You bet we need family values

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All you have to do is look at what’s happened in just the last three weeks in Washington State.

There was the case of Josh Powell, the upset father who immolated himself and his two young sons February 5th. The boys’ grandparents say the state should have provided much more intense supervision … instead of just sending an “elderly woman,” as they described the caseworker, to supervise that last visit that ended when Powell locked the caseworker out, attacked the boys with an axe and blew up the house.

There’s the case of the State Trooper murdered Thursday morning during a traffic stop, by a suspect who later shot himself. Court records show that suspect, Joshua Blake, had been in trouble since age 14. Drugs, driving under the influence, beating up a girlfriend. He finally went to the state pen, finally served his time, and was taken off supervision — but warned friends he’d kill a cop rather than go back.

And then Thursday’s shooting of an 8-year-old girl in her classroom: It was an accident — a 9-year-old boy slammed a backpack on the desk with a cocked .45 inside, and it went off. But not JUST an accident — because the boy’s parents were separated, both in trouble with the law; the boy had been telling classmates he wanted to run away, and took his mom’s gun for protection.

These three cases alone represent hundreds of thousands — maybe even millions of dollars worth of state supervision, and even that wasn’t enough. So when I hear candidates talk about reinforcing family values, I say Amen. But I don’t think the current debate — being that it’s about contraception, vaginal ultrasounds, and gay marriage — is going to help.

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