EVERYBODY WRITES HIS OWN RULES
The Centralia Chronicle July 31, 1993
By: Jim Shouse
At this writing, I've been reading the news and am not in a particularly good mood ... and you'll see why as you read on
Today, we have a serious moral crisis facing us from almost all directions - public as well as private
Our culture was founded on the Judeo-Christian moral system, and our founding fathers felt that people had to be guided by inward and commonly-shared moral values
So, we have the Declaration of Independence and Constitution. These documents emphasized that morality was necessary for us to be able to govern ourselves. Our fate would be determined on how well we maintained our morality
And now you read about my opinions of how well we've been doing for the past 30 or so years
We have decayed from within ... public and private morality has been pushed aside
Everybody writes his own rules
The object of life is to pursue individual pleasures. Conventional and old-fashioned morality is scorned
Let's review a small list:
We have permissiveness, sexual promiscuity, the drug culture and numerous Watergates, Tailhooks ... and the like
Violence is up by 500 percent; juvenile crime has skyrocketed; there's wholesale drug addiction and alcoholism; venereal diseases are rampant; 1.5 million children are aborted each year, a third of these are performed on teen-agers; there are excuses for excesses of all kinds, from psychiatric disorders to Vietnam syndromes; AIDS has spread from its origination in Africa a little over a decade ago to almost every corner of the world; unwanted pregnancy; illegitimacy, rape; sodomy; incest; robber; assault; suicide; you name it
We have the highest divorce rate in the world
Births to unwed women are rampant. (Check local birth records and see)
Our reaction to disease and illegitimacy is not sexual responsibility ... but handing out condoms
Our reaction to drug addiction is clean needles
Homosexuality is condoned as an acceptable lifestyle
Corrupt politicians are either re-elected or simply sent home with their bounty
Doctors and lawyers fail to review their rants for incompetence ... for greediness ... for blatant malpractice --- and punish their guilty
The justice system, courts, prisons ... are too lenient
Our welfare system creates laxness, broken homes and childbreeding
Religion is declining in effectiveness and membership is down
I could go on ... but you can see I'm concerned ... WE ALL MUST BE CONCERNED
I'm one that can complain ... but I don't have an answer. I do know it will call for a wide swing of your current lifestyle away from materialism, self-gratification and selfishness
If there ever was a time for religious revival, it is now
I also believe our moral renaissance must start with restoration of the strong family unit as the core of our society
High morality should be honored and broadcast
Reduce (or stop) our philanthropy to foreign lands and direct it toward reducing poverty in our backyards
America should start taking care of its own problems instead of being the 9-1-1 of the world. (-Back to home page-)