No, I'm not going to talk about protecting our children the way those crazy conservative crack-pots on FOX"News" talk about it. That particular brand of idiocy has no place on this website, and it shouldn't have a place on the airwaves either. Especially since the legislation is merely a front for attacking the blogosphere. The type of protection I speak of is a different one. A more basic one. A protection so basic that 193 of the 195 countries in the world have recognized and ratified it as law. A sweeping series of protections so necessary that even Sudan has signed onto them (though they obviously haven't lived by them). What is this series of protections that I speak of? Simple, The Convention on the Rights of the Child.
This Convention has been around for a long time -- almost as long as I've been alive actually, and yet, it has yet to be ratified in America. I didn't know this until it was covered in my International Law class, and to be honest I was shocked when I found out. Especially when I found out the groups opposing it -- nope, none were Democratic groups. So that leaves one other major political party, and since I'm feeling generous you get two guesses. If you guessed "The Republicans" you were right.
In order to understand why such a group of people who were concerned about the rights of children would oppose such a measure, I did a bit of Googling. Surely, there was some valid reason for their opposition. Alas, I expected rationality and reason from the wrong people. People whose moral clarity and appreciation of protecting children does not, apparently, even extend to Congressional Pages under their care. In my searching, I stumbled accross this site.
Fair warning, the views and opinions expressed there are pretty vile, and one can hardly go a full sentence without spotting a truism or 10. So, in an attempt to be fair to our more conservative party, I decided to do a bit more digging, and I found that the official reason given was that the United States wanted to be able to give the death penalty to those under the age of 18. Now there's compassionate conservativism for you.
The treaty has already been signed, but it has yet to be ratified. The Democrats control the Senate now, and it's high time they did something. For all the talk of protecting children that both parties dish out. For all the talk of protection from violence -- both in real life and in video games; for all the talk of protection from abuse -- both physical and emotional; for all the talk of protection from molestation. There has yet to be any action. And if the Republicans oppose the ratification again, we can continue to label them as the party of ex-Representative Mark Foley.