LETTER: GOVERNMENT AND YOUTH

To the editor:

Reading the Associated Press article headlined "President to use teens in smoking sting" caused me to mentally speculate about parallels between the rise of governmental control in Central Europe during the 1930s and in the United States today.

Socialism is the same whether sanctioned by a popular vote or imposed by a dictator. All that is required in either case is an attitude of acceptance or indifference by the populace. How best for a socialist-leaning leader to build such attitudes? Get to the children! Convince a single generation that the government knows best, and any suggestion, request or order is then assumed to be not only legal, but mandatory, desirable and much wiser than the counsel of parents, the experience from past social practices or the teachings of the church.

Has anyone noticed the congestion around the city's soccer and softball fields on Sunday mornings in the spring? Do those dedicated coaches who help the young players hone their skills realize that their do-good efforts are setting the stage for the government to undermine the established teaching that the seventh day is the Lord's day?

The influence of federal funds in controlling school curricula is well understood. Not so well publicized is the subtle influence of social pressures. Convince a core unit of a course of action and its members will exert the pressure necessary to make that action acceptable and popular. This is especially true of peer pressure in children.

As an example: The Hitler Youth, in emphasizing physical fitness, scheduled its athletic events and paramilitary training on Sundays. A young person choosing to go to church would have to undergo ridicule from friends. Not only would this tend to weaken respect for parental authority, but also the adults overseeing the youth activities would imply that the non-attendee was either a Jew or a Communist. Both were impossible for the young to accept in a society adhering to the tenets of the National Socialist German Workers political party (popularly abbreviated as the Nazi party).

In the well-known movie "The Sound of Music," think of the change of character in the young Austrian messenger boy, which was brought about by his association with Die Hitler Jugend (the Hitler Youth). From a happy carefree teen-ager with a crush on the oldest Von Trapp daughter, he became so indoctrinated that he revealed the hiding place of his girlfriend and her family to curry favor with a regime that only recently had gained political control of his native land.

By implying to teens that it is honorable to misrepresent ourselves to legal businesses, are we about to set out on a program where our impressionable children will know that entrapment of, and spying on, others is praiseworthy?

If we allow the heads of our government to define good or bad according to their standards, and then allow the full force of the government to be used to enforce these unilateral definitions, then indeed we will be getting the type of government we deserve.

ED and KAY BENDER

Cape Girardeau