[.ca] It Takes a Village (ISBN 0684826615)

From Amazon.com:
The First Lady, a longtime child advocate, expresses her concerns for the children of today's world and offers her ideas for developing our society into one that values children's unique contributions.

Society would rather pay 10* as much 4 prisons then schools:
Sociologist find it most frustrating for the fact they have empirical evidence on how to eliminate our most prominent social problems, yet our government does not consult them or value their research. Sociology reveals the factors that create social problems often based within the social institutions that the powerful control. This undermines their dominant ideology, and creates questions of what they have deemed normal and accepted. To point this out is often seen as un-American. The best hope for sociologist is to educate the public on their findings, and do so by publishing articles and books on the social issues. Even if it makes people uncomfortable reading about it, at least it gets them thinking about the issues, and hopefully demythologize peoples' beliefs of social life. "It takes a village to raise a child." We should adopt social programs like that of Canada, Europe, and Scandinavia who support their countries as a whole with paid maternity leave, health care, retirement, and education. The trade offs far exceed the costs. It costs us increased rates in HMO costs, because 60% of hospitals earnings are written off in collections from the poor accessing emergency rooms. It costs us taxpayers $6000 a year to educate a poor child, but $60K to incarcerate them when their hopelessness leads to crime. But with our individualistic ideology we can not accept other ideas on how to effecitivly raise our children. It might not be your own child, but if you help raise them, you decrease the chances that child will vandalize your property, steal your car, or shoot you in a drive by shooting. The children are our future. It takes a village to support those single parents, working poor, dual earner low class families to raise their childen. Make children a priority and crime rates will decrease. Close the income gap between the rich (& government - those syphoning your taxes for war) and poor, , and give our American families a fighting chance.

More books like this needed:
Book Refreshing in Many Ways ! Reviewer: A reader from Wisconsin, USA Hillary may have her political faults, but she does realize what America's most important priorities should be. If, as a nation we take care of our children, we will be able to start to clean up our culture. In the book, Clinton talks openly about the vulgarity on TV and in the movies and says more regulation and awareness is needed in the area. She says the government must be involved, which hard core republicans may disagree with, but she also stresses (in so many words) that the government is us, and we must take responsibility for the children that we raise..some on an unhealthy diet of junk food, PlayStation and All Star Wrestling. She also is strong in her opinion about changes needed in the Family Medical Leave Act. Her words ring true when she says our culture focusses more on business production than on familyu development, in our get it now culture. I wish more books like this would be attempted. I believe the family in many ways, is in crisis, and we must be man enough to face it. We need more brave, Harry Truman like democrats who are not afraid to face the facts. Jeffrey McAndrew author of "Our Brown-Eyed Boy"

Socialism is alive and well in Clintonville:
What a total advocate for socialism! Hillary will always push for total Government control of all Americans from the cradle to the grave. She makes it very clear in this book that she expects the Government to do what is best for all citizens, and the ultimate product will be all citizens fitting into the same mold of admiration for her as President. I believe she sees her self as a benevolent dictator.

SOCIALISM?:
The title of this book comes from an African proverb. It is based on the theory that a child is best raised by a caring community. Within its pages are many well-intentioned statements that advocate the beauty of a world in which children are provided all that they need - education, health care, love and caring. To discredit it requires generalizing, which is never a good idea (but sometimes impossible to avoid), and to "put down" the idea that providing for kids is a good thing. Of course it is a good thing. The problem starts with Hillary Clinton, who speaks often about "the children." An overall assessment of Hillary - her background, her marriage and partnership with Bill Clinton, Hillarycare, the accusations against her and the inside stories of those who knew her best in Little Rock and D.C., are that her real desire is not to further the betterment of kids, but of her hold on power in America. She uses kids as a smokescreen in this effort. There is no arguing some of the things she advocates are good ideas, and so judging her and this book requires a Kabuki dance between truth and politics. This is what obfuscators are good at creating. There is a conservative opposition to Hillary's book, some of whom call it "It Takes A Village Idiot", which is based on the idea that raising kids is the job of parents, not the state. This is of course correct, but again requires generalizing. To advocate it blindly discredits the role of teachers, Foster parents, neighbors and social workers. Sometimes there are no biological parents around. The health care issue is a big one, and is easy to jump on. It sounds good, of course, to say that all kids should have health care. We live in a country in which they all do not. However, the Canadian-style Hillarycare that was so roundly defeated a decade ago is not the answer. It was explored inside and out at the time and found to be totally lacking as practical application. What we are left after Hillarycare is just Hillary. She is smart and knows how to pull our heartstrings. Watch out for her.(...)

Utter Poppycock!:
Fiddle faddle, I say, to this socialized notion of communal raising of children. The only child a village raises is the village idiot! Reduced to expecting handouts and spare change, the idiot becomes predestined for failure. My father, God rest his soul, taught me with a firm leather bullwhip that success goes to those who work hard for it. With his merciless beatings and occasional encouragement, I became self-reliant, hard working, and quite indifferent to what the village thinks. Not to mention, my fleshy buttocks are now coarser than month-old steel wool. I have never been wont for food or shelter, and have never taken a dime from the elitists. If only all of America had my father!