Letters: What happened to telling kids 'No?'

Photo / Jason Oxenham

I engaged in a post today about the government funding of pRep, a preventative treatment against the disease of HIV, derived mainly from promiscuous homosexual and bisexual behaviour, which, because of bisexualism, as also impacts promiscuous heterosexuals.

To paraphrase, the spirit of the attitude amidst the plethora of ignorant comments on the subject was the ideology of 'They are going to do it anyway,' so best to fund the treatment to prevent disease. This resonated with me in terms of a broader prevailing attitude among Kiwis in regards to our dysfunctional way of not addressing issues on a wider social, legal and political scale.

Rather than being constructively and effectively proactive, it seems we have resigned ourselves as a nation to set the bar low, inviting, promoting, and it seems almost daring, wishing and wanting our people to live not up to the bar, not over it, but beneath it, ever so a little lower as time goes on.

Why? Could it be an underlying ideology, a floored and destructive fallacy that asserts, 'They are going to anyway?' Therefore…

Give pPrep, give em Gardasil, because they're going to do it anyway.

Give them condoms, give 'em the pill, because they're going to anyway.

Give them booze, bring it home, drink it here underage, because they're going to anyway.

Give them free needles to exchange, because they're going to anyway.

Give them support for the brothels, because they're going to anyway.

Give them drugs, weed and what have you eventually, because they are going to anyway.

Give them food, give them housing, give them a free ride, because they're going to do it anyway.

Give 'em the car keys, let 'em joy ride, because they are going to anyway.

Give them home detention, soft sentencing, or just let 'em off the hook, because they are going to anyway.

Give them drugs, cars, sex, a noose, a knife, euthanasia, what the heck-ever, because they're going to anyway.

OTT, you think? Am I embellishing the point? Or is there something wrong with this picture? What happened to the good authority, good parenting? Good leadership?

When did we start letting the tail wag the dog as a nation? When did we quit believing in the potential of people to stand up, step up and raise the bar? Have we just got lazy, ignorant, or is it that we have been duped or bewitched by an evil ideology hell-bent on our people's destruction? Or are there just plain stupid people reigning in position of great influence and power?

Perhaps we are a nation of cowards, gutless wonders who just don't have the spine, or the love and concern to step up, stand up, and say 'No. You're not going to do it anyway. 'No, you don't have to do it anyway,' and 'Yes, we will do everything thing in our power to stop you, make it uncomfortable for you, even lovingly painful for you if you try to do it anyway.

And 'Yes, we will make it even more painful for you if you do it anyway in the hope that you will not do It again.'

This is the tough love of loving leadership, of good authority, of good parenting that has been lost.

Wreck yourself with loose sex, with drink, with drugs, with unbridled freedom and experimentation. Go ahead and kill yourselves, because you're going to do it anyway. We won't stop you, we won't smack you when you're young, we won't restrain you in your teens, we won't punish you even as adults. Who are we to judge you? Be free to destroy yourself.

Really? This is the New Zealand we seem to have; is it the New Zealand we want? Will we continue to have it?

Leadership starts at the top. The top of the country is sick, and needs healing or scuttling, or whatever it takes to see good authority, good leadership, the governance of loving parents from the privacy of the home to the publicity of government. We need good authority that is willing to go through the pain for the gain with and for all the people who live in this once proud, safe, free, loving and glorious nation that used to be called Godzone.

It's 'They're going to do it anyway,' or it's time to step up, stand up, and say for the love of all who dwell in this land, 'No. You're not!'

CARL BROMLEY

Husband, Dad, Kiwi

Christchurch