Wiltonians voted today against the sale of beer in Wilton grocery stores. According to official election results, the initiative was defeated 1,525 to 1,153! Voter turnout was low, with 2,678 residents voting. That's just over 24% of registered voters.
In my eyes, this issue was really a battle against Ancona Wines and Liquors, a local company that has been part of the community for almost 90 years, by retail food giant Stop 'n' Shop, a foreign owned company. Stop 'n' Shop is owned by Ahold (in full Koninklijke Ahold N.V.), a major international supermarket operator based in Amsterdam, Netherlands.
It was Wilton's Stop 'n' Shop that initiated a petition to allow the beer sales question to appear on the ballot. For weeks, shoppers were encouraged to sign the petition in the name of "customer convenience." The petition was signed by 1,185 of the town's 11,006 registered voters.
To further encourage voters to allow Stop 'n' Shop to encroach on Ancona's and other local retailer's beer sales, the food giant took out a full page ad in the Wilton Villager and did a mailing to every Wilton resident encouraging a vote for beer sales in "grocery" stores in the name of "customer convenience."
It is refreshing to see that Wiltonians chose to block the Stop 'n' Shop initiative and allow our local merchants to continue with their good service and fair prices.
Citizens of Wilton would have gained absolutely nothing by permitting the sale of beer in Stop 'n' Shop and the two other food markets within Wilton's borders.
The last thing we need is to hurt our local merchants in these economically troubled times.
Tuesday, November 8, 2011
Thursday, April 14, 2011
A strong and loving bond between family members becomes its own moral discipline . . .
An advocate of parental love once wrote that humil- iations, spankings and beatings, slaps in the face, betrayal, sexual exploitation, derision, neglect, etc. are all forms of mistreatment, because they injure the integrity and dignity of a child, even if their conse- quences are not visible right away.
Even after they become adults, most abused kids will be wounded — and will wound others — because of their early experiences. They will suffer and will let others suffer. Often the violence and shame produce a Hitler or a Saddam Hussein. Cruel adults have cruel backgrounds who mindlessly transfer their own childhood humiliations and spanking onto others — even onto other nations.
Science shows that early in life children who are beaten have to deal with what they endured. Most of them, it seems, later almost "glorify it" and pass it on to their own children or to others.
They begin to tell themselves the narrative that they were actually beaten out of love! They believe they deserved being hit or humiliated because they them- selves endured and learned violence without being able to question it. People that routinely spank their children often feel grateful to their own parents who mistreated them when they were small and defenseless.
This is why parents and society remain so ignorant. Pain and destruction are seen in every generation as normal, or even "good." Mercy has been trampled by "justice" which becomes nothing more than redemptive violence. Violence which somehow makes us better because destroying / abusing the scapegoat is a divinely-inspired action.
And we all tolerate it because we all ignore it.
When small children are smacked during the first three years of life, it is a time when they are beginning to walk and to touch and explore objects in the wider world. And this all happens at exactly the time when the brain is open to learn kindness, truthfulness, and love.
The first place we all learn cruelty, domination of others and lying comes from one place and one place alone: the family, the behavior of the parent.
It is no accident that Jesus of Nazareth made so many savage attacks on family values and made them very, very often.
A strong and loving bond between family members becomes its own moral discipline and becomes some- thing the growing child can always relate to, even in the midst of the outer world's cruelty.
As long as parents feel forced to spank and abuse — whether by their own emotions or by society at large — they will feel helpless and will be unaware of any other alternatives to teach, nurture and raise their children.
Even after they become adults, most abused kids will be wounded — and will wound others — because of their early experiences. They will suffer and will let others suffer. Often the violence and shame produce a Hitler or a Saddam Hussein. Cruel adults have cruel backgrounds who mindlessly transfer their own childhood humiliations and spanking onto others — even onto other nations.
Science shows that early in life children who are beaten have to deal with what they endured. Most of them, it seems, later almost "glorify it" and pass it on to their own children or to others.
They begin to tell themselves the narrative that they were actually beaten out of love! They believe they deserved being hit or humiliated because they them- selves endured and learned violence without being able to question it. People that routinely spank their children often feel grateful to their own parents who mistreated them when they were small and defenseless.
This is why parents and society remain so ignorant. Pain and destruction are seen in every generation as normal, or even "good." Mercy has been trampled by "justice" which becomes nothing more than redemptive violence. Violence which somehow makes us better because destroying / abusing the scapegoat is a divinely-inspired action.
And we all tolerate it because we all ignore it.
When small children are smacked during the first three years of life, it is a time when they are beginning to walk and to touch and explore objects in the wider world. And this all happens at exactly the time when the brain is open to learn kindness, truthfulness, and love.
The first place we all learn cruelty, domination of others and lying comes from one place and one place alone: the family, the behavior of the parent.
It is no accident that Jesus of Nazareth made so many savage attacks on family values and made them very, very often.
A strong and loving bond between family members becomes its own moral discipline and becomes some- thing the growing child can always relate to, even in the midst of the outer world's cruelty.
As long as parents feel forced to spank and abuse — whether by their own emotions or by society at large — they will feel helpless and will be unaware of any other alternatives to teach, nurture and raise their children.
— James Warren ( Apr. 9, 2011 )
Sunday, February 13, 2011
Parent's Rights
Many people pose the question: "Why should the government interfere with how parents bring up their children? After all, isn't it a parent's right as to how they choose to raise their children?"
One of the primary roles of government is protection of the rights of citizens, and the 14th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution promises equal protection under the law. But, if you are familiar with history, you are aware that true equal protection has evolved gradually. Looking back, we can remember times when certain citizens did not qualify as equal.
For example, wives used to be legally assaulted and battered by their husbands. It was referred to as a family squabble not domestic violence. These assaults were considered a private matter, trivial and a subject for comedy. The law did not presume to invade the sanctuary of the home and tell married folks how to manage their disagreements.
At an earlier time, apprentices could be physically punished by their employers, sailors could be flogged, prison inmates could be whipped by guards and military recruits could be beaten by their trainers. And at an even earlier time, it was standard procedure for field bosses to whip slaves working in the cotton fields.
All that has changed. Well, almost all. In the United States, at this time, there remains only one "whippable" class of citizen: children!
Hopefully, before long, the U.S. will join the rest of the civilized world in closing the legal loophole that allows assault and battery of the young. Thirty-one countries have already done so, and others are soon to join.
In 1989, the U.N. Convention on the Rights of the Child was established to promote the legal rights of citizens under the age of 18. The only member nations not to have signed are the United States and Somalia.
What's our problem?
_________________________________
For more on the issue of children and their rights, visit www.nospank.net
For example, wives used to be legally assaulted and battered by their husbands. It was referred to as a family squabble not domestic violence. These assaults were considered a private matter, trivial and a subject for comedy. The law did not presume to invade the sanctuary of the home and tell married folks how to manage their disagreements.
At an earlier time, apprentices could be physically punished by their employers, sailors could be flogged, prison inmates could be whipped by guards and military recruits could be beaten by their trainers. And at an even earlier time, it was standard procedure for field bosses to whip slaves working in the cotton fields.
All that has changed. Well, almost all. In the United States, at this time, there remains only one "whippable" class of citizen: children!
Hopefully, before long, the U.S. will join the rest of the civilized world in closing the legal loophole that allows assault and battery of the young. Thirty-one countries have already done so, and others are soon to join.
In 1989, the U.N. Convention on the Rights of the Child was established to promote the legal rights of citizens under the age of 18. The only member nations not to have signed are the United States and Somalia.
What's our problem?
_________________________________
For more on the issue of children and their rights, visit www.nospank.net
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