By now you’ve probably seen the viral video of the Albemarle, NC, dad who shot his daughter’s laptop eight times because she posted a Facebook update that used vulgarities and was disrespectful to her parents. It has been viewed 28.5 million times at this point.
I’m sure there are a lot of clueless lefties who think the dad, whose name is Tommy Jordan, is a redneck, gun-totin, cowboy-hat-wearin’ backwoods yay-hoo, but from what I’ve seen, that’s anything but the case. On first viewing of his YouTube video, my response was, “Hell, yeah! More power to you. Way to be a dad.”
I think my response is probably more representative of the response nationally than some pursed-lip, snooty, Chablis-sipping, condescending liberal here in the Triangle, or Manhattan, or LA. As Jordan intimates in some Q-and-A responses to ABC news, there must have been a pent-up feeling out there that the knocks on traditional parenting needed some serious pushback, and Jordan provided it.
What disturbed me reading his responses to ABC News was his account of the intervention of Child Protective Services. Now, I’ve got a history of antipathy for social workers, especially people who presume to know from a textbook how a parent should raise his or her children. I think there are serious psychological reasons/problems that make some people want to do that. Maybe some are seriously concerned about kids, but most I’ve known just want to impose their values and child-rearing theories on others.
It is sad to know that the life of Jordan and his family was intruded upon by some do-gooder CPS social worker who put them through more turmoil for no reason than has all the international notoriety they have endured since this video went up. It’s doubly sad that he can’t tell the CPS worker to just go stuff his or herself, which is what they deserve. As he so eloquently put it to ABC:
The stress of having someone in your life, however polite they appear to be, that can take your kids away from you though; that’s not something I want to repeat, ever. It drove our kids crazy, my wife crazy, and myself a little crazy. In the end, there were a lot of things I was disappointed in CPS with, but I’m not going to air that here or anywhere else. The sad thing about CPS is that if you poke them back with a stick, no matter how well-deserved you might feel it is, you just invite more trouble. You don’t play King of the Mountain with someone who can take your children from you. You just don’t.
Looking at the now-famous video, any person with a lick of sense would know this is a good father making a point. But social work attracts abnormal people who think guns are evidence of deviance, who think that strong parenting equals bad parenting, and who think that if little Dylan or Zooey don’t get their way at every turn, then the parents are doing something wrong.
It’s enough to make you want to go out and shoot a laptop.
