i was talking to a friend yesterday and i said that i thought the adrian peterson's case and the ray rice/greg hardy/ray mcdonald cases need to be handled separately.
first, let me say this: I BELIEVE HITTING A CHILD IS WRONG AT ALL TIMES.
so my reasoning was b/c peterson's intention was not to abuse his child. his intention was to teach his son, to be a good father, although he stepped WAY over the line on this. i agree that in most cases, intention does not matter. but in THIS case, i think it needs to be taken into account in order to separate the issues. having said all that, i think peterson should be punished for what he did to his son. i'm not sure what that punishment should be, but it's not banishment from the league.
but what concerns me is that the general public is trying to decide what's right and wrong when it comes to raising a child. don't get it twisted, as someone who was raised with corporal punishment, i think it's wrong and plenty of research tells me that it is wrong. but what i'm trying to say is i think it's a slippery slope if we allow others to tell us how to raise our children.
multiple people said that in the south, black parents widely use corporal punishment. that means those people in the south are not bothered by the fact that peterson hit his son, but if they are bothered at all, it's the extent of the punishment that bothered them and rightly so. once again, for that, peterson should be punished.
so i think that should be made illegal. but my biggest worry is that's not where it will stop. if we allow outside forces to tell us how to raise our children, how will we know that those forces will always have the interest of the children as their highest priority?
