From the Editor's
Desk...
12/28/98
Unbelievable....
Christmas here and gone and New Year's Eve is right on the
doorstep. This has to be the fastest year I've seen yet. What, in
the order of significance, have we seen in the past year? To
generalize we've seen greed, avarice and immorality magnified to
the highest levels ever seen in public. No, I have no desire to place
blame in any one singular direction but I will say that with the
new "liberal" language and sexually explicit situation depictions,
both in comedy and drama on television, during prime time have
certainly contributed to and most definitely condoned the actions
depicted and off-color language used. Is this really what the
writers must resort to in obtaining ratings?
In the years gone
by, TV was able to garner the same percentages of viewers with
shows and movies that were far less (in plain language) filthy and
filled with obscene innuendo and gutter talk. Why are we forced to endure these
toilet mouths during prime time? I am not in favor of
indiscriminate censorship but I am in favor of allowing our
children the opportunity to mature at a natural pace. Nowadays,
its fairly obvious they're being stampeded into adult situations
while still using children's levels of wisdom and social
experience. Today's headlines easily prove this.
The most disturbing
factor is that today's children are merely reflections of
ourselves. After all, none are born with any type of convictions
about society or family values. The three major influences in the
growth of children, both mentally and physically, approximately
ten to fifteen years ago used to be in this order;
-
Family
-
Church
-
School
-
Peer
Pressure
-
Government
In recent times,
two of the categories have merged into one they're School and
Government. So henceforth we'll call that category government.
Oddly enough the other categories have survived but their roles
have dramatically changed. First the order of their importance as
far as levels of influence are concerned.
-
Government
-
Peer
Pressure
-
Entertainment
-
Family
-
Church
(Occasional)
Please note the
order of importance, influence-wise, that our children and
grandchildren must endure as they grow up. In the last twenty
years, I have watched the school system go from BAD to WORSE.
Teachers today, although underpaid, are in most cases nothing more
than adult hall monitors. Most seem to seek the "easy way
out" at every turn i.e.; declaring unruly or hard to handle
children as "requiring Ritalin to continue in school". What ever
became of the dedicated teachers we all saw in the forties,
fifties and sixties? A time when those children who were
considered problems both in the positive and negative manner,
(positive - fast learners and doers, negative - behavioral
problems), were given the needed attention and usually graduated
with honors. Are those days really gone forever? Are our nation's
school systems destined to graduating batches upon batches of
chemical dependent, walking, talking organisms we will be calling
tomorrow's leaders?
Next, we see the
government making gains in influencing the manner in which your
children mature. Its almost as if there is an overall plan
of controlling the development of children all through their
lives. Sort of like a control system from the womb to the
tomb. These things could never come to pass if one or both parents
were able to spend more time with their children. But
today's heavily structured and taxed society dictates that both
parents must work long hours simply to survive.
Government is so deeply involved in controlling our daily lives
that we, as a people, are slowly slipping into the future as
"Droid-like" living organisms. Its not too
late to improve this situation, all it takes is getting everyone
out to vote in the next elections.
Then comes the
examples of civility, morality and character we, as adults, and
those in government, as leaders, provide for the children of
today. From the President on down to the cop on the beat, our
children are encouraged to observe and learn from what they see.
Clinton's behavior as outrageous as it seems is not
"new" to most youngsters. All one need do is consider
how many times they've peeked in on "Mommy and Daddy".
Or, got the opportunity to watch some of the rather explicit
programming on cable at a friend's or even their own homes.
Sexuality is a normal part of growing up and the accompanying
curiosity is always going to be there.
In the case of
egomaniacal politicians, crooked politicians and crooked or
egomaniacal cops, from the Feds on down to the "Beat Cops", there is no real curiosity on the part of
observing kids. In today's social environment, they merely grow up
with it and consider such happenings as "part of life".
Is this sad or what? For example, and this is an excellent example
as far as social studies is concerned. We recently saw government
at work (re: Clinton).. I know I hoped that children, worldwide, would see
democracy at its best. Democracy at work, representing the people,
moving government forward and making decisions that the children,
tomorrow's leaders, would easily see as having been done with the
voice of the people in mind and the nation's future being
enhanced.
Did the world's
children see these things? I don't think so. Maybe you feel they
did. If so let me know how. In any case, in my opinion, I feel the
children saw a pack of rabid, bloodthirsty hyenas charging forward
for Clinton's head while openly admitting they had ignored the
obvious majority public opinion and wishes. The public literally
begged and then demanded moderation on the part of the lame duck
congress. The public demanded censure, the Partisan (one-sided)
Republican Congress, led by the Republican Judicial Committee,
pushed through a pair of ridiculous articles of impeachment.
Whatever... became of government by, for and of the people. This
past congress will spend and eternity trying to answer that question.
For the children,
they have been force fed a strong lesson in how one cannot "buck city hall". Person after person demanded censure, their
voices were heard from coast to coast carrying their wishes of
censure instead of impeachment yet congress insultingly ignored
the vast majority. Good example of how power corrupts. Of course,
many now feel its the "far right" of the GOP that's
caused all the problems. To me, that's simply a poor excuse. The
children have seen this occur, the damage is done.. they now know
how easy it is for the government to do its thing regardless of
the electorate's wishes.
Those of us
who are sincerely concerned must now aim for more voter
participation especially among the younger voters. They're the
ones most insulted, injured and "turned-off" by the
GOP's actions and behavior. This damage done in the confidence the
young adults of this nation have in its government must be
overcome. They must, once again, try to believe in the power of
the vote they have to offer. If we do not re-kindle the desire to
vote in our young people, then we are all condemned to many more
congresses like the very sick ones we have been forced to endure
for the last ten years and especially this very last congress that
chose to ignore the voice of the people.
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