The national USA organization formerly known as MADD has decided to follow the lead of it’s offspring Students Against Drunk Driving, a.k.a. SADD, which has recently changed it’s name to Students Against Destructive Behavior. MADD, formerly known as Mothers Against Drunk Driving, has just announced that they will be changing their goals, as well as taking on a new name and acronym.

Give Less Advice - Don’t Dictate, or GLADD, hopes it will have a much greater impact on America’s society now that it will be broadening it’s scope beyond fighting drunk driving. The new focus will be on increasing youth participation in all social activities, from sports and entertainment to politics and even financial and commercial roles.

“We believe that our image as a bunch of hard-line bitter old timers needed a face lift, in order to change the public’s perception of our group, so we deliberately chose a cheerful name that will be more attractive, especially to the young people whose future we hope to impact”, explained Ms. Mary B. Loveless, the Associate Director of GLADD’s Public Relations. “As a single mother of fourteen children, I have learned that the more you try to control these young kids, the more they’ll resist. So, we will now be advocating that all parents should encourage kids to make their own decisions, starting very early in life, but especially in the teen years.”

Ms. Loveless also said that GLADD is not abandoning it’s primary mission to combat drunken driving. “We’re not walking away, we’re simply reaching beyond our traditional boundaries. These are issues that young people have told us are very important to them, and if they feel more responsible for their own actions, then they’ll be more likely to make better decisions, including knowing when they should get drunk out of their minds just for the fun of it and go for a joyride. Everybody agrees that kids today are growing up faster than ever, and facing so many more issues. We as parents need to make them realize they are in fact the ones who are in complete control of their own lives, especially since the world has changed so much since we were their age.”

Opposing views from conservative groups such as the Christian Church and Boy/Girl Scouts of America have voiced concerns that this liberal approach may backfire. “If young people begin making major decisions and eventually rebel, we could get to the point where they would begin making laws that would regulate older adults in favor of youth interests, in a reversal of the traditional social pecking order” explained Reverend Kidd M. Lester. “Who knows what kind of abuse us older people might eventually be subjected to by these kids? It’s just plain wrong, I say.”

My son tells me I should be GLADD about this, he sure seems to be....