We, of the Coalition, are composed of groups of parents and grandparents, concerned with the creeping state paternalism which has intruded into the fundamental right of fit parents to direct the right of custody and control of their children. The decade of the 60's spawned a continuing wave of advocacy groups pressuring their elected representatives for special statutory right to advance their own agenda. Each time a group was awarded a special right, the previous beneficiaries of that right became sacrificial lambs on the altar of political expedience.

The increase in out of wedlock births, divorces, juvenile crime, and declining performance on standardized tests parallels the increasing intrusion in family life by those who think they are better qualified than parents do decide what is in the best interest of the child.

As grandparents, we have a duty to leave to our children a legacy that we as parents enjoyed. We grandparents, as parents, enjoyed the right to decide what was in the best interest of our children in matters of health, education, and religion. We, as parents, certainly enjoyed not only the right but also the responsibility of deciding with whom our children could associate, a very necessary ingredient to successful child rearing.

The Coalition supports the restoration of those traditional parental rights. We believe parents have a constitutional right to unrestricted custody and control of their children as long as parental decisions are not a detriment to the child's health, safety, or welfare.

The Coalition believes child rearing is a fundamental right, rooted in common law, and supported by the Constitution as interpreted by numerous Supreme Court decisions. Neither state legislatures nor the courts have the constitutional authority to impose their theories of child rearing, cloaked in the vagaries of "the child's best interest," over that of fit parents.

With advocacy groups advancing their latest theories of the child's best interest, I ask both parents and grandparents to join in a united front that will send a message to our elected representatives to restore those traditional parental rights that once made families the very foundation of society.