Free Republic

Hailing from all corners of the US, thousands of immigrants and human rights activists are traveling today to the nation's capital for a rally on Wed. in support for immigration reform......(April 2013). The way it looks is that the boarder crossings are being flooded with children of several central American countries who cannot control their poverty and violence problems. The US government seems to think that flooding boarder states with this massive influx will force an immigration deal...but I wonder how Wash DC would handle such an influx. Why not a repeat of earlier bus caravans and drop these thousands...

A rush of young children crossing alone and illegally into the United States from Texas is so large and unexpected that senior officials with the Obama administration said Monday the White House is asking Congress for about $2 billion to grapple with what is being called a humanitarian crisis. Immigration agents are so overwhelmed that some children are being kept in detention and being processed during a longer time period than the 72-hour maximum requirement, these senior administration officials acknowledged. The officials briefed reporters on condition of anonymity.

Pope Francis said something so important last week that it will either be widely ignored or widely disparaged. The pope criticized “these marriages in which the spouses do not want children, in which the spouses want to remain without fertility.” “This culture of well-being,” he said, has “convinced us: It’s better not to have children! It’s better! You can go explore the world, go on holiday, you can have a villa in the countryside, you can be carefree. It might be better — more comfortable — to have a dog, two cats, and the love goes to the two...

Catherine Corless’s research revealed that 796 children died at St Mary’s. She now says the nature of their burial has been widely misrepresented In light of Corless’s article a Children’s Home Graveyard committee was established last year. In recent months its secretary, Teresa Killeen Kelly, addressed the congregation after Mass at Tuam Cathedral, explaining the work of the committee and asking for donations towards a plaque. Copies of Corless’s article were handed out. As John Lowe, another member of the committee, explained this week at the site of the former home, the group’s aim is to raise €15,000 for a...

An Oklahoma company has designed a bullet-resistant blanket that’s designed to protect children and teachers in the event of a school shooting. The Bodyguard Blanket, made by ProTecht, is a bulletproof 5/16-inch pad that the company says is made from the same materials used by the U.S. military. Steve Walker, a podiatrist who conceptualized the blanket, told The Oklahoman that the idea came to him after two tragedies: the shooting at Sandy Hook Elementary School, and the tornadoes in Oklahoma. He said the idea was to “stop that blunt-force trauma when that rubble is falling down on a child.” The...

The Obama administration is turning to a community service program to try to provide legal help to children who have crossed the border without a parent or guardian and later face deportation proceedings. On Friday, the administration said it would try to enroll 100 lawyers and paralegals into AmeriCorps to provide the legal services. They also would help to identify children who have been abused or victims of human trafficking and assist in prosecuting perpetrators, the Department of Justice said in a statement.

First lady Michelle Obama and school lunch ladies used to be on the same team, but now they’re locked in a political war against each other. For the first three years of Obama’s Let’s Move! campaign, the School Nutrition Association, a powerful group that represents 55,000 cafeteria professionals, was a close ally in the White House push to get kids to eat healthier. The group helped lobby for the legislation at the center of the debate: the 2010 Healthy Hunger-Free Kids Act, a law championed by the first lady that mandates more fruits and vegetables, whole grains and less sodium...

The 12-year-old girls had been plotting the murder for months, police say. Morgan E. Geyser was allowed to have two friends over each year for her birthday. This year, she'd celebrate on May 30. That is the day she and Anissa E. Weier would try to kill their friend during a sleepover. On Monday, the two Waukesha girls were charged in Waukesha County Circuit Court as adults with attempted first-degree intentional homicide, each facing up to 65 years in prison. Their victim, another 12-year-old from Waukesha, was stabbed 19 times by either Geyser or Weier or both, according to a...

Couple walking their beagle dog in the autumn countryside. Photo courtesy of Halfpoint via Shutterstock VATICAN CITY (RNS) Pope Francis on Monday (June 2) warned married couples against substituting cats and dogs for children — a move that he said leads to the “bitterness of loneliness” in old age.The pope made his comments as he celebrated daily Mass with 15 married couples in the chapel at the Santa Marta residence where he lives inside the Vatican.He reminded the couples, whose marriages ranged from 25 to 60 years, of the need for faithfulness, perseverance and fertility in maintaining a Christian marriage.But...

PHILADELPHIA — DINNER with your children in 19th-century America often required some self-control. Berry stains in your daughter’s hair? Good for her. Raccoon bites running up your boy’s arms? Bet he had an interesting day. As this year’s summer vacation begins, many parents contemplate how to rein in their kids. But there was a time when Americans pushed in the opposite direction, preserved in Mark Twain’s cat-swinging scamps. Parents back then encouraged kids to get some wildness out of their system, to express the republic’s revolutionary values. American children of the 19th century had a reputation. Returning British visitors reported...

