Anyone who travels the back roads of South Carolina will find this familiar. Around three each weekday afternoon, cars start to appear at the end of the driveway. Even if the house is within rock throwing distance, the SUV is sitting with the motor running, waiting for the school bus to arrive.

When that happens, the kids stroll out of the big yellow taxi and walk to the safety of the parents’ auto. In rare cases a grand parent might actually walk out to the road to meet the bus and escort the child to the safety of the computer screen and TV. The bus driver holds up traffic until each passenger is danger free.

My father walked to school; ten miles in the snow both ways. His lunch was a stale biscuit left over from breakfast. That must be true; he told me about it on many occasions. I never had to suffer such hardship but did ride the bus or walk until I was in high school and never received front door delivery.

The majority of today’s parents assume danger is lurking behind every tree and in each passing car. Those who are responsible for children have been programmed into thinking this way by a relentless attack of misinformation by network television especially daytime shows targeting moms. Fear increases ratings.

Children are infinitely safer today than ever before in human history. They live longer and are more aware of their surroundings than any previous generation and less likely to suffer any hardship.

Yet, when hammered incessantly with stories about child molesters, internet predators, swine flu, Ecoli, and teenaged killers, parents fear their child will not live to get a driver’s license.

The metamorphosis of Halloween illustrates this best. Two generations ago kids were allowed to roam the neighborhoods unsupervised and solicit candy and homemade treats from neighbors. Lonely old folks who rarely saw kids would spend hours baking treats to deliver to the ghosts who came knocking.

Today, not only are homemade treats not allowed, anything offered with a torn wrapper might get a visit from the local SWAT team. Horror stories of brownies with LSD, apples with razor blades, and candy bars with doses of Drano inserted with hypodermics have reduced the idea of eating Halloween bounty to hysteria.

But there are no documented cases of any of this happening, ever. The only actual case of intentional Halloween poisoning was by a father who thought he could get away with it because the practice was so widespread.

Even the scariest creature today, the internet predator, is overstated. Nearly 90% of all abduction and molestation cases in children are committed by someone the child knows. The most serious danger to kids these days is dinner. We’ve seen a dramatic rise in childhood obesity.

The increasing instance of diabetes and heart disease is alarming health professionals and setting up the next generation for a real crisis. Yet, no one is worried about this because the

Today Show can’t scare parents with an episode about evil Happy Meals and breakfast cereals with corn syrup added.

The crazy lurking neighbor is easier to portray and gets our attention.