Posted by
Don Emerson on Wednesday, June 17, 2009 5:01:11 PM
While America faces many problems, perhaps there is only a basic one. In The Fountainhead, Ayn Rand said, “The hardest thing to explain is the glaringly evident which everybody has decided not to see.”
For a long period, I have felt somewhat like an alien in my own country. Our country’s Judeo-Christian underpinnings, culture, and our moral fiber and long-standing traditions have taken a severe beating in recent decades. The society I knew growing up is being increasingly replaced by a society foreign to me and many fellow citizens. Yea, I know there are many, perhaps the majority these days, who think it is about time that happened, but I do not believe that notion for one minute. Majorities are not always right as history tells us. When the fog clears, if it ever does, I think we may well long for the common sense of our past as we endure the chaos of the new reality.
A man has recently been punished for abandoning rats by the side of the road because they could not be in the same house with his new baby. Pet rats? I suppose. Perhaps he could have found a new “home” for the rats, but punishing a father for trying to protect his new baby seems over the top.
Many American Idol contestants obviously have totally unrealistic views of their talent, as do their parents. When one has little or no singing talent, as is so obviously evident in some, one wonders where the high opinion of their abilities originated. Does it originate from parents and/or schools who believe a good self-image is the pinnacle of the healthy? As a former educator, I have always thought, based on personal experience with students and my own children, that when there is no failure, no expectation to improve, and praising everything as great, we do a great disservice to young people. Accomplishment, not undeserved or over-abundant praise, leads to good self-image. An overly inflated ego/self-image, especially when unwarranted, is hardly a healthy mental condition.
Mail carriers in various United States areas have hoarded mail they were hired to deliver, in one case, four tons of mail, some ten years old. What is amiss in a society that no longer has a solid work ethic? Most of us have worked with individuals who simply punch the time clock, do sloppy work, and have no pride in a job well done. All that is important to these folks is the expectation of that entitled paycheck, and that they are owed something by society because they find themselves on this earth.
A current and young Hollywood star is discussed in an article by Dotson Rader, “The Mixed-Up Life of Shia LaBeouf” that appeared in the June 14, 2009 issue of Parade. LaBeouf is quoted as saying, “Sometimes I feel I’m living a meaningless life, and I get frightened…I don’t give a damn about the money. I used to. Money is the reason I became an actor…I don’t handle fame well. Most actors on most days don’t think they’re worthy. I have no idea where this insecurity comes from, but it’s a God-sized hole. If I knew, I’d fill it, and I’d be on my way.” Is it perhaps possible that we alone are not capable of filling those kinds of voids in our lives? Is it not possible that only God and religious faith can fulfill empty lives? But those thoughts are not politically correct or enlightened these days, are they?
Our public educational institutions are in turmoil and have been for years. There is a moral vacuum and religious hostility (towards Christianity only it appears) in many, if not most, of these institutions that must and will play out in our young people’s lives beyond the walls of the ivory towers. And I think it has become increasingly clear that society will not be the beneficiary. A kid cannot read a Bible in a quiet place at recess time. Kids are barred from handing out fliers and using the PA system to announce a before-school prayer event. Student art that features Christian religious symbols is taboo. Students invited to perform an act of their own choosing for a talent show cannot use songs with religious themes because they are “too religious.” Youngsters can dress as Satan for Halloween but not like Jesus. They can share tales of witches but not stories from the Bible. Other religions do not face the same obstacles in our schools and colleges. Why? Is there no common sense or sense of fairness inherent in educational administrators, school boards, or boards of trustees? Has all this been abandoned in favor of political correctness, sheer nonsense, or thinly masked efforts to damage/extinguish Christianity and/or Christians?
As abortions have increased, all life has been devalued. The question for some people is, if abortion is acceptable up to nine months, how can it be so wrong to throw a new born in the dumpster or kill infants who are not wanted? Why are people punished for the death of a fetus in the womb in an auto accident but not for an abortion? One wonders why the moral confusion in these situations? As pornography has gone main-street, why have sex crimes increased, especially against the young? Yea, I have heard the explanation that the population has simply increased, and these crimes have always been with us, but we never heard about them. Sorry, I am not buying!
The news has been filled in recent years with reports of: violence in our schools, workplaces, churches, malls, et cetera; financial gurus scamming investors; businessmen cheating companies and/or driving them into bankruptcy; rampant cheating at all levels of our society; elected officials violating the public trust by enriching themselves, their families, their friends, special interests, and padding legislation with boondoggles, thus cheating the hard-working American taxpayers.
Congress grants its members a raise while thousands of Americans lose their jobs. Congress spends billions--no, it's trillions now--with no accountability and pours billions into their own districts and states for special projects as they prepare for their next reelection. Then they hold hearings and lecture citizens about some perceived bad behavior. It is a disgrace and a fraud! Some of us see through it; why can't we all? Congress, with the help of Presidents, racks up a deficit that our children and grandchildren cannot possibly repay. There will be dire consequences to this violation of the public trust.
This nonsense seems to go on endlessly. So, what’s the basic problem in America? I would suggest it is a moral one, it is looking the other way, and it is refusing to see what is clearly evident! And this is a crisis! Make no mistake about it.
President Calvin Coolidge once said, “A nation that is morally dead will soon be financially dead.”
“You cannot legislate the poor into freedom by legislating the wealthy out of freedom. What one person receives without working for, another person must work for without receiving. The government cannot give to anybody anything that the government does not first take from somebody else. When half of the people get the idea that they do not have to work because the other half is going to take care of them, and when the other half gets the idea that it does no good to work because somebody else is going to get what they work for, that my dear friend, is about the end of any nation. You cannot multiply wealth by dividing it.” Dr. Adrian Rogers, 1931-2005
And, I might add, you cannot multiply wealth by "spreading it around."