Has Parental Logic Crossed the Line, Along With Kids?

For the good of the social order, I pose the following: What kind of parents sign a note so their underage children can go to Tijuana over spring break?

Are there really parents whose role model is Al Bundy (the dyspeptic dad on “Married With Children”)?

Maybe these are the same parents who encourage their pubescent daughters to attend the Over-the-Line tournament on Fiesta Island. (“Wear something skimpy, honey, so the beach wastrels can ogle you.”).

Or let their sons drink a few beers and try to scale the cliffs at Black’s Beach in La Jolla. (“Life Flight rescue. Film at 11.”).

Be real. Teens going south of the border for a big-party weekend are interested in flesh, alcohol and other controlled substances. Forget cross-cultural enrichment.

The average teen-age boy, his hormones at full throttle, is searching for the skin emporiums of Zona del Norte, not the Christian Science reading room.

Mindful of this, the San Diego Police Department is blocking any youth under age 18 from crossing the border without a note from his/her parents.

About 130 noteless youths were turned back last weekend. More are expected before the note rule ends next Sunday.

Still, a dozen or so actually had notes and were waved through. Alas, the police did not keep the notes and therefore it is not possible to run the names of these pushover parents.

Maybe a crusading television reporter--Geraldo, are you listening?--will hunt them down and expose them: faces and voices electronically disguised, of course.

So what do you say to teens who beg, whine, plead, all-the-kids-are-doing-it, to get a parental OK to traipse to Tijuana?

I suggest the philosophic proposition: “Life can never be exactly like we want it to be.”

Any culturally attuned baby-boomer-turned-parent will recognize the citation: The Shirelles, “Dedicated to the One I Love,” 1959.

As true now as then.

Political Shenanigans

The political whirl.

* The flap between Rep. Duke Cunningham (R-San Diego) and his defeated predecessor, Jim Bates, over casework files is over, sort of.

After Cunningham took over in January, he found that file cabinets with constituent complaints (lost Social Security checks, veterans’ claims, etc.), had been removed from the San Diego office he inherited from Bates.

Now, a former Bates staffer has delivered 15 cardboard boxes of constituent files. The actual cabinets, though, are still MIA.

* An investigator from the Fair Political Practices Commission this week interviewed the Rev. George Stevens about his complaint regarding San Diego Councilman Wes Pratt.

Stevens alleges that Pratt improperly used his city staff for political purposes: by sending them door-to-door in Oak Park and Encanto with flyers extolling Pratt’s achievements.

Stevens is challenging Pratt in the fall primary.

* John Brand, would-be replacement for Councilwoman Linda Bernhardt, will run television commercials in the final days before next Tuesday’s recall election: the only candidate to do so.

Among the programs Brand will target is a cable show aimed at Vietnamese-Americans. He figures it’s a good way to reach new voters in Linda Vista and Mira Mesa.

* North County bumper sticker: “Recall Everybody.”

A Pal in the Pen

Truth in advertising.

It’s common for inmates to put ads in the newspaper seeking pen pals.

But the ad placed in Sunday’s Times by Mark Winston, an inmate at the County Jail in downtown San Diego, was worded a bit differently:

“SWM (single white male), 34, inmate, tall, lean, muscular, n-smkr/drugs, honest , caring, thoughtful, sharing, with w/variety of interests, knowledge & skills, sgl mom ok, make my day so I can make yours . . . “

Honest?

That’s open to interpretation.

Winston is awaiting sentencing for forgery, bad checks and three counts of burglary.