California teen threatens the President on her Myspace account

I just read on FoxNews.com about a 14-year old girl in California who is "upset" about the war in Iraq. So what did this self-described "peace-loving person" do? She posted last spring on her Myspace.com page when she was in eighth grade a picture of President Bush with the words "Kill Bush" across the top and a dagger stabbing his hand. This misguided CHILD then learned that (gasp) such things are a federal offense, so she tries to take down her site before federal agents discover it. Too late. Julia Wilson would soon find herself facing two Secret Service agents, who questioned her about the site. They pulled her out of class to question her (she is now a freshman). Her parents are upset that they were not included when their daughter was questioned, but that they believed the agents were justified in questioning Julia, but that they went too far by not waiting until she was out of school (nowhere was it mentioned that they were upset by what their daughter did). The parents also state that the agents should have found out sooner that they were not dealing with a threat.

Julia describes the situation with the agents in an attempt to pull at America's heart strings, a kind of "How dare the evil administration harass a little girl over something on her webpage when she is not a threat." She notes how the questioning left her in tears and that the agents "yelled at me a lot" and were "unnecessarily mean." Julia, YOU THREATENED THE LIFE OF THE PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES. While you may be a kid, the government cannot take such things lightly. You whine about the agents being mean to you, have you never been yelled at for doing something wrong? Did you not think that what you posted could be wrong?

I did that to illustrate a point, she is a child and is whining as if she was being treated too harsh for something that is very serious. I believe that she is only upset because she was caught. Honestly, if she were my daughter, the two agents would be the least of her worries. While she is a little too old for spanking, she would lose all electronic devices, computer especially, and be grounded for a very long time. Perhaps treating her as a much younger child with earlier bedtime and loss of teenage privileges in addition to the grounding would be in order because she obviously demonstrated poor judgment and a lack of maturity. I know that I may get some emails or comments from parents who will tell me "How dare I stifle her individuality and violate her rights." This only leads me to my next point.

This case brings a debate to the forefront, whether kids are entitled to the rights in the Bill of Rights. I firmly believe they are not. I was taught in government class when I was 18 and newly registered to vote that those who don't do anything to change the system have no right to question it. Meaning if you don't vote, don't say anything about the government as you are doing nothing to change the system. I have dealt with professors who are not US citizens and think that they can comment on our government and I have wanted to tell them to keep quiet. This applies to children as well. I am not saying that parents should not talk with their kids about politics when they are young as doing so will educate the child as to how our system works and make them a more informed voter, which is good when they turn 18. However, such discussions should be limited to the privacy of the home and only between the child and parents/guardians. Most adults do not want to here about politics from kids and I certainly feel that they should just be kids as they grow up fast enough (I'm 22 and I still can't believe how fast time flies and I have heard it gets better the older you get) and the adult things will have many more years to flourish.

As for the Bill of Rights, I mentioned the above to show that I believe these rights are a guarantee of adult citizenship and do not apply to children. I do believe that kids have rights: the right to be loved, the right to feel safe and protected, the right to clean clothes (meaning that they are not running around in rags in winter), the right to a warm loving home, and the right to play and have fun. I believe that Julia Wilson is entitled to these rights as are all children, but she is NOT entitled to free speech rights. That right, as with the others in the Constitution, come with great responsibility, which is beyond what a child can handle. You can't run into a crowded theater and yell "Fire!" as it would start a panic, just as you can't threaten the life of the President.

To go back to the parents stating that the agents should have realized sooner that Julia was not a threat, where have you been the last few years? We live in an age where creeps impersonate children online and children threaten to kill their classmates because they were teased. Who is to say that Julia's website was not being run by a terrorist or other threat? We have bomb threats called into schools that turn out to be nothing, should the authorities assume that every threat is just that? No, just like they can't assume that every threat on the President's life is not coming from a misguided child who has too much time and freedom as far as parental control. Let this be a lesson to all you parents, do NOT let your child have a Myspace account, they don't need it. Also, make it clear that things like this are very serious and come with serious consequences. To all you liberal parents who despise Bush and the war, while you are entitled to your opinions (and I appreciate you reading my blog), please tell your kids that they should not mimic your politics and that things like the case above can get them in serious trouble.

As for Julia, I don't know if she really learned her lesson. She is back on Myspace attempting to organize her fellow children to protest the war. Though the agents said they would delete the case file on her, I would personally look into the parents as well as in most cases the apple does not fall far from the tree. Freedom is precious, but it also comes with a great price and with great responsibility, which I believe most children can't grasp or handle. Kids, get off the computer and go outside and play. Your only kids for so long, leave the politics to us adults.