I've got no
kids, but I got a fourth-cousin-twice-removed who does, so I got a little
family-
values education from her. Though I still don't know why she found "
Beavis and Butthead"
objectionable (Really, I don't. There's more
violence on
cop shows, more
sex on "
Friends", more
cussing on "
ER", and more
idiocy on the
evening news), I do understand why she blocked
MTV on the family
television: way too many pro-
alcohol moments during the
Spring Break specials. I mean, what's MTV's primary
audience?
College students? Or
impressionable pre-teens?
Anyway, the greatest
objection to the
stereotypical "
family values"
candidate or
organization is that they push a very
narrow definition of "family" -- a
mother, a
father, and some
kids, all belonging to a
fundamentalist Christian church -- and that they often
demonize families that do not fit their
rigid definition. Additionally, they have been known to
designate issues like
abortion,
arts funding,
music and
television censorship, and
civil rights as "family values"
issues, when they clearly have
nothing to do with families.
Actually, real family values do not
conform to any
political party's
agenda. The best
defenders of family values are families themselves. Something that
important should not be turned over to a bunch of
politicians.