Every day parents drop their children off at daycare. They hope and pray their child has a good day, eats his lunch and snacks, doesn’t cry too much and plays with friends. They expect their licensed daycare program will offer a safe and secure haven while they’re at work.

It’s every parent’s nightmare to imagine their child is neither being loved nor safe while in someone else’s care. To hear that some workers at a daycare program are mistreating children is terrible. To learn that these workers are putting the little children into a fight club setting, forcing them to beat and fight with other little ones is worse than a nightmare.

But that’s the scenario discovered at a Delaware program. A policeman working on a separate case came across video of children in just such an unimaginable position. Children were taped fighting and if they cried or left the ‘fight’ they were put back in the situation.

A truly horrific scene and if found guilty these day care workers should be punished to the fullest extent of the law.

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Fives states were involved in the investigation– Florida, Massachusetts, Michigan, Oregon and Texas.

Melissa McCafferty, who lives in a peaceful cul-de-sac, scrambled up her kids’ basketball pole to protest its removal. After unsuccessfully trying to persuade her to come down, and, she claims, threatening to tear the pole down with her on it, the crew moved on. But as her husband, John, was being interviewed by a reporter for the News Journal, the posse returned. The video of the resulting confrontation, posted on YouTube.com, immediately went viral.

The family’s vehicles were parked under the pole to prevent its removal. In the video, John and Melissa are threatened with arrest if they do not cooperate. After being told that he could keep the pole—“They’ll lay it in your driveway”—John begins yelling when the pole is knocked down and loaded into a truck. “You just told me I can keep it. You lied!” he exclaims, incredulous. “I did not,” is the cold reply. McCafferty is ordered to go into his home and stop taunting the workers. Admirably, he refuses, citing his First Amendment rights, and stands in the front yard with Melissa as state employees steal a basketball hoop that had been in place for sixty years, with the indirect assistance of state cops sauntering around like the jack-booted thugs of some third-world dictator’s private security force.

A state law passed in 2005 empowers DelDOT to remove objects within seven feet of the pavement in subdivisions, so Operation March Sadness might have been legal. But does the law require officials—including officers of the Delaware State Police—to behave like arrogant bullies? Does it encourage them to lie to law-abiding citizens? And where, exactly, does one draw the line between “removal” and theft?

Of course, a law is a complex thing. There are good laws that ought to be obeyed, bad laws that ought to be repealed, and very bad laws that ought to be disregarded. As a society, we recognize the importance of nonviolent civil disobedience, which is often the citizen’s only option when government crosses the line. McCafferty wanted to file an injunction in Chancery Court, but was not given time. His choice: To yield before police-enforced injustice, or to be arrested?

As for the details of the law in question, seven feet of a homeowner’s yard is quite a bit of ground, particularly in a subdivision. Is there such a thing as property rights in the modern United States, or are we truly the subjects of a government that owns everything? Assuming that property rights cannot legitimately be stripped away or infringed upon by state legislators, this law might not be deserving of Delawareans’ compliance.

As for the state employees who were involved in Operation March Sadness, they should, at the very least, be required to publicly apologize to the victims of their bullying. Considering which party controls the First State, they’re more likely to receive a pay raise.

“As we head into the home stretch of the election season, Delawareans have a stark choice. If voters think that they are sending too little money to Washington, Dover and local governments, then they should vote for the other ticket. If they think government is too small, spending is too restrained, and bureaucrats and politicians have too little control over their lives, then by all means, they should vote for the party that has been in charge for so long. If, however, Delaware voters know that they are already taxed too much, that government spending is recklessly out of control and that know-it-alls in Washington and state and local capitals have too much power over their lives, then it’s time to vote for Republicans up and down the ticket. We have the opportunity to rescue our country and our state from fiscal and Constitutional disaster. In November, Delawareans will stand for those First Principles that have made our nation so exceptional and will provide the next generation a legacy of strength and prosperity.”

Distinguished members of the community as well as O’Donnell supporters and volunteers also attended the lunch and reception.