no more sense than to argue that thernabolition of the gruesome medieval punishmentrnof hanging, drawing, and quarteringrnwould inevitably lead to the abolitionrnof punishment altogether.rnMrs. Goodman argues that it is notrnthe business of Congress to ban anyrn”medical procedure.” In addition to beingrnan example of immoral extremism,rnher contention also illustrates the techniquernof giving an abomination a nicernname and then approving it. Dr. JackrnKevorkian wants suicide and his industriousrncollaboration in it to be accepted as arnmedical procedure: adding the wordsrn”phvsician assisted” apparently makesrnsuicide acceptable. Both Dr. Kevorkianrnand his attorney, Geoffrey Feiger, frequentlyrnlash out at those opponents whornhappen to have religious reasons, asrnthough having religious convictionsrnmeans instant disqualification for publicrndebate.rnIs there any procedure so gruesomernthat abortion advocates will relinquish it,rnthat senators can identify it as evil withoutrnexpert medical advice, or that PresidentrnClinton will not protect it by thernuse of his veto power? Apparently not.rnThose who call the Christian Coalitionrnand its allies “extremists” should, if theyrnwant to find real extremism, look atrnthose who defend “partial birth abortions”rnas just another “procedure.”rn—Harold O.]. BrownrnH I L L A R Y C L I N T O N probably deservesrnall of the hostile criticism she hasrnreceived for her silly new book. It Takes arnVillage. Her ghostwriter, Barbara Feinman,rnhas the prose style of Barney the dinosaur,rnand, as reviewer after reviewerrnhas noted, much of the book consistsrnof dumbed-down versions of all thernnanny-state policy proposals—socializedrnmedicine, home visits from “child-carernprofessionals,” midnight basketball—rnwhich have so endeared the Clintons tornsocial workers.rnBut while most of the popular scornrnhas targeted Hillary’s propaganda for thernDemocratic Party, her personal childrearingrnphilosophy has either gone unnoticed,rnor worse, passed muster, even onrnthe right. In this age of contraception,rnwe can set aside our doubts about “parenting”rntips from a parent who has limitedrnherself to one child, but the First Lady’srnzaniest opinions on children havernescaped criticism, precisely because theyrnare indistinguishable from the advicernthat appears in the “parenting” manualsrnand newspaper columns that teach latern20th-century parents how to rear theirrnchildren. Lengthy passages are liftedrnfrom “parenting” guru T. Berry Brazelton,rnand her endorsement of “lettingrn[children] choose for themselves” as thernproper path to “self-disciplined autonomy”rnbears striking resemblance to thernadvice of another famous childrearingrnexpert who wrote recently in his newspaperrncolumn that “self-esteem” flourishesrnin the “most democratic” families.rn”Parenting” is big book business theserndays, even as marital fertility in Americarnis at an all-time low. The First Lady’srnonly departure from the conventionalrnwisdom is her candor in expressing thernoperating principle that binds the childrearingrnexperts on the left and on thernright: “There is no such thing as otherrnpeople’s children.” Yet only people whorndo not have enough children of theirrnown have time to concern themselvesrnwith the “parenting” skills of strangers.rnNever in history have human beingsrnbeen surrounded by more institutions—rnpublic and private—to supervise thernrearing of so few children, and never hasrnthe job been performed so pooriy.rnFor all of the attention we are giing tornchildrearing, an increasing number ofrnchildren are growing up miscreants. ThernFirst Lady may argue that there is nornsuch thing as other people’s children,rnbut the public parks to which I take myrnchildren are frequented by other people’srnrotten children. The younger onesrnare pushy and selfish, and the older—rnthough not much older—are sloppy andrnfoul-mouthed.rnThere is no time to fret over the arrestedrndevelopment of the children ofrnstrangers because the task of rearing twornboys occupies the energies of two adults,rnwith no time left over for: “Videos withrnscenes of commonsense baby care—howrnto burp an infant, what to do when soaprngets in his eyes, how to make a baby withrnan earache comfortable” playing continuouslyrn”anywhere people gather andrnhave to wait.” My wife is too busy makingrndinner to evaluate the theory that “arnsensible meat serving… is about the sizernof a deck of cards.” Even if I listened tornthe radio—known as “the electronic village”rn—I might not appreciate thern”child-care tips” Hillary wants inserted inrn”the middle of the Top Ten countdown.”rnEven in a world of so few children wernought not require experts—public or privatern—to tell us what is self-evident.rnWhen we need a baby-grooming videornat the airport to tell us hoyv to deal with arnchild who gets shampoo in his eyes, wernare really in trouble. Human nature,rnhowever, ought to prevent such a dayrnfrom ever coming. While the saints inrnour midst might truly cherish those magicrnmoments—of the 3:00 A.M. feedingsrn—the rest of us, fretting about therntrials that tomorrow promises, will continuernto get up for our screaming childrenrnso that we can all get back to sleep.rnIf you are searching for solid childrearingrnadvice, and your own common sensernand parents have abandoned you, yourncould do worse than consult some ofrnthe aphorisms that never would havernbecome trite if they were not true: littlernreflections on such things as the consequencesrnof sparing the rod overmuchrnand the benefits of seeing, not hearing,rnchildren.rnShould you require more detailedrnguidance, one reliable rule of thumbrnwould be, “the older, the better.”rnPlutarch’s De Liberis Educandis is safe;rnmy favorite is St. John Chrysostom’srn”Address on Vainglory and the RightrnWay for Parents to Bring Vp Their Children.”rnA sample: “When he is ten orrneight or even younger, let him hear inrnfull detail the story of the flood, the destructionrnof Sodom, the descent intornEgypt—whatever stories are full of divinernpunishment.” Doubtless the goodrnbishop felt such stories would do wondersrnfor the child’s self-esteem.rn—Christopher CheckrnO B I T E R DICTA: Right Now/, thernquartedy journal on politics and culturernpublished by Derrick Turner in London,rnnow has an office in the I’nited States.rnFor a one-year subscription, send $ 15 tornRight Now!, 333 East Maple Ave., Suitern225, Vienna, VA 22180. A sample copyrnmay be purchased for $5.rn* * *rnChronicles is now available at the followingrnstores in Oklahoma: Barnes &rnNoble Superstore, 13800 North MayrnAve., Oklahoma City; Steve’s Books andrnMagazines, 2612 S. Harvard St., Tulsa;rnHastings Bookstore, 1135 Lonny Abbott,rnAda; Hastings Bookstore, 38th andrnCache Rd., Lawton; Hastings Bookstore,rn1105 Garth Brooks Boulevard, Yukon.rnJUNE 1996/9rnrnrn