My 4-year-old granddaughter ‘identifies’ as a dog. Is that OK too?

What if daughter thinks she’s a dog?

A news outlet aired a segment last week about a girl under 4 “choosing to be a boy” and her parents encouraging the behavior. My 4-year-old granddaughter wanted to be a dog. She often imitated dog behaviors, encouraging us to participate in this fantasy. If her parents start feeding her dog food and let her use the potty in the yard they will be arrested. It is hard to believe society has fallen so far that we believe children have sufficient knowledge, experience and judgment to even understand gender, much less the consequences of choosing a gender other than that given them by nature. Is this really what passes for “sophistication” and “progressive thinking” in American today? How sad for the next generation.

Potties distracting from real problems

Consider our problems: Companies moving abroad leaving hundreds without a job while millions of illegal immigrants live off of our tax dollars. Tax dollars spent on people who hate us in other countries while our own citizens barely make it. Dying and dead veterans who did not receive adequate medical care. Gridlock in Washington.

And the biggest issue is what bathroom a person can use! How trivial compared to our real problems. Can’t we shelve the bathroom issue until we fix the really important things in America?

A final fix for the bathroom debate

Hey! Everyone! Step back for a sec, will you? Take a deep breath. Are speed limits ignored? Do transgenders use “their” bathroom? It’s life.

Remove laws that criminalize opposite sex bathroom entry and craft very harsh laws with mandatory sentences for crimes committed therein – by either sex. Similar to, say, robberies with and without a gun.

Let voters decide CMS bonds this year

Charlotte-Mecklenburg Schools is requesting a bond referendum this year despite county commissioners’ preference to wait until 2017. The League of Women Voters of Charlotte-Mecklenburg is committed to promoting equal access to a quality education for every public school student, and we are convinced CMS has compelling reasons to proceed with the bonds this year.

A recent accreditation debriefing pointed to long-term capital improvement deficiencies and cited the 1,100 mobile classrooms CMS deploys. With 78 percent of schools over capacity, there is an urgent need to remedy deficiencies that are experienced unevenly across the CMS system. We urge county commissioners to act now to ensure sound accreditation for CMS and equity for all students.

Politicians won’t cut hand that feeds them

Carolyn Blackburn laments the “60 Minutes” disclosure that members of Congress average 30 hours per week soliciting funds.

Here in North Carolina the General Assembly trashed most of a process called voter-owned elections under its motto that fair and accessible elections are bad for business. Their business: to stay in power – democracy be damned!

Americans stupid? Don’t take our cash

They may be right. What other country gives as much foreign aid as Americans do? What other country has been called upon to sacrifice their young and their treasure to save the world?

When we went to save Europe in WWII, the English thought we were bumpkins and wanted us to supply the men and materiel and let them run the war. Hitler thought we were too self-absorbed to fight. History proved them wrong. I don’t mind being thought stupid but take your hand out of my pocket before you mock me.

Did John Hancock see Trump coming?

John Hancock wrote: “Despise the glare of wealth. That people, who pay greater respect to a wealthy villain, than to an honest, upright man in poverty, almost deserve to be enslaved; they plainly show, that wealth, however it may be acquired, is, in their esteem, to be preferred to virtue.”

Those who claim to love America must first know the words of those who created it. They must first love the country before their love of themselves. America was long about the right to live unoppressed. We stand poised to throw that right away.

This story was originally published May 16, 2016 at 4:49 PM with the headline "My 4-year-old granddaughter ‘identifies’ as a dog. Is that OK too?."