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HOUSTON DAILY JOURNAL Guns of August, missiles, rockets and IBD's of July July 2006 may prove to be a signal, era-shaping month in 21st-century history. Sensationalists, fear mon gers, defeatists and terror ists prefer predictions of catastrophe and disaster. On the surface, last month looks like a violent disaster, an August 1914, with this July’s missiles, rockets and improvised explosive devices replacing the guns of that terrible August. August 1914 began World War I. World War I seeded World War 11, which lingered as the Cold War. However, instead of start ing a global conflagration, July 2006 exposed or made explicit key elements of and trends in an ongoing war with global, regional and very local dimensions. Exposure and definition of problems and problem atic actors create diplomatic, political and military oppor tunities - the chance to forge a genuine, more resilient Overly protected children may wow up to be fragile adults By Randy Hicks President of Georgia Family Council In a letter to an Atlanta paper a few years ago, a father related an incident at a school bus-stop that he - and I - found troubling. While waiting with his young child for the school bus one morning he wit nessed a boy beating up another child. Being a responsible adult, he headed over to where the incident was taking place and pulled the offending child off of the cowering and frightened one. He then offered a stern but reasonable admoni tion about appropriate and inappropriate behavior and informed the boy that, next time, he would talk to his parents about his misbehav ior. He assumed that was the end of the story or that the parents of the offending child would thank him for intervening. He was wrong. The next day he was standing with his child at the very same bus stop when the previous day’s trans gressor approached him and dispensed with the follow ing warning. “I told my mom what happened yester day and she says that if you touch me again, she’ll sue.” In his letter, the father expressed both his disap pointment and anger over what had transpired. In essence, he lamented the fact that so many parents go to great lengths to shield their children from the con sequences of their behavior and decisions. In this case, a mother’s ostensible determination to protect her son prompted her to transform his status as perpetrator to that of vic tim. And she did so to her own son’s peril. Not only did she shield him from an important les son about consequences - a lesson we all must learn at some point - she also taught him that she’s there to bail him out whenever he makes bad decisions. If this pattern were to repeat itself over an extend ed period of time that moth er’s actions would have the effect of prolonging adoles cence and stunting the emo tional and social develop ment of her son. In other words, she was in the process of develop ing a lifelong wimp. Or at least, that’s what might be inferred from a Psychology Today article that was pub lished online last week. Now, I want to take a moment and issue a brief disclaimer. I would not rec ommend that you use the word “wimp” to describe your child or anyone else’s. I suspect that the editors of Psychology Today wouldn’t peace. But let’s give the sensa tionalists and defeatists their due. Recall the first week of July: North Korea’s sur prise missile volley jolted Asia and North America. One of the first responses to Pyongyang’s missile tan trum certainly sent a chill through China and other Asian capitals: Japanese leaders suggested recon figuring Japan’s military for offensive operations, to include acquiring offensive missiles capable of destroy ing North Korea’s ballistic missile sites and nuclear weapons program. The mass terror attack in Mumbai, India, was the big story of week two. 7/1 l’s bombs left 200 dead and 800 wounded in the economic capital of the world’s biggest democracy. The Israel-Hezbollah war erased North Korea and Mumbai as the top head lines. Hezbollah’s rockets either. But it is a rather descriptive and appropriate word to describe what’s hap pening as a result of overly protective parenting. The authors suggest that parents are sanitizing child hood, guarding against everything from skinned knees to bruised egos for their children. As a result, kids are shielded from the normal developmental pro cess and from some of the keys to learning how to cope with life’s many challenges - including failure and often painful experiences. The result? Well, the authors tell us that the result is found in overly frag ile young adults who don’t know how to manage their lives or cope with inconve niences, disappointment and hurt. “With few challenges all their own,” the authors say, “kids are unable to forge their creative adaptations to the normal vicissitudes of life. That not only makes them risk-averse it makes them psychologically fragile, riddled with anxiety.” Let me attempt a transla tion for people like me who don’t typically use words like “vicissitudes” - over protected and over-sched uled kids often lack the emo tional stability to deal with the ups and downs of life