Childhood Innocence

Thanks to the heat, we here in the South have been forced indoors in the afternoons. It's too hot to ride bikes; it's too hot to play ball; heck, it's even too hot to go swimming in the pool! What's a family of four to do?

Luckily, there are still some games around geared towards the young-ones. Interestingly, they are the same games we adults loved as a child--Candyland, Chutes and Ladders, Hi-Ho! Cherry-O. All classics and all pretty much the only games on the market for the "under 5" crowd.

Obviously we don't still have our childhood boardgames lying around so we went off to our friendly neighborhood Target and purchased a few games to while away those long hot summer afternoon. As it turns out, Candyland has become my three year olds favorite game; so much so in fact that while the board itself is still in fine shape, the flimsy cards have become so over-handled that I can't even put a proper poker shuffle on them anymore.

The funny thing about this game though, is how it's evolved over the years. Take note:

Notice how in the old version of candyland, the two kids are whitebread, blond crackers and in the new, politically correct version, we have a cross-sample representation of ethnicities and genders.

Why am I not surprised?

But anyway, my son loves this game, but more importantly, he loves to WIN! We've been very careful to explain to him that the game is random and anyone can win at any time, to which he responds, "But you can't win everyday." The truth is however, that by hook or by crook, he seems to win more than anyone, but it's never enough. Should you get up from the game to go stir the pot of soup, or to put fallen baby back up in a sitting position, he will sneakily look through the stack of cards for either the "lollipop" or "ice cream" cards, which move one near the end of the game and close to winning. Another of his tactics is to skip a color. So, if he pulls a card with one red square, he'll move two; if the card says two red squares, he'll move three. He's very sneaky.

We've tried to explain to him that this is cheating and I'm particularly careful to ensure that he follows the rules, but I will admit to "fixing" it on the rare occasion where we adults have consistently won a game or two just so he gets the satisfaction of winning. And of course he loves it. But he's coming around to losing with grace. Generally it involves him saying, "Ok, let's play again and I guess I'm gonna win."

Now if we can only teach him how to be a graceful winner, rather than cackling like a crow who just found a new shiny object, we'll be in business.

"Grand Theft" of Our Rights

Who cares if adult males can sit at home and watch CGI characters perform sexual acts on each other? Is it really any of our business what people do in their own homes?

I’m speaking of course, about the video game “Grand Theft Auto” and the hacked download that allows certain features of the game to be unlocked. I haven’t seen them, but these features are supposedly sexual in nature. As I understand it, these features were not built into the game by the developers, even though the game already carries an “M” (Mature) rating and should therefore be allowed to include whatever content it wants.

So, we have a game rated for “Mature” audiences, which means it should only be played by adults, and we have Senator Clinton requesting an investigation into the download. She has now proposed a $90 million investigation (yes, another one) into the effects of violence in video games on children.

Ignoring the fact that $90 million could feed every homeless person in America for the rest of their life, why is there an investigation into something that only adults are “supposed” to be able to access anyway? Now, being a Christian conservative, I don’t agree with sexual acts in video games, but my take on it is to not purchase the product. It’s that simple.

People, if you don’t like something, then don’t purchase it, don’t play, don’t endorse it in any way. But for the love of all things free and holy, don’t take that freedom away from other people. The founders of this country were conservative beyond belief, but even still, they created a document that gave everyone freedom regardless of whether or not those freedoms flew in the face of the drafter’s personal beliefs. They set aside their personal feelings so that you and I could be free to do as we please.

People like Senator Clinton want to take those freedoms away from us and impose their own personal prejudices on the collective. It’s unnecessary and it’s unwanted. We have laws in place for reasons. If the intent of those laws, in this case the intent being to ensure that only adults view certain material, are not respected, the what’s the point in having the law?

I urge Senator Clinton and her GOP associates to drop this line of pursuit and let people look, read and speak what they want.