Letters to the Editor
Lestat1
Published Letters: 395 Editor's Choice: 17
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LW - MYOB
[Read the article: A friend is involved in Scientology. Should I interfere?]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]I'm going to have to agree with the MYOB crowd. This person is an adult and if she chooses to throw her money at some con-artists, well then that's her choice. A poor one, but still one. Many people throw their money away gambling or on something that gratifies some part of your being for some reason. This happens to be hers.
She may wise up on her own, when they try to tell her to get away from non-Scientologists, when they try to make her financially dependant on them, when they use verbal manipulation to sway her and keep her. She probably has a followers mind, she needs to follow something and frankly, it's not your job to get her to follow your mind when you probably don't have a stable structure to offer her beyond Scientology is a con, a scam, a grift lady!
If she does not wise up on her own, well hey, the worst that will probably happen is she relies on them too much and gives all her money away to them. It's not like she's in a relationship with someone who's beating the crap out of her.
Some people's minds just won't take to religion, cults, maybe yours just like mine. When I was indoctrinated as a child in the Pentacostal church, even then it never spoke to me. It was just something I needed to do to keep my mom happy.
I think some people need a guide book, they aren't okay with figuring it out on their own and trusting themselves. They need guideposts along the way or they feel they are floundering through life, well hey, that's okay too.
Plus it's really annoying when someone you just met thinks they know how to fix your life. No wonder she's distancing herself from you.
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Trend, what trend?
[Read the article: Has Judith Warner gone too far?]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]I've seen the MySpace case and it's indeed tragic. But I think it's just a case of teenage cruelty matched with an immature perhaps mentally ill parent. I don't know how much was her idea, lying after the fact is a convienent scapegoat, it wasn't me! but to not stop it the second she found out the cruel trick, she became more cupable weather she started to participated or not.
But I don't think it shows a "trend".
Haven't there always been parents too involved in their children's lives? Or, not overly involved, but overly controlling. You will not marry so and so or we will disown you. You will become a doctor/lawyer enter the family biz or we will cut off all money to you. You will not marry that low class harlot/black person/non-Jew. You name it.
The fact I think is that many people view their children as their own personal property. To an extent that's true, they are your family and no one should take them from you without good reason. But sometimes it seems I will make them my personal puppet and no matter how much they whine and complain I will continue to make them do it because I'm the owner/parent of your life and "I" know best. There is no better way to satisfy the ego than through shaping their child.
It's indeed tough to be a parent, to be involved enough to know what's going on, but not so involved that your identity is wrapped up in theirs. To push enough to say, yes you have to get a job, you have to go to college, yes you should try sports and science, you should be well rounded but maybe having to face that they hate sports or really don't have the mind for science is okay too. To be okay with letting the kid fail once in a while or quit something and regret it later. The personality of the child also comes into play some need a lot of pushing to thrive, some rebel against all instruction.
The problem is, there is no test to be a parent. Anyone can do it as long as their genitals work. If anything, all I would like to see is whenever a woman is pregnant that there should be some sort of parenting class beyond here's how you change a diaper and this is how often to feed the baby. But that doesn't help all as we've seen from stubborn dumb ass Britney.