KINDER'S COMMENTARY: LEGISLATION CAN HELP CURTAIL THE THREAT ON PARENTAL RIGHTS

An interesting new newsletter is "Voice: The newsletter of the parental rights movement, published by the Of the People Foundation." This newsletter's Fall 1998 edition features an article on the landmark Wisconsin Supreme Court decision upholding the Milwaukee Parental Choice Program. In this pathbreaking program, discussed previously in this space, parents of poor inner-city children may get a state voucher worth several thousand dollars to send their children to the school of their choice -- public, private or parochial.

In Milwaukee -- as in every other city in which a voucher program is under way -- there is a list, into the thousands, of poor parents trying to get their children in. Some day, liberals will have to answer for their devastating war on America's poor, and for using poor children trapped in failing inner-city public schools as cannon fodder in that war.

This movement is championing parental rights amendments to state constitutions across America. Once again this year, I have introduced the following proposed constitutional amendment:

"1. The right of parents to direct the upbringing and education of their children is a fundamental right.

"2. The state maintains a compelling interest in investigating, prosecuting and punishing child abuse and neglect as defined by statute."

Any lawmaker introducing these relatively innocuous words must take the usual ration of abuse from "experts" certain that they know better than parents how to raise children. I would love for Missourians to get a chance to vote on adding these words to our Constitution.

If you share my concern about threats to parental rights, check out the Of the People Foundation:

Of the People Foundation, 1100 North Glebe Road, Suite 1060, Arlington, VA. 22201; or visit them online at www.ofthepeople.org.

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Tobacco lawsuit update

In the lawsuit I filed against Attorney General Jay Nixon last August, seeking to void his contract to enrich a few wealthy trial lawyers, we are set up for a judgment on the pleadings in Cole County Circuit Court Dec. 22.

Meanwhile, noises coming from the other side are fascinating. At his press conference 10 days ago announcing the settlement in the state's separate tobacco litigation, Nixon came pretty close to losing his temper when a questioning reporter mentioned my name, shouting that I should, "Shut up!" Then, this past week, there came a not-so-veiled threat from one of the plaintiff's lawyers to file sanctions against me for filing what he deems a "frivolous lawsuit." My response: I'm willing to let the judge decide.

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The feminists and the president

"If Bill Clinton were a CEO, an Army drill sergeant or an assembly-line foreman, the feminists would be out for blood. With everyone else in the nation talking about little else, feminist leaders' silence speaks volumes about their willingness to put politics before principle."

-- Former Reagan administration official Linda Chavez

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Kids indicted for perjury

for lying to a grand jury

Speaking of the president, I would love to ask his defenders what they say to the four young kids at Northwestern University who were indicted for perjury they allegedly committed before a grand jury investigating a gambling scandal on that school's football team.

~Peter Kinder is assistant to the president of Rust Communications and a state senator from Cape Girardeau.