Vote is on the right side of history

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In asserting the rights of school-age individuals over the rights of parents in matters of their children's privacy, the majority in the Modesto school board is on the right side of history.

In ancient Greece, the individual was freed from the bonds of the family by the humane intervention of the city-states. Historian Arnold Toynbee writes ("Hellenism"), "In the bosom of the family human beings are not independent personalities, with minds and wills of their own." They are "twigs of a family tree." Hellenic city-states gave human beings both scope and stimulus.

And before the "family values" crowds hurl their thunderbolts at me, consider what Jesus says (Matthew 19:29): "And every one that hath forsaken houses, or brethren, or sisters, or father, or mother, or wife, or children, or lands, for my name's sake shall receive an hundredfold and shall inherit everlasting life."

The great majority of Modesto families will have no problem with the school board's decision. If nothing else, it may force all families to seek ways to strengthen mutual respect, trust and better communications. But, for the child with tyrannical and potentially violent parents, the Modesto board's action is a godsend.

EUGENE CONROTTO
Modesto