Our Nation has been brought to its knees economically. Our Children are again inheriting an enormous debt, and the regime responsible for it has left. What are the people to do? We are over taxed, over worked, under paid, and we can barely make ends meet each week. But there is a more serious situation arising out of politics. That is, the abolition of our Federal Constitution. Most folks don't pay it much mind, but each year, lawmakers pass new legislation designed to circumvent our Constitution. We can see that by the way our Government is handling the sex offender issue. The medias use the issue for every dime they can get from them, and our politicians ride that bandwagon for voter support. We all know that sexual abuse is, perhaps, one of the worst forms of abuse known to man. Especially when the abuse affects children. However, the type of sexual violence that precipitated these outrageous laws were the acts of murderers. We need to better educate our children, as well as parents, so they know how to avoid the traps and methods of sexual abusers. We can only hope that our new president will realize the tremendous damage done to the social fabric of this great Nation by the new sex offender laws. It looks as though even more laws are coming, and they will be targeting other dangerous groups of individuals. We don't believe that registrations, residency restrictions, unemployability and the like will curtail sexual violence. It's the wrong approach. Please Mr. President, choose the right path to travel when dealing with former sexual offenders?

All of us are aware that violence and sexual misconduct in our communities and our country is a major threat to our health, emotional security and desire to live free of fear. Dealing with a segment of our population which is moving toward adulthood in a manner that increases its likelihood for violence is, to put it bluntly, just plain dumb. Yet, that is exactly what North Carolina does when it automatically treats those as young as 16, who have acted out of poor judgment and ineffective reason, as adult criminals. One of only three states that ignore facts of adolescent development, North Carolina places such teenagers at risk for more and worse criminal acts in the future. In fact, a recent report from the nonfederal Task Force of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention is very explicit in pointing out the fallacy of such a course of action. Youngsters in this age group, managed in the adult criminal system, the report states, are 34 percent more likely to be rearrested for a violent crime than their counterparts who were placed in the juvenile justice system. The report summed it up this way: Placing teens under age 18 in prison or on adult probation status is “harmful” and “counterproductive,” while noting that “any spending on harmful interventions is wasteful.” Brains still developing Indeed, it is a rare 16-year-old who is able to think, act and behave as an adult. Rather, due to the unique qualities and differences of their brain development, teenagers are apt to be more impulsive, risky, susceptible to peer pressure and confrontational than their older peers. At the beginning of adolescence there is an actual decrease in the number of brain cells and the connections that respond to stimulation and excitation. As a result, the brain works harder to supply the desired response, which results in greater tendencies for excessive actions and behaviors. It is easy to see then why teens may find that their actions, reasonable to them, have nevertheless landed them, at times, in trouble. To guide them through their own rough days of growing and developing, resources and persons must provide assistance, support, guidance and correction. This is especially true for those whose behavior has crossed the lines of safety and respect for others. What is not needed, however, is for those young people, with very pliable brains, to be placed in the adult justice system and into a world of egregious criminal knowledge. To clarify, there are young people who cross the boundaries that are safe for them and others. They need to be held accountable for their actions. Holding them accountable while working toward a more productive future for them and the community in which they live is one thing. Placing them in prison or on probation that then marks them, from an early age, as a criminal for life — thus preventing many opportunities for change, education, jobs and responsibility — is not a healthy alternative.

We have become a nation of imbalanced justice.Our law makers have done everything they can do to strip our courts of discretionary decisions and sentencing. When the public becomes outraged at a lesser sentence, as part of a plea bargain that prosecutors offer, they make noise, and cause politicians to over react, or take advantage of the situation. We desperately need to find a mechanism to hold our reps accountable, in the very same way the average Joe is held accountable. Join us, and discover what you can do to improve the behaviors of those who represent us in Congress, the Senate, and the White House. Our Country will never survive with a system of justice based on vengance. A system of justice without compassion or mercy when it's right to bestow only alienates its citizens. This is what we believe is happening in America today. Our government has begun an attack on the constitution and civil rights through emotionalized propaganda. The sex offender is the current mechanism, and has been for quite some time. Sex offenders are the targets now, but it will not be long before other types of citizens are singled out for the same types of discrimination, persecution, and abuse. Our lawmakers are foolish. They continue to attack a criminal population that has a low rate of re-offending. Eventually these offenders will strike back. There is no public safety provided by preventing former offenders from obtaining housing, employment, and being able to begin a new life.

Today’s youth are exposed to sexual material more than any past generation. With technology, such as internet, cell phone cameras, and TV our children are being exposed to sexually explicit materials and behaviors. Our Government has passed federal abstinence legislation that gives federal funds to states who implement such programs in schools, Health Departments and Planned Parenthoods. A child, for example here in the state of Oklahoma can walk into any Planned Parenthood and receive birth control with no parental consent or notification. They will receive counseling about abstinence and the reproductive system and then will be given a form of birth control. There is no argument from this parent of two young sons, that abstinence is the best policy but reality is youths are having consensual teen sex. So these programs are needed as an educational tool for young teens who need to know about such things like HIV, STD’s and teen pregnancy. So, who is educating about the unintended consequences of the law? Yes, the above mentioned things are one part of consensual sex but what about the other side of the coin as in the states age of consent law? Where are our youth being told that teen consensual sex can get them a prison sentence and a lifetime requirement to register as a sex offender? Our children are, in most schools, given a class on sex education but are they being told the facts regarding the laws? We as a society have signs for everything like speed limit in school zones 25 m.p.h., must be 21 to purchase alcohol,, one must be 18 years of age to buy cigarettes, yet no sign telling our children about teen sex laws and the fact it can get you twenty-five years for consensual sex, elicit cell pictures and internet chat. Our children on a daily basis are being prosecuted and convicted as sex offenders and yet our government and much of the media are failing to report facts and expel the myth only violent and dangerous offenders are on the sex offender registry. We, not only as parents, but as American citizens need to begin to educate ourselves on the facts of the laws regarding sex in America. We owe that to our children.

Our Nation was faced with one of the most brutal attacks on our economic philosophy ever. We were attacked by terrorists from abroad. The methods of dealing with the issues were less than honorable, to say the least. Today, our nation is faced with an even greater threat that will surely lead to the destruction of our Nation. Various classes of people are losing their civil, and in some cases, human rights. Our law enforcement community is becomming ever more militarized, and there's talk that the military will now be deployed to "help" with domestic issues. This was forbidden in 1826. Our Constitution means very little to our lawmakers. They seem to be attempting to lawfully undermine the protections it provides on a regualr basis. We need to stand up, take notice, and do something about this. If we don't, America may be lost forever.