Cali is officially nuts.
Governor undecided on spanking bill
MediaNews Sacramento Bureau
SACRAMENTO - Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger on Thursday expressed an open mind to a controversial proposal that would ban parents from spanking a child under the age of 3.
He hinted that he has concerns about how the bill could be enforced, but he didn't smack down the idea either, saying he understands the desire to ''get rid of the physical, the brutal behavior that some parents have.''
The proposal, from Assemblywoman Sally Lieber, D-Mountain View, has stirred considerable controversy since the San Jose Mercury News first publicized it in Thursday's paper. In an online forum, Mercury News reader sentiment was overwhelmingly against such a bill.
It's ''nanny-politics,'' one reader said. ''Fine,'' opined a reader calling himself ''Big Poppa,'' ''then a bill should be passed to allow other parents to smack the parents of undisciplined children.'' Others took personal swipes at Lieber, who is married and has a cat named Snoop, but no children.
Sipping espresso during a 30-minute interview with the Mercury News Thursday, Schwarzenegger was more circumspect.
''I just want to find out from her exactly the way she envisions it and to enforce it and what the whole thing is about,'' the governor said. ''But I think any time we try to pass laws that say you've got to protect the kids, it's, in general, always good. So we have to find out more about it.''
Schwarzenegger described a childhood in Austria where cultural mores were very different than in current day America.
''I grew up, I got smacked about everything. That was the way Austria worked. You know, I think it maybe had something to do with after the war. People were maybe more angry and more frustrated, you know, having lost the war or whatever else. So there was a lot of other things, a lot of drinking when I grew up.''
''Here,'' he added, ''I feel like the parenting is quite different. And the communication between parent and children is quite different, which is very pleasing.''
The governor spoke of his childhood with no discernible bitterness. It didn't occur to him to question his father's disciplinary methods. Everyone else's parents did the same thing.
Schwarzenegger recalled parent-teacher conferences in the 1950s and '60s. All the students would sit in a classroom studying as their parents took turns talking to the teacher about class behavior and grades.
At one conference, Schwarzenegger recalled, his father, after conferring with the teacher, walked over to him and smacked him in front of the other kids. Afterward, his father walked back to the teacher to shake hands. ''They would exchange cigarettes or something like that and then walk out.''
''I didn't feel terrible about it because then the farm lady came in with the cane,'' walked up to her son and ''whacked him with the stick,'' Schwarzenegger added. ''It was... wild -- not wild then, but wild looking back now. It's just two different worlds.''
The governor was exposed to different child-rearing strategies by the family of First Lady Maria Shriver, which relied on ''no physicality at all, just communication.'' Now, when the four Schwarzenegger kids misbehave, they are talked to or barred from social outings.
As for spanking them, he said, ''Never. None of our kids ever was touched. Absolutely not.''
Lieber, who is promoting the anti-spanking proposal, said her ''heart goes out to him to hear he was beaten; that's just not right.''
But, the Democrat said, she is ''very pleased he's going to give it a fair hearing.''
Lieber said she didn't mind the barrage of criticism her idea has sparked, saying that she believes her proposal has triggered a needed debate. Her office was inundated Thursday with calls from media outlets and people who read about her idea. She said she plans to introduce her bill next week.
''You can't in one breath say you value children,'' she said, ''and then in the other breath say we're going to tolerate beatings that are sanctioned by law.''
http://www.montereyherald.com/mld/m...8.htm?source=rss&channel=montereyherald_state
Governor undecided on spanking bill
MediaNews Sacramento Bureau
SACRAMENTO - Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger on Thursday expressed an open mind to a controversial proposal that would ban parents from spanking a child under the age of 3.
He hinted that he has concerns about how the bill could be enforced, but he didn't smack down the idea either, saying he understands the desire to ''get rid of the physical, the brutal behavior that some parents have.''
The proposal, from Assemblywoman Sally Lieber, D-Mountain View, has stirred considerable controversy since the San Jose Mercury News first publicized it in Thursday's paper. In an online forum, Mercury News reader sentiment was overwhelmingly against such a bill.
It's ''nanny-politics,'' one reader said. ''Fine,'' opined a reader calling himself ''Big Poppa,'' ''then a bill should be passed to allow other parents to smack the parents of undisciplined children.'' Others took personal swipes at Lieber, who is married and has a cat named Snoop, but no children.
Sipping espresso during a 30-minute interview with the Mercury News Thursday, Schwarzenegger was more circumspect.
''I just want to find out from her exactly the way she envisions it and to enforce it and what the whole thing is about,'' the governor said. ''But I think any time we try to pass laws that say you've got to protect the kids, it's, in general, always good. So we have to find out more about it.''
Schwarzenegger described a childhood in Austria where cultural mores were very different than in current day America.
''I grew up, I got smacked about everything. That was the way Austria worked. You know, I think it maybe had something to do with after the war. People were maybe more angry and more frustrated, you know, having lost the war or whatever else. So there was a lot of other things, a lot of drinking when I grew up.''
''Here,'' he added, ''I feel like the parenting is quite different. And the communication between parent and children is quite different, which is very pleasing.''
The governor spoke of his childhood with no discernible bitterness. It didn't occur to him to question his father's disciplinary methods. Everyone else's parents did the same thing.
Schwarzenegger recalled parent-teacher conferences in the 1950s and '60s. All the students would sit in a classroom studying as their parents took turns talking to the teacher about class behavior and grades.
At one conference, Schwarzenegger recalled, his father, after conferring with the teacher, walked over to him and smacked him in front of the other kids. Afterward, his father walked back to the teacher to shake hands. ''They would exchange cigarettes or something like that and then walk out.''
''I didn't feel terrible about it because then the farm lady came in with the cane,'' walked up to her son and ''whacked him with the stick,'' Schwarzenegger added. ''It was... wild -- not wild then, but wild looking back now. It's just two different worlds.''
The governor was exposed to different child-rearing strategies by the family of First Lady Maria Shriver, which relied on ''no physicality at all, just communication.'' Now, when the four Schwarzenegger kids misbehave, they are talked to or barred from social outings.
As for spanking them, he said, ''Never. None of our kids ever was touched. Absolutely not.''
Lieber, who is promoting the anti-spanking proposal, said her ''heart goes out to him to hear he was beaten; that's just not right.''
But, the Democrat said, she is ''very pleased he's going to give it a fair hearing.''
Lieber said she didn't mind the barrage of criticism her idea has sparked, saying that she believes her proposal has triggered a needed debate. Her office was inundated Thursday with calls from media outlets and people who read about her idea. She said she plans to introduce her bill next week.
''You can't in one breath say you value children,'' she said, ''and then in the other breath say we're going to tolerate beatings that are sanctioned by law.''
http://www.montereyherald.com/mld/m...8.htm?source=rss&channel=montereyherald_state
