I thought the list should see this from the former head of California's Democratic Party, former CrossFire on CNN, etc. The content is not my concern, it is the title...published in the San Diego Union-Tribune and probably many other papers around the country. Text follows: Child abuse, Cajun-style Bill Press Press a political analyst for MSNBC is author of "Spin This!" He can be reached via e-mail at <A HREF="mailto:BillPress@aol.com">BillPress@aol.com</A>. December 5, 2003 I have a confession to make: I am a card-carrying member of the ACLU. That doesn't mean I always agree with that bunch of lefties. Concerned about the easy access for children, for example, I never bought into their broad defense of pornography on the Internet. But I stood up and applauded when they forced Roy Moore to move his monument to the Ten Commandments out of the Alabama state courthouse. I love the Constitution. I treasure the Bill of Rights. I recognize that federal and state governments, under both Democratic and Republican leaders – and especially this administration – are constantly trying to chip away at our freedom. So I love the fact that there is one organization whose sole purpose, night and day, is to fight for and defend the basic rights of all Americans, liberal and conservative. Yes, even the rights of a 7-year-old kid from Louisiana. Here's one more case where the ACLU is dead right. Call it child abuse, Cajun-style. The ACLU's against it. We all should be. It happened at Gallet Elementary School in Youngsville, La. Second-grader Marcus McLaurin was lined up with his fellow students for recess when a friend asked about his mother and father. In a scene that's happening more and more in schoolyards across the country, Marcus said he didn't have a mother and father, he had two mothers. Understandably confused – remember, we're talking about two 7-year-olds here – his friend asked why he had two moms. Marcus said, because my mom is "gay." When his friend still didn't understand, Marcus explained: "Gay is when a girl likes another girl." Now, let's stop right there. If you ask me, this kid showed a lot of cool under fire. He also showed that he'd been taught by his mother how to deal with this situation. And that she'd given him just enough, but not too much, information: all a 7-year-old needed to know or tell other people. Seems to me both mother and son got it just right. But that's not how school officials reacted. His teacher berated him in front of the entire class, telling him "gay" was a bad word he should never say again – and sent him to the principal's office. From there he was sent to the school's behavioral problems clinic, where he was ordered to write 100 times: "I will never say the word 'gay' in school again." What a horrible thing to do to that little kid! Publicly humiliated by his teacher in front of his classmates. And then forced to repudiate his mother in writing. He didn't even know what he had done wrong – and, in fact, he had done nothing wrong at all. How could an elementary school teacher and principal be so cruel, and so ignorant? While poor little Marcus was being tortured, authorities turned on his mother. She received a phone call saying her son was being punished for using a foul word: a word so foul, the principal told her, he dared not utter it over the phone. Marcus would bring home a note, he said, spelling out his crime. What planet are these people living on? In case school officials in Youngsville, La., don't know it yet, "gay" is not a bad word. Neither is "homosexual." And neither is "lesbian." Enter the ACLU, with a very reasonable request. They're not demanding the teacher be fired, or the principal sent to jail. They're simply requesting that the school erase this incident from Marcus' disciplinary record, that teachers never again prevent him from exercising his freedom of speech (or talking about his mom) and that school officials apologize to him and his mother. Frankly, I think the ACLU is letting them off the hook too easily. They should make two other demands of school officials. First, they should require the teacher and principal to spend a couple of days in New Orleans, Atlanta, Miami, Chicago, San Francisco, Los Angeles, Seattle, New York, Boston, Washington or any other American city where they might actually meet a real live gay man or lesbian and discover that they don't look any different, don't have horns and don't have one eye in the middle of their forehead. Then, on their way back to Youngsville, the chastened school officials should have to write 1,000 times: "Gay is not a four-letter word." Let Marcus have his revenge. Copyright 2003 Union-Tribune Publishing Co.