218- S-P-A-N-K-I-N-G!...TO Or NOT TO?......

Take some time to ponder this one...I already have!
We need to include terms like "spanking"..."slapping"...and "whipping."
According to many researches over the years, the majority of parents do "spank", meaning a swat ON the fanny. But, from all of my empirical knowlege and readings, there is a huge difference of opinion on a personal level in American society as to whether it's the right thing to do to spank or not to spank. And, remember, no one has ever come up with a teaching class or license in our society's history to judge whether "spanking" works!
A looong 100-year-old series of studies have indicated that spanking does make a spanked child more aggressive in the long run but seems to work in the short term. The researchers have also concluded that, with the "defiant" child, spanking does make the practice worse!
Again, don't forget that the studies relate ONLY to spanking on the butt-butt.
"Slapping" and "whipping" were not included in the research.
This social practice will never be resolved until and unless society goes into a private home and dictates, by law, to or not to! Reminds me, also, of capital punishement and abortion as national issues to ponder.
I was "whipped" as a child, and the practice did create a defiant vow within me to NEVER even consider spanking, slapping or whipping another human being!!! I considered it demeaning and, eventually, realized that the act was done with a form of anger and physical "violence on the part of the person doig the spanking." I believe that anger can beget anger later in life as THE solution to any form of aggresstion or solving any problem! Once, when at the zoo with another family, the father in that other family slapped my legs, shorts, with a switch while I was behaving and enjoying an exhibit. "You leaned over and touched those flowers...." I felt repulsed and revolted by that small action from an adult who didn't have the authority but especially didn't possess the common sense to know right from wrong!
I can onlly imagine the numbers of "ignorant" parents in the past and now who BEAT a child...an adult striking, with anger, YES, a child smaller than themselves. I can imagine, also, plenty of parents in the past and now who feel that a swat on the fanner, without violence, helps to teach good lessons. See...the delimma?
And yes, even within a small societal world of mine, I've listened to stories of whippings given out with a belt and cringed just by the stories! I ask the question of....where does a swat on the fanner end and a "whipping" or "slap" begin? And, most importantly, the frame of mind of the "whipper" while doing it on a smaller size human being?....anger? I say, then, how dare that person do that on and to another human being?
I also pose the question as to whether a BIG "whipper", parent or adult, should have some form of legal punishment meted out for to those who use spanking when mentally enraged. Maybe...have the same slap or whipping or wallop done to the adult or parent in front of an audience, like in early Colonial days? A public whipping? My memory bank can conjure up the action, a time or three, when a parent slapped a child in a grocery store, right of front of the world, at the checkout counter, because they were tempted by that candy always displayed there! And especially seeing that insult and demeaning slap on the face of a FELLOW human while the world watched...I can "see" that humiliatio" on the face of a child right now! And how can I remember it so well? Happened to me......

For me, in my honest personal opinion, NO physical contact...period!