At the time of this writing the number of Texas soldiers killed in the war in Iraq during THREE years of fighting, 145.

The number of children killed in Texas by parents, stepparents, or other guardians by the "cherished" and widely accepted use of corporal punishment in only ONE year, 204.

During the past three years, 145 families in Texas have been put through much sorrow with the news that a loved one has been killed in the war in Iraq. However, during the year 2004 alone, 204 children in Texas bid good-bye to us as their lives were taken from them, not by insurgents or snipers, but by those usually living under the same roof with them.

For these children, it was a war where they could not fight back, where misguided so-called ministers bellowed their "amens" in support of hitting kids, where many schools clung to policies supporting corporal punishment and thereby educating and encouraging parents to hit, where oddball freaks got their sexual kicks with every blow they were able to see or even hear about, where nostalgic idiots walked around rubbing their fat behinds proclaiming, "I got it when I was a kid and I turned out all right!"

Some of these deaths took place when parents or others went crazy and attacked them. Even so, their excuse for doing it was based on the acceptance of hitting children. Quite often they would say, "God told me to do it!" Not so.

Most often the deadly act started out with the impression of a "good old fashioned whipping" that many people rave with delight about. The kid just couldn't take it, or things happened and the intensity of the blows grew. The result was another dead child. In addition to the 204 killed by corporal punishment and etc., no one knows how many others were beaten close to the point of death or were badly injured.

I am sure that each of the other 49 states also had more children who died from corporal punishment by their caretakers than soldiers killed in the war. We are not a nation of kindness to children, especially in Texas.

People would be reluctant to ever hit in the first place in we had laws against it. Also, the acceptance of the deadly practice would fade and maybe, just maybe, kids could grow up.

Doyle Weaver
Dallas, Texas

Sources: Internet news, and Child Protective Services