Page 4 - Florida Sentinel 8-20-19

Editorial/Column
FLORIDA SENTINEL BULLETIN
(USPS 202-140)
2207 21st Avenue, Tampa Florida 33605 • (813) 248-1921 Published Every Tuesday and Friday By
FLORIDA SENTINEL BULLETIN PUBLISHING Co., Member of National Newspaper Publishers Association (NNPA)
S. KAY ANDREWS, PUBLISHER
C. BLYTHE ANDREWS III, PRESIDENT/CONTROLLER ALLISON WELLS-CLEBERT, CFO
GWEN HAYES, EDITOR
IRIS HOLTON, CITY EDITOR
BETTY DAWKINS, ADVERTISING DIRECTOR HAROLD ADAMS, CIRCULATION MANAGER TOYNETTA COBB, PRODUCTION MANAGER LAVORA EDWARDS, CLASSIFIED MANAGER
Subscriptions-$44.00-6 Months Both Editions: $87.00-Per Year Both Editions.
Opinions expressed on editorial pages of this newspaper by Columnists or Guest Writers, do not necessarily reflect the editorial stance of The Florida Sentinel Bulletin or the Publisher.
When Cool Parenting Fails
can't remember the last time I used profanity in front of my mother. Even though I consider myself a fully grown man, with chil- dren of my own, I still find myself guarding my tongue when I'm in her presence. I have been doing it so long, that now it's simply second
nature.
One of the main reasons
why this is the case is due to the fact that I hold my mother in such high regard. And, since she's always at- tempted to do the same with me, it seems only right that I show her the same level of re- spect.
Unfortunately, you don't see a lot of that anymore these days. As sad as it is to say, it's not uncommon to hear stories about young people who, not only, have no problem using foul lan- guage around their parents, but who also curse at them and physically threaten them as well.
While much of this bad behavior can be attributed to the overall decline in societal morals, part of the blame could just as easily be placed on the shoulders of the par-
ents themselves. I mean kids aren't born jackasses. Some- one has to give them the lee- way to reach their full jerk potential.
One of the biggest mis- takes some people make when raising children is that they attempt to become friends with their offspring instead of embracing the tra- ditional role of mentor/guardian that they inherit after childbirth. In an attempt to be unlike their own parents, who they con- sidered lame, they try to be the cool mom or dad, not re- alizing that going the "I'm hip," route is a recipe for dis- aster in the long run.
What these clueless par- ents don't get is that once you remove the parent/child boundary, it's almost impos- sible to re-build it to it's for- mer state. When it disappears, so does the rev- erence that a child is sup- posed to have for the individuals who gave him or her life.
And, in those cases where the child communicates with the parent on a first name basis, the situation is even worse.
The moment mothers and fathers give up their status as figures of authority in a fam- ily structure, they also relin- quish the influence they may have otherwise had on the child they're raising. This is mainly because people aren't typically receptive to taking advice or instruction from those who they view as peers.
When mothers decide to hang out with their daugh- ters inside of clubs or fathers begin to think it's cool to get high and pull girls with their sons, they essentially forfeit their rights to be that guiding force and open the door for them to be seen as little more than much older, immature, sisters or brothers; relatives who their children love, but who they don't necessarily take seriously.
As much as I feel bad for those parents who find them- selves being chumped off by their adult children, it's hard for me to feel sympathy for them because, at the end of the day, they helped to create the dysfunction they're expe- riencing by sacrificing their parental dignity for the sake of being their child's BFF. And, now that it's come back to bite them in the backside, the only person they can truly blame is the poor deci- sion-maker staring back at them from the mirror.
Reality On Ice is © by the Florida Sentinel Bul- letin Publishing Com- pany. You can contact Mr. Barr at: cbar- ronice@gmail.com.
POSTMASTER: Send Address Change To: Florida Sentinel Bulletin,
P.O. Box 3363 Tampa, FL 33601 Periodical Postage Paid At Tampa, FL
C. Blythe Andrews 1901-1977 (1945)
C. Blythe Andrews, Jr. 1930-2010 (1977)
Another Unanswered Mystery
dd to the list of American mysteries, the suspi-
cious death of billionaire sleaze-ball Jeffrey Ep- stein, who even under suicide watch, was able to commit that very act, and Epstein will go down in his- tory along with the whereabouts of AFL-CIO Jimmy Hoffa and the true tale as to who killed John Kennedy,
Sr.But for now, heads are rolling. The Department of Justice’s reputation is in shambles with the warden of the prison where Epstein was kept has been reas- signed so the rumor goes, a rumor stoked by accusa- tions made by President Donald Trump against former President Bill Clinton’s being on a secret list of recip- ients kept by Epstein.
And each day, the plot thickens, and the reputation of America weakens, as no doubt, nations around the world look and cannot believe what they see.
For, a nation that not long ago accused a Saudi Ara- bian prince of murdering a news reporter, may now be suspected of murdering its own citizen in order to keep his mouth shut.
The idea of certain rich and famous movers and shakers being brought to bear in American govern- ment is older than American government itself, and has shaken our nation far more harshly than Russian political intervention, or so it would seem.
So, a multi-billionaire who sleeps with the fishes is nothing new on the American legendary horizon.
However, as a nation who touts itself as being inces- santly curious, it would be fascinating to know if Ep- stein was murdered behind bars.
And if so, who were the names of the people he catered to who will go with him to his grave?
And while we’re waiting, perhaps, someone will dis- cover if Jimmy Hoffa is really buried under the second base at Yankee Stadium.
I
A
PAGE 4 FLORIDA SENTINEL BULLETIN PUBLISHED EVERY TUESDAY AND FRIDAY TUESDAY, AUGUST 20, 2019