Posted by
Corthell on Friday, December 25, 2009 4:00:51 PM
A notable note: Bob Clark, director of this magical movie, and his son, were killed by an illegal alien. This says as much about modern-day America as does the dissolution of the prototypical family unit depicted so magnificently in "A Christmas Story."
Set in the 1940s, "A Christmas Story" depicts a series of family vignettes through the eyes of 9-year-old Ralphie Parker, who yearns for that gift of all gifts: the Daisy Red Ryder BB gun. This was boyhood before "bang-bang you're dead" was banned. Family life prior to "One Dad, Two Dads, Brown Dad, Blue Dads," and Christmas without the ACLU.
If children could choose their families, most would opt for the kind depicted in this film, where mother is a homemaker, father is a regular working stiff, and between them they have zero repertoire of psychobabble to rub together.
Although clearly adored, Ralphie is not encouraged to express his feelings. Instead, he is urged to show restraint and is disciplined when naughty. And horrors: The little boy even has his mouth washed out with soap and water for uttering the "F" expletive. ("My personal preference was for Lux," reveals Ralphie. "But I found Palmolive had a nice piquant after-dinner flavor – heady but with just a touch of mellow smoothness.") When he refuses his food, Ralphie is also guilt-tripped about starving Biafrans.
Such parenting would fail every progressive commandment. By today's standards, the delightful, unprecocious protagonist of "A Christmas Story" would be doomed to an emotional abyss – and certainly to heavy doses of Ritalin for day-dreaming in class and for being all boy in general...While America's founders intended for the family to be left untouched as "the major source of an orderly and free society" – Dr. Allan Carlson's words – politicians and justices decided to the contrary. What was once the economic and social backbone of American society has been inestimably weakened by both the welfare state and the Supreme Court – what with the latter's radical interpretations of what constitutes a family and marriage, and the former's incremental steps to trounce parents as the child's primary socialization agent. Contemporary America's familial fragmentation – sky-high divorce rates and illegitimacy – have translated into juvenile crime, drug abuse
and illiteracy.
Yet despite all the state has done to "free" children from the strictures of the traditional family, ask any "emancipated" child and he'll tell you that more than anything he yearns for a family like Ralphie's.
Lucky is the little boy who has such a family. Luckier still is the lad who has both such a family and … a BB gun. http://www.wnd.com/index.php?fa=PAGE.view&pageId=120008