Your Homework Assignment

  I  have  selected  a  very  insightful  and  passionate  article  to  share  with  you  this  month.  The  piece  

was   written   by   Peggy   Noonan,   who   is   one   of   my   favorite   social   commentators   and   culture  

watchers.   She   regularly   “sees”  what  others   fail   to  notice,   and   then   conveys  her  observations  

with  the  precision  of  a  laser.  

In   a   recent   column,  Peggy  described   the  depravity   and  moral  decay   that   is   seeping   from   the  

pores  of  our  once-­‐great  nation.  Read  it  and  weep  over  what  is  slipping  away.  

America’s  Crisis  of  Character  

The  nation  seems  to  be  on  the  wrong  track,  and  not  just  economically.  

People   in   politics   talk   about   the   right   track/wrong   track   numbers   as   an   indicator   of  

public  mood.  This  week  Gallup  had  a  poll  showing  only  24%  of  Americans  feel  we’re  on  

the   right   track   as   a   nation.   That’s   a   historic   low.   Political   professionals   tend,  

understandably,  to  think  it’s  all  about  the  economy—unemployment,  foreclosures,  we’re  

going  in  the  wrong  direction.  I’ve  long  thought  that  public  dissatisfaction  is  about  more  

than   the   economy,   that   it’s   also   about   our   culture,   or   rather   the   flat,   brute,   highly  

sexualized  thing  we  call  our  culture.  

Now   I’d   go   a   step   beyond   that.   I   think  more   and  more   people   are  worried   about   the  

American  character—who  we  are  and  what  kind  of  adults  we  are  raising.  

Every  story  that  has  broken  through  the  past  few  weeks  has  been  about  who  we  are  as  a  

people.  And  they  are  all  disturbing.  

A  tourist  is  beaten  in  Baltimore.  Young  people  surround  him  and  laugh.  He’s  pummeled,  

stripped   and   robbed.   No   one   helps.   They’re   too   busy   taping   it   on   their   smartphones.  

That’s   how   we   heard   their   laughter.   The   video   is   on   YouTube   along   with   the   latest  

McDonald’s  beat-­‐down  and  the  latest  store  surveillance  tapes  of  flash  mobs.  Groups  of  

teenagers  swarm  into  stores,  rob  everything  they  can,  and  run  out.  The  phenomenon  is  

on  the  rise  across  the  country.  Police  now  have  a  nickname  for  it:  “flash  robs.”  

That’s  just  the  young,  you  say.  Juvenile  delinquency  is  as  old  as  history.  

Let’s  turn  to  adults.  Also  starring  on  YouTube  this  week  was  the  sobbing  woman.  She’s  

the  poor  traveler  who  began  to  cry  great  heaving  sobs  when  a  Transportation  Security  

Administration  agent  at  the  Madison,  Wis.,  airport  either  patted  her  down  or  felt  her  up,  

depending   on   your   viewpoint   and   experience.   Jim   Hoft   of   TheGatewayPundit.com  

recorded  it,  and  like  all  the  rest  of  the  videos  it  hurts  to  watch.  When  the  TSA  agent—an  

adult,  a  middle  aged  woman—was  done,  she   just  walked  away,   leaving  the  passenger  

alone  and  uncomforted,  like  a  tourist  in  Baltimore.  

There  is  the  General  Services  Administration  scandal.  An  agency  devoted  to  efficiency  is  

outed   as   an   agency   of   mindless   bread-­‐and-­‐circuses   indulgence.   They   had   a   four-­‐day  

regional  conference  in  Las  Vegas,  with  clowns  and  mind  readers.  

The   reason   the  story   is  news,  and  actually  upsetting,   is  not   that  a  government  agency  

wasted  money.  That  is  not  news.  The  reason  it’s  news  is  that  the  people  involved  thought  

what   they  were  doing  was   funny,  and  appropriate.   In   the  past,  bureaucratic  misuse  of  

taxpayer  money  was  quiet.  You  needed  investigators  to  find   it,   trace   it,  expose   it.  Now  

it’s  a  big  public   joke.  They  held  an  awards  show.  They  sang  songs  about  the  perks  of  a  

government  job:  “Brand  new  computer  and  underground  parking  and  a  corner  office.  .  .  .  

Love  to  the  taxpayer.  .  .  .  I’ll  never  be  under  OIG  investigation.”  At  the  show,  the  singer  

was  made  Commissioner  for  a  Day.  “The  hotel  would  like  to  talk  to  you  about  paying  for  

the  party  that  was  held  in  the  commissioner’s  suite   last  night”  the  emcee  said.   It  got  a  

big  laugh.  

