‘Agenda for the Next Generation’

Although U.S. political principles are inaccurately taught in today’s schools, anyone who is willing to refer back to those upon which our nation was founded will learn that the purpose of the government is to protect the rights of the individual--not to guarantee life’s sustenance. Unless we wish to redefine that purpose to the provision of others, our country should not have a cohesive plan for the health and education of children who do not belong to society at large but rather to individual parents.

The message behind the collectivized solutions suggested in the editorial is clear: People need not be responsible for their own decisions and lives. The long-term implications of this are grim: Economic and moral dependency on government and society will result in a total lack of individual incentive, responsibility, and self-worth for the recipients, and necessarily involves a complete denial of the individual rights of the subsidizers.

In fact, we are “failing our children” by evading the fact that the proper role of parents is to provide them with an ethical code that will enable them to lead productive and happy lives, teaching them values such as pride, individualism, independence, and integrity. Only from these values do young people see the virtue and benefit of claiming responsibility for their own lives. Parents--not the community, schools, or state--are responsible for their decision to have children, as well as their upbringing and human development.

JAYNE SAYLER DEVENS

Los Angeles