Parental rights and the troubled child

There is a recurring issue from a certain representative in the 19th District and that is parental rights.

This seemingly harmless proposal is not a well thought out as it would seem. It is completely understandable that parents want to be involved in all issues with their children. But we also have to see how this plays in real life. So let’s look at how this works. So, let’s game this out using a hypothetical.

The child in question is in trouble for STD/suicidal ideation/mental health issues. Now in a perfect world there is perfect communication among parents, children and treatment providers. Unfortunately, we live in this imperfect world. It is not unusual for a teen to have something less than a perfect relationship with their parents. So, the child has a problem, wants to address it and not tell his folks. But now the law says he can’t do that. Now what? Let’s look at a risk analysis.

The issue is an STD. Would I be upset if I had a child get treated without telling me. The alternative is worse. What is the upside of an untreated, or delayed treatment, of an STD? What are the downside risks? I would rather have the kid get treated and be miffed about it later. The alternatives could be worse.

Or how about suicide? How does that work? First, it could have an overlap with mental health. Or maybe it is a bullying issue. Regardless, the ability of the child to get treatment has to be better than a suicide. This could really be an emergent situation. Why would you want to play with that risk?

A similar analysis can be made about mental health. If a child turns out to be bipolar, or having some sort of issue where they, in truth, really cannot trust their own minds (no wise acre remarks about teens in general please), you could get some bad outcomes here. Would you rather see the child be treated?

There are reasonable policy discussions here. But to just create a blanket rule can get you some bad results. So, before you proceed with something half-baked, people might want to think it through a bit. Because if you set the ideology aside and concentrate on what are very foreseeable results, you might see this another way.

Andrew Makar

Ocean Shores

My observation of our government right now

What we have going on right now is Russia 1.9. Notice that it is not a full-on Russia 2.0. The reason for that designation is Trump just fires people he sees as the opposition and Putin has them killed.

The list of people in law enforcement that were doing their appointed jobs concerning his failed Jan. 6 coup are now being fired for doing it. They are also seeking to fire anyone not “sufficiently loyal” to him.

The Republicans in Congress reading between the lines are cow-towing to him in hopes that they won’t end up on his hit list when they finally give him all the power Putin has.

Oh, can anyone tell me the total mileage of fencing Mexico paid to put up like Trump said he would make them do when he was running for office the first time?

Jan. 20: Trump fires the FAA director

Jan. 21: Trump freezes all air traffic control hiring

Jan: 22: Trump disbands the Aviation Safety Advisory Committee

Jan 28: Trump send a buyout/retirement ransom letter to existing FAA employees

Jan. 29: First American mid-air collision in 16 years. 67 fatalities.

We are once again ruled by an incompetent fool who is gonna get us all killed.

Ray Messenger

Hoquiam

‘Enough,’ to quote Gabrielle Giffords

The Constitution starts “We the people” and I believe that’s the same people whose right to keep and bear arms, shall not be infringed.

Congress pledges to preserve, protect and defend that Constitution. Gov. Bob Ferguson who hasn’t been in office two weeks already has four new anti-gun rules.

HB 1152: a gun storage bill. Another one?

HB 1163: A permit to purchase a firearm

HB 1386: An 11% tax on guns

HB 1405: Wants you to have a $25,000 insurance policy on each and every gun you own

I sure feel safer knowing that criminals can’t afford all of these new rules. How about you?

Shall not be infringed. Simple concept. Quit screwing it up.

Jeff Asher

Westport