A reader whose name and background I know sent me this story. I have changed names in it, and some minor identifying details to protect everyone’s privacy:

I thought you might be interested to hear this story which is about the daughter of one of my colleagues. As I have mentioned, I am a [profession], and I am very lucky to have two sweet, dedicated assistants. Rose has been with me for twenty years and the other, Annie, has been with me for fourteen years. My office is laid back and genial. It is really a nice work environment where the clients and staff are like an extended family.

In addition to working for me, Annie also drives a bus for the school district, and her husband works for a major regional employer in customer service. They have three daughters who are very smart, and they work hard to provide for them. The oldest graduated third in her class of thirteen hundred and was given a scholarship to attend an Ivy League university. The other two daughters—twins—attend a different university in a nearby city. As I mentioned, my relationship with these assistants is almost like family, and they will vent to me on occasion about some of their trials and tribulations.

The other day, Annie told me that there was a family argument because the daughter was going to schedule an appointment at the gynecologist to get her tubes tied. She is twenty-two years old! Her rationale was that the world is too awful and that no more children should be brought into this hellhole.

I have known her daughter since she was eight years old, and for the past fourteen years her mother has told me about her increasingly radical, Leftist views. Starting in high school, the cause was environmentalism, and then being at that Ivy League university, especially during these last two years, the cause has also grown to include the usual diversity, equity, inclusion, social justice and destroy-Western-Civilization bullshit.

Last year, the same daughter made an appointment at Planned Parenthood to have an IUD implanted. Her mother threw a fit, as they have good health insurance; she lamented to me that if she wanted an IUD she could go to any gynecologist in the suburbs for a more hygienic and safer procedure. And what’s even more troubling is that the daughter isn’t even sexually active according to her mother (knowing the mother and the daughter, I believe it). Therefore, it wasn’t even for preventing pregnancy but rather for making a statement of solidarity with her “Black” and “Brown” sisters.

Two years ago, none of the three daughters wished their mother a Happy Mother’s Day, as they considered it an antiquated custom. The list goes on and on with gender fluidity, pronoun usage and of course, all the silliness with COVID hibernation. Now, keep in mind that the mother and the father are working class Democrats who have sacrificed for their three daughters; they are thoroughly middle class in their commitment to their children, and their children hate it.

Yet, the mother, with whom I work, often yields to her daughters in these silly arguments—well, with the exception of the most recent argument of having her tubes tied. I hope that this last argument turns on a lightbulb for the parents. Neither parent graduated from college, but they are good people, and as a result, they second-guess their own judgement and common sense reactions to these radical philosophies being pushed at these universities. These kids are becoming evil. At least one consolation is that if the daughter gets her tubes tied, that’s the end of that bloodline. But with that said, I felt truly sorry for my assistant, knowing that one of the greatest gifts is children and grandchildren — and that the Left and its universities are destroying that gift.

Now on a more optimistic note, I have attached a Christmas photo from one of my neighbors. The father is the pastor of a local Mennonite church. They have eleven children (they had twelve, but one died shortly after childbirth). They have all been homeschooled, and they are all very sweet and pleasant. The younger ones look after many of the other children and the elderly in the neighborhood, and the older ones who are married with children work as nurses, plumbers, teachers and painters. They are certainly an anomaly in our town, but they have also been a treasure. The mother and the daughters still wear the bonnets and full-length dresses and the men and the boys are always in long pants. And in their small plot of land (the houses in our town are small and usually set on a fifth or quarter of an acre) they raise fruits and vegetables that are given out to many in the neighborhood. They even carol as a family in the neighborhood on Christmas Eve, which is a joy for me and my wife and daughters each year.

Why have I written this? After hearing that my assistant’s daughter wants to be barren through tubal ligation as opposed to taking the pill or even the IUD, [I see that she] is bitter, hostile and final; I feel awful and angry for this twenty-two year old, because she has been so manipulated by the Left and the Ivy League. And then I look at the photo of my Mennonite neighbors, who through their faith, are so hopeful for the future with all their children and grandchildren.