George Washington wrote a book back then on the rules of civility. Every and then, somebody steals the idea, copies some of it and re posts the book under a new concept....doesn't matter. As our civility continues to circle the drain, we need it, like a life raft to a drowning man.
I'm going out of my mind reading and watching stories of young mothers drowning their new borne children, stabbing their husbands 27 times, driving over cliffs, drinking themselves into oblivion, murdering their fathers!!! And, I wonder, what in hell is going on.
Born in 1940, growing up in the 50 and 60s, I was exposed to none of this. Sure, alcoholics existed, troubled marriages were around, divorces happened, but not the rupture of civil discourse that seems to riven our society today. And, I know it's not just the US. Similar distress in Europe bleeds there, and some, but not all of the Pacific Rim.
In my young and formative years, mouthing back to my parents would result in a violent clash of wills with me losing. Today, parents seem lost as to what to do. We can a ll draw a straight line from awful movies, violent television, commercially available sex, computers without limits, language that is uncontrollable, AND no consequences for bad behavior. Civility as we knew it, is no longer is demand.
The fault lies in our INACTION. The continues DEBATE. It is time to stop talking about it and pick up the truncheon and DO SOMETHING ABOUT IT. I know that the timid will say, oh, don't go off half cocked, mistakes and all that.
My retort? SO WHAT? How often does the State Legislature subject US to laws that are harmful, screwed up and costly, that we have to retreat, recall them, and start over? Better to act in good faith and sit quietly and count the damage.
Blame it on a string of bad factors all you want, but get off your hands and do something. We have a lot riding on this, and chances are, they're looking at you at the dinner table.
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