On  the  “red  carpet”   leading  into  the  event,  GSA  chief  Jeffrey  Neely  said:  “I  am  wearing  

an  Armani.”  One  worker  said,  “I  have  a  talent  for  drinking  Margaritas.   .   .   .   It  all  began  

with   the   introduction   of   performance   measures.”   That   got   a   big   laugh,   too.   All   the  

workers   looked   affluent,   satisfied.   Only   a   generation   ago,   earnest,   tidy   government  

bureaucrats  were  spoofed  as  drudges  and  drones.  Not  anymore.  Now  they’re  way  cool.  

Immature,  selfish  and  vain,  but  way  cool.  

Their   leaders   didn’t   even   pretend   to   have   a   sense   of   mission   and   responsibility.   They  

reminded  me  of  the  story  a  year  ago  of  the  dizzy  captain  of  a  U.S.  Navy  ship  who  made  

off-­‐color   videos   and   played   them   for   his   crew.  He  wasn’t   interested   in   the   burdens   of  

leadership—the  need  to  be  the  adult,  the  uncool  one,  the  one  who  maintains  standards.  

No  one  at  GSA  seemed  interested  in  playing  the  part  of  the  grown-­‐up,  either.  

Why?  Why  did  they  think  this  is  OK?  They  seemed  mildly  decadent.  Or  proudly  decadent.  

In  contrast  to  you,  low,  toiling  taxpayer  that  you  are,  poor  drudges  and  drones.  

There  is  the  Secret  Service  scandal.  That  one  broke  through  too,  and  you  know  the  facts:  

overseas  to  guard  the  president,  sent  home  for  drinking,  partying,  picking  up  prostitutes.  

What’s  terrible  about  this  story  is  that  for  anyone  who’s  ever  seen  the  Secret  Service  up  

close  it’s  impossible  to  believe.  The  Secret  Service  are  the  best  of  the  best.  That  has  been  

their   reputation   because   that   has   been   their   reality.   They   have   always   been   tough,  

disciplined  and  mature.  They  are  men,  and  they  have  the  most  extraordinary   job:   take  

the  bullet.  

Remember  when  Reagan  was   shot?  That  was  Secret   Service  agent  Tim  McCarthy  who  

stood   there   like  a   stone  wall,  and   took  one   right   in   the  gut.   Jerry  Parr  pushed  Reagan  

into  the  car,  and  Mr.  Parr  was  one  steely-­‐eyed  agent.  Reagan  coughed  up  a  little  blood,  

and  Mr.   Parr   immediately   saw   its   color  was   a   little   too   dark.   He   barked   the   order   to  

change  direction  and  get  to  the  hospital,  not  the  White  House,  and  saved  Reagan’s  life.  

From  Robert  Caro’s  “Passage  of  Power,”  on  Secret  Service  agent  Rufus  Youngblood,  Nov.  

22,  1963:  “there  was  a  sharp,  cracking  sound,”  and  Youngblood,  “whirling   in  his  seat,”  

grabbed  Vice  President  Lyndon  Johnson  and  threw  him  to  the  floor  of  the  car,  “shielding  

his  body  with  his  own.”  

In  any  presidential  party,  the  Secret  Service  guys  are  the  ones  who  are  mature,  who  you  

can  count  on,  who’ll  keep  their  heads.  They  have   judgment,  they’re  by  the  book  unless  

they  have  to  rewrite  it  on  a  second’s  notice.  And  they  wore  suits,  like  adults.  

This  week  I  saw  a  picture  of  agents   in  Colombia.  They  were   in  T-­‐shirts,  wrinkled  khakis  

and  sneakers.  They  looked  like  a  bunch  of  mooks,  like  slobs,  like  children  with  muscles.  

Special   thanks   to   the   person  who   invented   casual   Friday.   Now   it’s   casual   everyday   in  

America.    

But  when  you  lower  standards  people  don’t  decide  to  give  you  more,  they  give  you  less.  

In  New  York   the  past  week  a  big   story  has  been  about  16  public   school   teachers  who  

can’t  be  fired  even  though  they’ve  acted  unprofessionally.  What  does  “unprofessionally”  

mean   in   New   York?   Sex   with   students,   stalking   students,   and,   in   one   case,   standing  

behind  a  kid,  simulating  sex,  and  saying,  “I’ll  show  you  what  gay  is.”  

The  kids  in  the  flash  mobs:  These  are  their  teachers.  

Finally,  as  this  column  goes  to  press,  the  journalistic  story  of  the  week,  the  Los  Angeles  

Times’s   decision   to   publish   pictures   of  U.S.   troops   in   Afghanistan  who   smilingly   posed  

with  the  bloody  body  parts  of  suicide  bombers.  The  soldier  who  brought  the  pictures  to  

the   Times   told   their   veteran   war   correspondent,   David   Zucchino,   that   he   was,   in  

Zucchino’s  words,  “very  concerned  about  what  he  said  was  a  breakdown  in  .  .  .  discipline  

and  professionalism”  among  the  troops.  

