Poor Jeremy.

I stepped out for a smoke today. Outside of my door was this little black cricket. He assumed the playing dead position as soon as I had opened the door. Well After my smoke I felt bad for the thing. His survival instinct made it impossible for me to pick him up. That is, without squishing him.

On The use of Physical Punishment.

The use of physical punishment on children has been disputed by many different social classes and I’ve always been amazed by how many people oppose the use of spanking.  When children misbehave, their parents have a choice of either effectively communicating or physically punishing the child. Since children with low maturity levels (children in general) tend to disregard and defy their parent’s directions, the children pretty much decide what the guardian’s reaction should be. Depending on the situation; physically punishing a child to an extent is necessary, but not to the point of abuse.

The idea of physical punishment is looked down upon by many people who think that spanking children “gives them low self esteem,” (Jen Gish) but I just don’t find this believable.  A child who is swatted on the butt a few times isn’t even going to carry a day long catharsis (the purging of the emotions or relieving of emotional tensions). I was physically punished in many ways growing up, and I just can’t begin to understand how it would cause any emotional scaring to a person. However; in the story “Who’s Irish?” the narrator beats her granddaughter with a stick, and that may have caused her some sort of permanent catharsis.

Another reason there are negative opinions about spanking or slapping is that some people believe that a child’s actions cannot be justified by the use of slapping or spanking; however, they are viewing the subject at hand from a completely wrong standpoint. The objective is not justification; it is an attempt to forcibly make a child learn to make better decisions. Physical punishment is the most practical way of controlling children’s arrogance and disregard of their parent’s directions and that’s the only reason for the age long use.

            When a child acts up and misbehaves you have a choice of both talking to the child and communicating the situation over to the child in a way it may understand and learn from, or punishing the child. The first option should always be attempted, but often fails leaving the parents to resort to option two. Sometimes when children are acting up and don’t want to listen to what the superiors have to say, they tune out all reasoning and logic and just hear what they want. In that sort of situation is when a child should be spanked or slapped, but never beaten.

            There are boundaries a person needs to follow when physically punishing a child. The generalized and legal rule when physically punishing is using an open palm on a fleshy part of the body, never using a fist, or in Gish Jen’s case, a stick. The use of tools or weapons when punishing your child is abuse, and I believe can permanently affect your child.

            Spanking is, will, and should always be used; it is an important part of learning and triggers an important part of emotional growth that every kid needs to go through when growing up. This light form of physical punishment is very necessary and I find no reason not to use it. After all, our ancestors ancestors used it.

A little news about what is going on on Wall St.

The Occupy Wall Street Protest encampment is located at Zuccotti Park, on the corner of Broadway and Liberty St. The camp is set up in an abnormally organized manner for this type of event. There is a kitchen, a sleeping quarter, a medical center, an art and posters area, an information desk, and a group assembly area. 

The park is officially owned by Brookfield Office Properties, an investment company.  This particular investment company is part of the groups that rivaling the movement the protesters are pushing for. Also, this company is thought to have ties with Mayor Bloomberg, someone who has expressed that he wants the protest to be shut down.

The groups that have been in disagreement over the use of Zuccotti Park are the Protesters, who are using the park as a camp in order to fuel a change, and Brookfield Office Properties, who are working with Mayor Bloomberg and the police force to ‘clean’ up the park. 

The ‘cleaning up the park’ operation, that BOP wishes to initiate, may end up not only cleaning up the park, but clean up the protesters as well. You see, when you send these protesters elsewhere for the four hours it takes to clean the park, most of the people will go home and take a shower. After taking their shower and having a nap, the civilians will realize how much they missed their home during the past month of living on the streets.  The civilians will then realize that they don’t want to continue their movement and will stay home, resulting in a loss of manpower for the movement. This ‘cleaning’ is threatening the very existence of the cause and should be treated with maximum resistance.

The park ‘cleaning’ was eventually called off by Brookfield Office Properties when:

The early morning announcement from the Mayor’s office in New York came after 300,000+ Americans signed petitions to stop the eviction, and flooded the 311 phone network in solidarity with those in Liberty Square. At 6 AM this morning, 3,000+ New Yorkers, unions, students, and others joined the occupiers in the square… (OccupyWallStreet)

After that, and a Police Motorcyclist parking a vehicle on top of a Pedestrian Protester, Brookfield Office Properties decided that they were going to call off the parks ‘cleaning’.

The Mayor and police have publicized that they want to the protesters to leave Zuccotti Park by arresting and macing innocent protesters. The protesters displayed that the random arrests and assaults on several protesters during the last month are wrong by video-documenting and contacting the media, but that has barely had an effect on the situation. The protesters are creating the videos to use media to fuel the movement, to persuade people to get the word out and to prevent more arrests.

You know, police shouldn’t lay a finger on any person without a legal reason. Period. They shouldn’t break the vows of their job, but some do. They are corrupt, and there is nothing anyone can really do about it, without their personal info; Personal info that many officers aren’t willing to give out, despite their job requiring them to. In my unbiased opinion, the cops shouldn’t have the right to harm or arrest any of the protesters on Wall Street unless they, as individuals, break the law.