WE NO LONGER HAVE TIME TO CALL TIMEOUT

We live in a timeout society and, if we don't watch out, it will destroy us.

It starts at home, when parents think they are punishing their
children by sending them to a timeout. In reality, children learn
that a timeout means the child has won the battle of wills. It's the
parents who need the pause from conflict. The child grows up without
respect for the word "no" and no respect for authority.

Timeout is further ingrained in our America spirit with our love of
sports. When the going gets tough, call "timeout."

As we sit watching television, with excitement building to a fever
pitch, the station calls a commercial timeout. We learn to depend on
it for a bathroom break and a bag of chips to enhance our obesity.

These are merely the first steps leading to a habit of avoiding
problems in our society. Timeout fosters disrespect, stalls justice
and undermines enforcement of laws. Consider these recent trends.

- -- Teenage criminals are treated with kid gloves, getting a break
with each crime they commit. This faint-hearted approach leads to
youthful cynicism and lawlessness.

- -- Nowhere is timeout abused with such impunity as in the court
system. Just when a victim of crime is certain that justice will
prevail, a lawyer cries, "Timeout!" Listen to the stories of women
trying to collect child support.

- -- The most frustrating job in America must be that of a police
officer. The problem started in the 1960s, when the Supreme Court
declared police officers must read a criminal his or her "rights." As
expected, crime skyrocketed. People now provoke police officers to
instigate a lawsuit.

- -- The death penalty is fair punishment for some crimes, but there is
always a do-gooder with a placard trying to delay the execution.
Relatives of murder victims suffer, while murderers enjoy years of
food and housing at our expense.

- -- Forty years ago, we began fighting a war on drugs. Pressure groups
responded with timeouts. It didn't take drug dealers long to realize
the only serious warriors in this struggle were the other drug
dealers. Society should deal with this problem the way it used to
stop horse thieves, with a very public demonstration of our resolve.

- -- About the same time, our government declared a war on poverty.
People took a timeout from work and started looking for the poverty
money. Jesse Jackson and Al Sharpton found lifetime careers.

- -- Americans were united and ready to wage a war on terror after
losing 3,000 lives on 9/11. Who would have predicted that Cindy
Sheehan and the timeout crowd in Congress and the media would quickly
divert our attention from fighting terrorists to quarreling among
ourselves? The terrorists depend on our wimpy timeout culture to defeat us.

- -- So many people have been calling timeout regarding illegal
immigration that the illegals have become legitimate players in the
American game of life. Is it any wonder they refuse to "go to their
rooms" when told to leave? They know American laws are toothless.

- -- Finally, leave it to Al Gore to call a timeout from debate about
global warming to organize "high energy use" rock concerts to urge
wiser use of energy.

Where is the tough, principled, wise and moral leadership our country
needs? The presidential wannabes leave much to be desired.