In   isolation,   these   stories   may   sound   like   the   usual   sins   and   scandals,   but   in   the  

aggregate  they  seem  like  something  more  disturbing,  more  laden  with  implication,  don’t  

they?  And  again,  these  are  only  from  the  past  week.  

The  leveling  or  deterioration  of  public  behavior  has  got  to  be  worrying  people  who  have  

enough  years  on  them  to  judge  with  some  perspective.  

Something  seems  to  be  going  terribly  wrong.  

Maybe  we  have  to  stop  and  think  about  this.1  

Peggy  Noonan’s  words  bring  tears  to  my  eyes.  I  love  this  country  more  than  I  can  describe,  with  

its  Constitution  and  the  Bill  of  Rights  handed  down  to  us  from  our  Founding  Fathers.  There  has  

never  been  a  nation  to  compare  with  the  USA,  but  let  us  not  be  naïve  or  put  our  heads  in  the  

sand  –  it  is  changing  before  our  eyes.  

My   concern   goes  much   deeper   than   the   loss   of   freedom   and   cultural   identity.   The   crisis   of  

character  about  which  Peggy  wrote   is   fueled  by   immorality  and   spiritual  decay.   It   is   the   root  

cause   of   violence,   selfishness,   greed,   materialism,   rape,   infidelity,   and   all   manner   of   evil.   In  

short,  America  is  forgetting  God  and  abandoning  its  fundamental  beliefs.  I  ask  you  to  join  me  in  

refusing  to  accept  this  dangerous  and  escalating  trend.  

Peggy  listed  several  recent  examples  of  the  American  crisis  of  character,  but  other  news  stories  

in  the  same  month  are  even  more  shocking.  

Consider   a   shameful   telecast   of   the   “Dr.   Phil   Show”   that   aired   on   April   16th   of   this   year.   It  

featured   a   mother   named   Annette   Corriveau   who   made   a   case   for   killing   her   two   disabled  

children  by  lethal   injection.  The  boys  were  diagnosed  with  Sanfilippo  syndrome,  which  causes  

them  to  lose  motor  function  and  to  be  institutionalized.  

Corriveau  only  visits  her  children  every  two  months,  and  medical  workers  could  have  given  her  

a  better  understanding  of  what  their  day-­‐by-­‐day  experience  was  really  like.  She  preferred  only  

that  they  be  deprived  of  what  life  they  had.  I’m  sure  you  are  as  sickened  as  I  am  by  this  example  

of  supreme  parental  selfishness.  

So  Americans,   brace   yourselves.   Barring   a   spiritual   renewal   and   the  uniting  of   Christians   and  

families  in  both  voice  and  action  in  the  years  to  come  will  bring  legalized  euthanasia  such  as  the  

killing  of  Terry  Schiavo,  acceptance  of  physician-­‐assisted  suicide,  legalized  same-­‐sex  marriage,  a  

million  more   abortions   every   year   (added   to   50  million   babies   already   dead),   legalized   drug  

usage,   more   filth   and   perversion   in   the   entertainment   industry,   continued   epidemics   of  

pornography  and  violence,  etc.  Or,  as  Peggy  Noonan  phrases  it,  “America’s  Crisis  of  Character.”  

I  ask  you,  is  this  an  acceptable  cultural  legacy  to  deliver  to  the  next  generation  of  families?  

No!  We  must  stand  apart  from  the  culture  in  our  everyday  lives.  We  must  take  action  now  to  

support  and  restore  biblical   family  values   in  our  homes,  our  churches,  and   in  our  community.  

We  must   demand   that  when   our   elected   leaders   represent   us,   that   they   also   represent   our  

values.  When  they  do  not,  they  must  be  replaced  post-­‐haste.  This  is  a  new  reality  that  we  can  

begin  working  towards,  today.  

I’m   often   asked   how   parents   and   influential   adults   can   impact   the   character   of   our   nation.  

Here’s  a  place  to  start:  It’s  time  to  teach  “old-­‐fashioned”  principles  of  morality  to  our  children  .  .  

.  not  just  because  it’s  the  only  safe  approach,  but  because  it’s  right.  

In   the   first   chapters  of  my  book,  Dare   to  Discipline,   I   discussed   the   importance  of   the   child’s  

respect  for  his  parents.  I  wrote,  

His   attitude   toward   their   leadership   is   critical   to   his   acceptance   of   their   values   and  

philosophy,   including   their   concept   of   premarital   sexual   behavior.   Likewise,   the   most  

fundamental   element   in   teaching  morality   can   be   achieved   through   a   healthy

The post What do you believe are the motives of marriage revisionists??What do you believe are the motives behind those who hold to a conjugal view of marriage?? first appeared on Nursing StudyMasters.