because mom and/or dad did not allow them to develop the ability to do so. The authors report that even at Harvard University, school officials are bemoan ing the fact that students are so emotionally unstable that it’s “interfering with the core mission of the uni versity.” This isn’t just at Harvard. At campuses across the country, anxiety and depres sion are on the rise. This, in turn, is leading to an increase in highly destructive behav ior like binge-drinking. Other trends the authors see include the following: ■ It’s now more common for kids to participate in organized sports with paren tal oversight, but they are less likely to know how to organize neighborhood pick up games, because they’ve never done it. They’ve never had to. This hinders children from developing the ability to interact and nego tiate with others. ■ The cell phone is creating prolonged child .dependence on adults and stunting deci sion-making ability. Rather than applying acquired val ues and knowledge to any given situation, today’s col lege student is more likely to depend on mom and dad to make decisions. ■ Over-parenting “...can program the nervous system to create lifelong vulnerabil ity to anxiety and depres sion” and lead to extreme self-consciousness. continue to hammer Israel; Israeli bombs strike tar gets throughout Lebanon. Israel now fights a two-front war, against Hezbollah in Lebanon and Hamas in Gaza. Iran, Hezbollah’s finan cier, continued to dodge dip lomatic attempts to end its quest for terror the mass slaughter ofdvilians with an h Austin Bay Military Affairs Creators Syndicate IED and car bomb campaign centered on Baghdad. Iraqi security forces required U.S. and coalition reinforcements in neighborhoods the Iraqi government thought it had secured. Venezuela’s Castro wannabe, Hugo Chavez, Essentially, though they put it this way, the authors are saying that our very efforts - or “extreme” efforts - to program our children for success may actually have the opposite effect. If you’ve read this column on just a few occasions you know that I believe it’s very appropriate for parents to be deeply concerned and protective of their children. I’ve made it clear that I’m often troubled by the care free attitudes of some par ents who provide very little protection and virtually no “guard rails”. But it may be that the pro tection and guard rails are misplaced. Thus, we guard children from normal harms and struggles and provide free access to media and marketers. It would behoove parents, so say the experts inter viewed for the article, “...to abandon the idea of perfec tion and give up some of the invasive control they’ve maintained over their chil dren.” Says social historian Peter Stearns of George Mason University: “Middle-class parents especially assume that if kids start getting into difficulty they need to rush in and do it for them, rather than let them flounder a bit and learn from it. I don’t mean we should abandon them, but give them more credit for figuring things, out.” Georgia Family Council is a non-profit organization that works to strengthen and defend the family in Georgia by impacting communities, shaping laws and influenc ing culture. For more infor mation, go to www.georgia family.org, (770) 242-0001 or greeg@gafam.org. • Vehicle Accident? • Back Pain? • Headache? CHIROPRACTIC HAS HAD GREAT SUCCESS TREATING THESE CONDITIONS -"'Pi 4>li ■ m 'Jf i * mm Dr. Brian Gitlis, D.C. We accept most major insurances and numerous HMO & PPO plans. VISA LOCAL claimed common political cause with Iran’s President Ahmadinejad. So why any optimism? Take the last first. Chavez is an armed nuisance inflated by petrodollars - which makes him a poster boy for everyone advocat ing diversified, alternative energy sources and fuel efficiency. “Chavismo” and Khomeinism link in only one place: the oil market. Now consider China’s and Russia’s response to North Korea’s missiles. China and Russia approved UN sanc tions on North Korea. Those sanctions, tentative as they are, establish a “no go line” for rogue behavior - ultimately applicable to Iran as well. No doubt North Korea embarrassed China, but Japan’s increasing willing ness to share Asian defense burdens with the U.S. tells China it must make some choices. Will Beijing play a mature, responsible role in Parents looking into rights of son Dear Mr. Rockefeller, The police arrested my son, without reading him his rights, what are his rights? Dear Reader, I receive a lot of calls complaining about law enforcement. Most of our officers are dedicated men and women who work very hard, under trying conditions - no one likes being arrested or hav ing our homes searched. And, while most officers work within are more inter- ested in “being the law” * than they are of working within the lim its of the law. Whenever law enforce ment acts, the first ques tion is whether or not there has been arrest; and, if so, the criminal aspects of the incident become para mount, since, typically, you cannot sue for a civil rights violation unless you “beat” the criminal charges. This is not to say that you need an arrest to sue for a civil rights violation, only that, if