By Lee Pitts

We give our kids well-armed action fighting figures to play with and video games where they point pretend guns at play people and then we are surprised when they aim real guns at real people. We idolize toilet-mouthed rappers who "sing" of shooting their mothers and then we are shocked when they do. We glorify guns and celebrate a culture of death with music, movies and TV all under the guise of "free speech." And then we are shocked speechless when life imitates what passes for "art." Kids shoot kids, they die and then we wonder, "why?"

We have become so politically correct everything is now okay. We put more effort into saving three-legged frogs than we do tattooed teenagers. Our answer to abhorrent behavior is to pass out free needles and condoms. Our playwrights, pundits and politicians don’t want to offend anyone so they indulge everyone. We have created a culture that doesn’t have any. We free the whales, the wolves and the criminals. We have commercialized Santa Claus, put the Tooth Fairy on the Forbes 400 and created some monsters who would gun down the Easter Bunny. And we wonder, "why?"

We assassinate the character of would be role-models and create celebrities out of rappers with records and athletes with rap sheets. We name murderers and thugs our Most Valuable Players. The only "Most Wanted" list they’re on is for interviews and autographs. A president lies to his people and his wife but Spin Doctors make things all better. Drug dealers and white collar criminals are pardoned while truth tellers are assaulted and attacked. Our government says gambling is bad for everyone except state governments. The only goals and dreams we’ve given our children are just to leave school in something other than a body bag. And we wonder, "why?"

We are titillated by Shock Jocks, the "reality" of Temptation Island and nightly soap operas where everyone is single, neurotic and lives in a New York City apartment. The networks try to soar to the top of the ratings by reaching low into the gutter. They don’t glorify goodness because it doesn’t move the merchandise. Our best-selling books are written by people who never read any. We celebrate depravity daily. Spies and lies lead the evening news and we wonder, "why?"

Our schools have turned into shooting galleries for both drugs and guns.

When kids misbehave these days a single parent threatens to count to 10, but they never get past three. If the bad behavior continues the kids are put on drugs to calm them down, and then we wonder why they become addicts later in life. We think stupidity and sloth are caused by a lack of government funding. We blame the teachers or send the kids to the mall because it’s easier than helping with homework. We turn the raising of our children over to the global village because no one else is home. We tie up the dog but let the kids run wild. Families talk in chat rooms but not family rooms. We kicked prayer out of schools, muddied the line between right and wrong and only hope that God grades on a curve. Jesus can’t get past the metal detectors. And we wonder, "why is this happening?"

We pay our shortstops and jump shooters millions while our teachers get peanuts. We’ve sold our kids to Wall Street marketing wizards who "target" their demographic like a grade school sniper. Talk show evangelists tell us we really can have everything. We’ve taught our kids that money comes from ATM machines, not hard work. We lecture them about the dangers of drugs, alcohol and pot while we blow smoke in their face. They can smell the hypocrisy on our breath. We are guided not by what is proper but by what Johnny’s mother lets him get away with. We try to buy our children’s love with cash, cars and credit cards and they respond with anger and hostility.