raising funds for the organization even in the days of my youth. However, upon questioning my daughter about what she was doing and why, she was only able to give me a brief explanation that "there were starving children in the south". That, in my opinion, was incomplete information. As a parent I was appalled by the obviously misleading and foolish assumption that somehow the south had the only starving children in America. Statistic bear out differing data than that supplied to my daughter as a justification of collection of monies. We may look no further than the neighborhood schools to actually find children who are nutritionally "at risk". I find it curious that such mythological data is spoon fed to children who may well be needing the very charity for which they are asked to contribute. Equally appalling is the presumption of the staff in general, and Karen Utter as former U.N.I.C.E.F. fund raising chair in particular, that they have the right to choose which charity is appropriate for students to financially support. I am of the opinion that we, as a society on the whole, are lacking in the arena of social responsibility. However, this does not permit the schools, or any agent thereof, to dictate how or to whom my charitable contribution, or that of any child, should be garnered. No one should have the right to usurp my parental values, or impose their own questionable values on children in their keeping. However well intended it may be, I can only view such attempts to sway young school children to collect money as morally wrong. Especially in the light that no parents were informed that such presentations were to take place. No information was supplied to parents in regard to the character of the charity, either before or after the fact. No permission was granted or even asked for before or after such presentations. In essence, solicitation of fundraising in such a manner only serves to prey on the vulnerability and innocence of children with no balance of parental participation. As a parent with the well being of children in mind, I champion the cause of parental rights over situations such as these. It is my intent that common sense and respect will win out: not the knee-jerk middle class guilt that governed such a poorly thought out fundraising fiasco. Sincerely, Jean Brown Seward Parent __________________________________________________ Do You Yahoo!? Yahoo! Photos - 35mm Quality Prints, Now Get 15 Free! http://photos.yahoo.com/