there is an arrest, the results of the criminal case are critical. Thus, in a case such as your son’s, his first remedy is the “exclu sionary rule,” which pro vides for the suppression of illegal evidence in a criminal case as a remedy for a constitutional viola tion. Recently, however, the United States Supreme Court, in the case of Hudson v. Michigan, seemed to hold that illegal evidence is NOT always WHY ARE YOU SUFFERING, WHEN CARE IS SO CLOSE? If treatment is indicated it could be at little or no cost to you because Workers' Compensation and most insurance companies cover chiropractic care to policy limits. Perry Chiropractic M HEALTH CENTER Call (478) 987-9666 1207 Houston Lake Drive, Perry, Georgia protecting the global trading system? China’s pro-sanc tions vote says at crunch time it will. What do the terrorists have to offer the Third World? Mumbai answered the question for 1 billion Indians: only mass murder. As a political message that’s a historical loser. Anarchism and nihilism do not build wealth. In fact, wealth defeats them. Within a week Mumbai was back to work. It will take decades to stop them, but Mumbai demon strates why terrorists fail. At least terrorists with out nuclear weapons, which brings us to Hezbollah and Iran. The Israel-Hezbollah war reveals Iran and Syria as actively engaged in hijacking an Arab country (Lebanon) as well as firing short-range ballistic missiles at Israel. In the long term, arming and funding Hezbollah will increase at least tacit inter national support for regime change in Damascus and r A Jim Rockefeller Columnist ajr@rockefellerlawcenter.com (.‘"A ''' "7: • On-The-Job Injury? • Neck Pain? • Hip Pain? suppressed in a criminal case, as injured parties have the option of suing for a civil rights violation to remedy the “wrong.” Essentially, the Supreme Court held that the interests of protect ing the public outweigh the rights of individual citizens. With respect to the pro tecting the sanctity of the Constitution, the plurality’s premise is that the threat of civil lawsuits serves the same purpose as the “exclu sionary rule” to encourage better trained law enforce ment and to prevent future constitutional violations. If there is further interest in this case from the readers, I may devote a future column to this decision; it seems to mark a major departure from decades of constitu tional law. With respect to your son, you complain that he was not “read his rights” when he was arrested. I hear this a lot. What the general public often misap prehends is that “reading” a suspect his or her rights is only an issue if, while “detained” (which can be less than a full arrest), the police interrogate a subject. If the police want to inter rogate a suspect, they have to read “Miranda” warn ings and the suspect has to voluntarily and know ingly waive both the right to an attorney and against self-incrimination; other wise, the exclusionary rule provides that the results SATURDAY, AUGUST 12, 2006 Tehran. Tyrants use ter rorists, and tyrants pursue nuclear weapons. The Lebanon-destroying shenanigans of Iran and Syria’s Hezbollah puppet ultimately put the puppe teers at risk. July also offered a lesson in timelines for democratic change. Sixteen years ago (Aug. 2, 1990), Saddam invaded Kuwait. Between 1990 and his overthrow in 2003, Saddam killed an estimated 250,000 people (mostly Kurds and Shia Arabs). Would anyone in 1990 or in March 2003 have pre dicted a freely elected Iraqi prime minister would appear before the U.S. Congress and thank America for giving his country the opportunity to create a democracy? “Iraqis are your allies in the war on terror,” Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al- Maliki told a joint session of Congress. That happened on July 26. of such interrogation are admissible at trial. Thus, if these rights are not read, before custodial interroga tion is initiated, the state ment is suppressed. There are many nuances to what constitutes “voluntary” waiver, “custody,” and what constitutes “interrogation,” which I will skip over for now. Your son was not read his rights ... As you can see, this fact alone does not mean that he can sue the officers, without “custodial interrogation” and an ille gally obtained confession. Even if there was illegal custodial interrogation, his remedy, despite Hudson for the time being, would be to have his statement suppressed in the criminal case. As to a civil lawsuit, for a variety of reasons, he would only have a viable case, if he were wrongfully arrested solely because of illegal custodial interroga tion, which is only rarely true and an extremely dif ficult lawsuit to pursue. Warner Robins attorney Jim Rockefeller is the for mer Chief Assistant District Attorney for Houston County, and a former Florida State Attorney. Owner of Rockefeller Law Center, Jim has been in private practice since 2000. E-mail your comments or confidential legal questions to ajr@rockefellerlawcenter. com or jim@rocjefellerlawcenter. ra Mftr i Two Complete Pair it Eyeglasses $69” • Slip and Fall? • Shoulder Pain? • Arm/Leg Pain? k ? w™ Dr. Stacy Carter, G.C. 5A f Injury After Hours? j