When privilege meets responsibility and the First Amendment gets uncomfortable.

This next post is close to home because one of my day jobs entails making decisions that affects the lives of families. As a result I am going to try and be careful here.

This young lady in New Jersey who sued her parents to pay her high school and college tuition has me seeing red. She embodies the sense of entitlement and privilege that is  common among young Americans. Those in a particular demographic more so than others. We are raising a nation of spoiled little brats. They are coddled from the cradle to the grave.  

We all know that type of an adult this young lady will become: If somehow she doesn't get what she wants it will be the other person's fault, not hers.

  

"Rachel Canning had sought immediate relief in the form of $650 in weekly child support and the payment of the remainder of her tuition at Morris Catholic High School, as well as attorney's fees.


State Superior Court Judge Peter Bogaard denied those motions but ordered the parties to return to court on April 22, when they will present evidence and testimony on the over-arching question of whether the Cannings are obligated to financially support their daughter. Rachel Canning, a high school senior, has already been accepted by at least one college and is seeking to have her parents pay some or all of her tuition, attorney Tanya Helfand told Bogaard Tuesday.


Dressed in her school uniform and with several friends in the gallery, Rachel Canning didn't speak to reporters after the hearing.


Bogaard sounded skeptical of some of the claims in the lawsuit, saying it could lead to teens "thumbing their noses" at their parents, leaving home and then asking for financial support.


"Are we going to open the gates for 12-year-olds to sue for an Xbox? For 13-year-olds to sue for an iPhone?" he asked. "We should be mindful of a potentially slippery slope."


Court documents show frequent causes of parent-teenage tension — boyfriends and alcohol — taken to an extreme. In the filings, there are accusations and denials, but one thing is clear: the girl left home Oct. 30, two days before she turned 18 after a tumultuous stretch during which her parents separated and reconciled and the teen began getting into uncharacteristic trouble at school.


In court filings, Canning's parents, retired Lincoln Park police Chief Sean Canning and his wife, Elizabeth, said their daughter voluntarily left home because she didn't want to abide by reasonable household rules, such as being respectful, keeping a curfew, doing a few chores and ending a relationship with a boyfriend her parents say is a bad influence. They say that shortly before she turned 18, she told her parents that she would be an adult and could do whatever she wanted.


She said her parents are abusive, contributed to an eating disorder she developed and pushed her to get a basketball scholarship. They say they were supportive, helped her through the eating disorder and paid for her to go to a private school where she would not get as much playing time in basketball as she would have at a public school.


Helfand told Bogaard in court Tuesday that Rachel Canning learned her behavior from her parents, particularly her mother, with whom she has a difficult relationship.


"These people who call themselves loving parents paint the most disgusting portrait of their daughter" in the court filings, she said. "They are pointing the finger to avoid their parental responsibilities."


A cheerleader and lacrosse player who hopes to become a biomedical engineer, Canning wants the judge to declare that she's non-emancipated and dependent as a student on her parents for support.


Attorney Laurie Rush-Masuret, representing the Canning parents, called Rachel Canning's claims "outrageous" and said that by leaving — and by the fact that she is 18 — Rachel Canning "emancipated herself" and shouldn't count on her parents' support.


"There is no abuse. There is no neglect," she said. "They are not unfit parents. She could come home tonight." [Source]


Well Rachel, here is an idea: if you don't like the rules set by your parents you might want to hit the road. You are 18. Go find a job somewhere and start working for a living. You are an honor student, so that shouldn't be too hard for you. 


I have to wonder about some of my colleagues in the legal profession at times. Why was this lawsuit even brought in the first place? I hope that the Judge tosses it and awards attorney's fees to the parents for having to defend themselves in this manner.


These kids in America need a reality check when it comes to struggle.

Take your ass to a Third World country and carry water on your head for a mile from the river so that you can take a bath before you walk yet another mile to school every morning. That's struggle. Having to follow rules laid down by your parents while you are under their roof is not.

Rachel, if you really want to go to college go get a job and enroll in community college somewhere. Given your high school credentials I am sure that you will get in.

Suing mommy and daddy is not a good way to get what you want. Your lawyers should have told you that. 

Unfortunately they didn't, so now maybe the Judge will. 

Then there is this idiot down in Florida. (Where else?)

"A Boca Raton, Fla., man is raising tensions in his community by flying Confederate and Ku Klux Klan flags over his mobile home.
The man, who identified himself only as K. Hayes, is also proudly displaying a noose on his front lawn.


"That's because I don't have a big tree in my backyard to hang it from,”


The unemployed man says he’s not a racist—he’s just exercising his First Amendment right to freedom of speech. He claims he’s not concerned about what the neighbors think and has no plans to stop.


"If I wanted attention, I'd drop my drawers and run down the street," Hayessaid. "I don't care about other people's opinions."


 Hayes’ business card states that he is a recruiter for the KKK. A sign outside his home reads, “Members Wanted.” Neighbors believe Hayes is trying to recruit young children into the organization...
 
The man says the KKK doesn’t go around committing hate crimes, like beating up “f----ts or black people.” His main complaint is that interracial marriages are causing the number of caucasians in the country to decline.


Like clockwork, Hayes raises his flags into the air in the morning and takes them down in the evening, reportedly out of respect."


My opinion about this might surprise some of you. But I say leave the old boy alone. As long as he is not breaking any laws he has a right to fly his flag on his own property.


This is America, and you are free to be an ignorant racist if you want to be one.


"Hey, nobody stops the Puerto Ricans from flying their Puerto Rican flag or the Jews from having their yarmulke or whatever it is in the holidays," Hayes told Local 10. "I mean, everybody is entitled to do what they want to do. That's what this country is all about— freedom of speech."


Carolyn Jones, a woman who lives in the same home, claims the symbols are not meant to show hate or prejudice towards a certain group. Still, when she was asked whether a Hispanic person or an African-American person could join, she hesitated.


“Umm ... I don't really know much about it, but I don't think so. African-American community, they have their beliefs and their own little things. Muslims, they have their synagogue and mosque and everything else. Why can't a white person have this?"


You can have it Carolyn; you can have it all to yourself.