By: Phil Williams
My wife is so sharp. Recently, we were discussing world events and the tepid response of the Biden administration. Watching this administration dither, equivocating on this, apologizing for that, inclusive here, exclusive there. She said that a pundit had asked in regard to Biden, “Where is the moral outrage?” My wife’s response was epic, saying, “Well, you’ve got to have morals before you can have moral outrage.” Nailed it!
There is not a sense of morality coming from the White House right now. I’m not talking about so-called “inclusivity.” I’m not talking about earnest beliefs. I’m talking about morality. The actual ability to differentiate between right and wrong. To know that some decisions or actions, regardless of your personal desires, may be immoral if pursued incorrectly.
I can decide that something is worth doing, yet still be immoral if I steal your money to get it done. I can decide that I think something is important yet still be immoral if I force you against your will to take part in it. I can decide that I think that kids should know things, but I am immoral if I force those beliefs over the wishes of the parents. Yet this is where we are. And the case in point is the Biden administration’s recent surreptitious effort to engage kids in transgender ideology. Posing as one thing, the government became another.
Do you remember the classic 1968 movie Chitty Chitty Bang Bang? As a kid, I loved that movie except for one character that really creeped me out. He was simply known as the “child catcher.” He wore a long, colorful coat and a crumpled, black top hat. With stringy hair and a long pointed nose, he skipped and skulked with hands full of candy, ringing a little bell and calling for children. He promised delightful treats, if they would just step into his wagon. He was a full-on child trafficker with hands full of sweets, and, yes, he was creepy.
But the child catcher became creepier when you realized that his deception was sponsored by the government. The king himself employed the child catcher, and he took pride in stealing people’s children. So let me tell you of a subtle child catcher of today.
In 1992, Congress enacted the Synar Amendment requiring states to pass legislation to prohibit the sale of tobacco to minors. Over time, all states enacted their own youth-tobacco laws, but in a never-ending effort to prove its self-worth, the federal government decided it must further regulate the matter.
The Centers for Disease Control (CDC) began conducting the annual National Youth Tobacco Survey (NYTS) with the target audiences being middle school and high school students, ostensibly to gauge effectiveness. No problem. Just about kids views on smoking, right?
In recent years, activists masquerading as government bureaucrats realized they had a golden opportunity. Why not use that existing survey as a vehicle to get to kids on other things as well? It’s for the greater good, right? Except that they lacked the moral foundation to do so.
Government sponsored activists then co-opted the NYTS and began using it to give instructive descriptions with follow-on questions about transgenderism among minors.
This deception begins with Form 0920-0621 (the actual designation of the NYTS) which starts with the disclaimer: “This survey is about tobacco. We would like to know about you and things you do that may affect your health. Your answers will be used for programs for young people like yourself.” Sounds innocent enough.
But according to an article from Just the News, the CDC made a recent “Non-substantive change request” to update existing questions on a variety of topics including “questions/answer choices on sexual orientation and gender identity (including non-binary).”
Changes then made to the 2023 version of the survey for middle and high schoolers ask students about their thoughts on transgenderism and their own sexual identity. The new survey reads, “Some people describe themselves as transgender and/or nonbinary when the way they think or feel about their gender is different from their sex assigned at birth,” followed by “Do you identify as transgender and/or nonbinary?”
It gets worse with the next question, which is also NOT about tobacco. “Sexual orientation is a person’s emotional, romantic, and/or sexual attraction to another person, there are many ways a person can describe their sexual orientation and many labels a person can use. Which of these options best describes your sexual orientation?” at that point it then asks 6th graders if they are “straight or heterosexual,” “gay or lesbian,” “bisexual, pansexual, or queer” or “asexual.”
We have hit the next level in first-world madness. Using one pretext (that of tobacco use) the government has allowed transgender activism to deceive its way into an otherwise innocuous survey given to kids. If you have to lie to get in the door, then you don’t have a moral position to begin with. This is the creepy child catcher in another form.
Pretending to be virtuous, even Congressionally mandated, the NYTS morphs quickly into something far more sinister as it not only pries into the inner thoughts of confused kids but first instructs them (perhaps even confuses them) and all with an air of government backed authority.
“It’s okay, many people believe thus and so, and so can you, you can believe that way, we’re from the government and we’re here to help.” It is the manifestation of the creepy child catcher; that immoral deceiver and prideful kidnapper doing what his government sent him to do.
So back to the question of moral outrage. My wife was right; you have to have actual morals before you can have moral outrage, and what I see from this current administration tells me that they don’t qualify.
The moral outrage should be on our end.
By: Phil Williams
April 19, 2024
