This week bored teens shot and killed a jogger for the thrill of it. A teen purposely shot a 13-month old baby in the face during a robbery.
In 2000, teens kidnapped, tortured and murdered an 85 year old woman. They rode her dead body around in the trunk, showing it off to at least 10 friends. Not one friend reported the murder.
In 1997 a teen gave birth in the restroom at her senior prom; cut the umbilical chord, choked her baby to death, put him in a plastic bag which she threw away and returned to dancing the night away.
I could go on and on with countless examples of youths displaying a callous disregard for human life and the moral decay eating away at the soul of America.
In an on going discussion with colleagues, we ponder. What marked the genesis of it going so horribly wrong in America?
My wife Mary believes it began with liberals being allowed to infiltrate our public schools. Their philosophy is, in a nutshell, God out and government in. Liberals introduced the concept of moral relativity. In other words, nothing is absolutely right or wrong.
Personal accountability is for the most part unheard of in our liberal government and liberal media-dominated America. Consequently, disability, food stamp, and welfare fraud are through the roof.
A colleague suggested that the root of our decline is parents dropping the ball and surrendering responsibility for their kids to the schools – free breakfast and lunch, not vetting the curriculum, and so forth.
Rush Limbaugh believes our youth’s callous disregard for life stems from abortions on demand (4,000 per day) and Dr. Jack Kevorkian promoting assisted suicide. In essence, the devaluation of life.
I was devastated after watching the Fox News special report, The Great Food Stamp Binge. The program exposed how the Obama Administration is actively attempting to change the mindset of Americans, telling them self-reliance is bad and government dependency is moral and just.
Another thing that I find depressing is that the Obama administration believes enforcing our laws should not be applied equally. They claim defending our borders and enforcing immigration law is racist because the offenders are mostly people of color. And who can forget when Attorney General Eric Holder refused to prosecute New Black Panthers members for intimidating voters at the polls?
Beyond the obvious negative political and economic consequences of our cultural and moral decline, what breaks my heart is the loss of what it means to be an American.
I have written about my dad on numerous occasions, but for those of you who are unfamiliar, my dad epitomizes what it used to mean to be an American.
Born out-of-wedlock, dad was raised in the ghetto of east Baltimore by his aunt, and has been an entrepreneur since age 10. He shined shoes on the weekends at the Greyhound bus station. On a good weekend dad earned $1.25. Dad bragged to his buddies that he was a man because he purchased his own clothes — a t-shirt — and paid room and board — 25 cents to Aunt Nee. Now in his 80’s, I still feel dad’s pride when he talks about his first job.
Dad served in the Merchant Marines. He still bears deep emotional scars from an incident when whites in the South tried to hang dad for simply getting off the ship. White shipmates saved dad’s life.
Dad married and had five kids, while breaking the color barrier in the Baltimore City Fire Department in the mid 1950s. Dad could not use the same eating utensils or drink from the same coffee pot as the white firefighters. Despite deplorable, humiliating and unfair conditions, dad won Firefighter of the Year twice. Not once did dad expect or request special concessions or lower his standards due to his skin color.
As a young minister, dad strove to be excellent; a good representative for Christ and Negroes.
After two years, a new white firefighter arrived at Engine 6. Dad said the new guy came upstairs and invited dad to have coffee with the crew.
Dad’s oxygen mask malfunctioned causing him to pass out in a burning building. The chief ordered his crew out of the inferno. Upon realizing that dad had not exited the building, John, who was the most racist of the crew, went back into the smoke filled burning building. He found dad and saved his life. The two became lifelong friends.
Dad became Baltimore’s first black paramedic. He was also a chaplain in the Baltimore Fire Dept for 50 years. He earned a doctorate in theology and has authored books.
I feel incredibly blessed that I still get occasional phone calls from my 85 year old dad who calls to tell me his latest corny joke, or one he forgot he told me. I laugh regardless. His wife, my mother, passed away almost 20 years ago.
Dad is all about trying to do the right thing and striving for excellence, not expecting anyone to give you anything. Pastor of four churches, dad still stays busy visiting the sick and the shut-ins.
So, when I see Obama and the mainstream media constantly lowering the bar, expecting less and less of Americans in every area of our lives, morally, educationally, economically and etc, I mourn the loss of what it use to mean to be an American.
If Obama and the mainstream media’s vision for America is realized, there will be far fewer great American success stories like my dad’s. Most Americans will be on food stamps, abortions and murder rates will continue to skyrocket, and mediocrity will be distributed equally.