Can you tell the difference? The original reason many supported abortion, was because of rape or incest. Forty years later less than 1 percent of the more than 1 million abortions in the US, occur because of rape or incest. Please tell me what the child did to deserve death in those two circumstances, because as far as God is concerned, to support abortion under any circumstance is still murder. Around the world there has been more than 1.5 BILLION babies have been aborted worldwide in the past 50 years. An estimated 50 million abortions are carried out throughout...

This "rap" music video captures the enthusiasm and energy of young children performing in honor of Constitution Day in Norway - 200th anniversary was May 17. https://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=iXoOqaeRXc8 Sorry - I don't have a translation... There was a sizable celebration in the Ballard district of Seattle where many Norwegians settled long ago. Maybe there are celebrations like this in the US... for the 4th of July? I wish. What I found fascinating - on Facebook pages of my many relatives in Norway were dozens and dozens of greetings from friends, often saying "Congratulations on the Day" or "Celebrate the Day"

Editor's Note: This column was co-authored by Jerome Elam.Behind the green curtain is where my world began to end. It was where my innocence was forever washed away in a porcelain pan filled with developer. Grainy images brought into strong relief on white paper that would become forever etched on my soul. It all began at the age of eight when my mother enrolled me in an after school program. My parents were divorced at that time, both with demanding careers, and the time we spent together was subject to the requirements of their jobs. An after school counselor began...

In Europe and America, There’s a growing feeling of hysteria… But what may save us, me and you,Is if the [Muslims] love their children too.Adapted from ‘Russians’, by Sting, 1984.This year marks the thirtieth anniversary of the launch of Sting’s solo career with his critically acclaimed hit album, Dream Of The Blue Turtles. Included on this radical departure from the musical stylings of Sting’s former band, The Police, was the sobering meditation, Russians. (Complete lyrics here.)Although I disagree with some of Sting’s political sensibilities (after all, Reagan won the Cold War), his use of a simple, rhetorical question was most...

On Valentine's Day 2013, the Massachusetts Department of Children and Families took into emergency custody then-14-year-old Justina Pelletier because the doctors at Tufts Medical Center and doctors at Boston Children's Hospital collided over the diagnosis of her rare medical condition. But when medical egos and battles lead to a child's being torn from her parents by judges ruling on dubious grounds, isn't it time to confess that something is seriously askew in society and even under the stethoscope? Fox News recently summarized the 15-month custody catastrophe by explaining that Tufts was originally treating Justina for a rare mitochondrial disease affecting...

Leaping, naked, into the Golden Gate Park bison paddock will, on most days, get you arrested. That was certainly the case during yesterday's Bay to Breakers. Official police tallies also include 24 public intoxication arrests and three public urination citations (these three folks must have done something remarkable to stand out among a 50,000-strong army of public urinators). Not showing up on police stat-sheets disseminated to the media, however: Two adolescents' lemonade stands busted up at Fell and Cole. The 11-year-old proprietor of one of those stands, SF Weekly is told, was informed that simply giving away the fudge brownies...

"The biological family of a little girl taken from her foster parents and returned to her jailbird father have branded her adoptive mom and dad, ‘selfish’ for fighting to get her back and vowed never to give her up again. Sonya, aged nine, had been in the care of Kim and David Hodgin, from Dickson, Tennessee for more than seven years, but she was recently handed over to ex-con John McCaul in Omaha, Nebraska. The Hodgin family have released a heart-breaking phone conversation, revealing Sonya’s desperate pleas, begging to be reunited with them."

Control of children from pre-kindergarten age is how President Barack Obama is making the Fundamental Transformation of America a fait accompli. Depressing and demoralizing to know that today’s children are growing up under Marxist rule and that Marxism has been in the classroom for decades. But it is not yesterday or the day before, but today where the tables can be turned, and being depressed, demoralized and giving up is never the answer. It suits Obama and his mentors to make it appear that there are no good guys or bad guys anymore. If everyone is bad and hope is...

FORT HUACHUCA — There was a lot of energy — for kids and adults — on Friday, as 3- to-5-year-olds dressed in green T-shirts engaged in a field day. The students were part of the Fort Huachuca Accommodation School District’s special education classes, helping to prepare the future kindergartners to cope in a more formal education setting. Teacher Annette Rogers said part of the program is ensuring the children have time outdoors to help in their physical development. It’s called “adaptive PE,” she said. As a part of foundational physical education it is important for children with special needs, Rogers...

In the twenty-three years since Minnesota became the first state to adopt a charter school law, the legislative slog to expand educational freedom elsewhere has borne massive advancements for parents and students. Often tedious and sometimes nasty, the success of this long fight has hinged on the willingness of stout legislators in state houses across the country to forge coalitions of the unlikely. We've done that exceedingly well in Georgia and have much to celebrate as we mark National Charter Schools Week. Now, that's not to say that we haven't suffered setbacks, like in 2011, when Georgia's high court ruled...