Do our brains still work?

Do our brains still work?

April 26, 2001

STRAIGHT TALK
By Muriel Sluyter

Greetings, Gentle Reader,

Our kids have reminded us that, when they went to school, farm and ranch boys often drove pickups there, a goodly number with gun racks. The racks held rifles, but they were never taken into school and used to shoot other kids. But, if any weirdo had decided to shoot up their school, those boys would have used their rifles to defend their classmates, and that, without a moment’s hesitation. But now guns have become "bad."

When I was a kid, we had free use of a .22 rifle, but we would never have taken it into school and shot kids we didn’t like. And yes, there were kids we didn’t like. Some of them teased us, because that’s what bratty kids do, but we didn’t ever shoot them.

So, what’s changed? Several things. Schools aren’t supposed to teach right and wrong (it’s called values-free education), but they do. The difference is, they teach kids the desirability of actions and lifestyles that their parents were taught were immoral or criminal.

As children, we were taught abortion was a horrific crime. Now it is considered a wise "choice." We were taught that killing an elderly person, now called "death with dignity," was murder. We were taught that young people shouldn’t have sex before marriage, but if they did and the girl became pregnant, they’d better be prepared to marry, because one or both fathers would see to it that they did. The girl’s and the unborn grandchild’s reputations were at stake, and dads didn’t look kindly on young men eager to compromise either.

Babies were to be born with full legitimacy. Now, Jesse Jackson has an illegitimate child, so the word "illegitimate" has become a dirty word. It’s still okay to have an illegitimate child, but it has to be called a "love child." Is there anyone left out there with enough good sense to say openly that producing an illegitimate child is immoral, irresponsible and generally all-around rotten? No? Well, no wonder one third of America’s children are born illegitimate!

Do we all have to pretend that black is white and white is black, just because a grossly immoral activist or celebrity tells us we must? Movie stars have illegitimate children every day, and we are expected to give them a pass. Are we really that dumb? Or is it just that we can’t connect the dots between rotten behavior on the part of parents and the criminal behavior displayed by their children?

Americans want expensive houses and cars, though they must go deeply into debt to get them. What with sky-high taxes, rent or house and car payments, a mother often gets a job, leaving her children to their own devices after school and during summer vacation. Worse, following the breakdown of marriage in our country, many fathers are supporting two or more families, so the mothers may have no choice but to work.

Parents of young people who shoot up their schools have no idea how messed up their children have become. They don’t know their sons are making hit lists and building bombs. Why? Because they don’t know their sons.

Often, parents are pursing their own dreams, as their hedonistic teachers and professors taught them to do, while their children are starving for a parent’s attention and care.

Americans have forgotten that a real man (or woman) is concerned with other’s needs first, and his own wants second. A boy is interested in his wants first, and other’s needs last, if at all.

We have too few of the former and too many of the latter producing families, and we’re paying the price.