It's been such an overwhelming response from my last post, I have decided to address some of the comments left by our readers. I meant in no way to offend but merely to state a concern as a parent to see the state of our moral building blocks or the lack of it. I am a parent of an almost 5 year old impressionable boy and in less than two months he will be in school to begin his academic life. I have strong concerns about what he will be exposed to in compared to how we or even our parents were brought up. The moral atmosphere here is clouded by disintegration of an absolute truth. There is basically no standards and no limitations. We are only a bargain away from the truth and creative reasoning have reached an ultimate high. We are living in a time of orchestrated Chaos.
Accused murderers such as OJ Simpson or accused rapist Kobe Bryant were simply handed a slap on the wrist as punishment. This year's number four NFL pick Darren McFadden chosen by the Raiders already fathered 4 kids from different women. Evander Hollyfield who was once the best fighter in the world had one of his house foreclosed and got in financial trouble because of fathering too many children. It is estimated that Evander Hollyfield made $150 million in his lifetime and yet he could not keep up with his house payment. It is an upside-down world. We have wealthy pet owners who leave their dogs at a 5 star kennel where ice-cream is served and massages are part of the routine services compared to the countless people who are living under a bridge. We don't trust anybody and sometimes we don't even trust ourselves. Remember the days where we could leave our front doors open and kids will be running in and out carefree without concerns? Remember where strangers will knock on your door after finding a valuable left on your front porch? Remember when you ride your bikes to school and your parents were worry-free for your safety? Remember when gang violence were simply news you read about in large Newspapers or Movies? Remember when there were no school shootings? Nowadays, we long for the remember when.... 
Recent studies found few Americans give the country's moral climate high marks, and the latest survey revealed that they feel it's only getting worse. According to a Gallup Poll released a month ago, 81 percent of Americans say the state of moral values in the country as a whole is getting worse while only 11 percent believe it's getting better.
Currently, only 15 percent of Americans overall consider moral values to be "excellent" or "good;" 41 percent say the moral climate is "only fair;" and 44 percent consider the moral state to be "poor." Republicans, compared to Democrats and independents, feel more strongly that there's a moral decline in America. In 2006, 36 percent of both Republicans and Democrats said the overall state of moral values is poor. But over the last two years, Republicans have grown to feel significantly more negative with 51 percent calling the country's current moral state poor compared to 40 percent of Democrats.
Although the report by Gallup pointed to issues of gay "marriage," pop-star misbehavior and sex scandals as possible reasons for why Republicans have become so critical of the moral state in recent years, it did not confirm whether any of those issues contributed to Republicans' views.
"Whatever the cause, this may signal that Republicans will be particularly anxious to elect a new president this November who will help to uphold or restore the values they now find lacking in the country," the report stated. Nonetheless, a majority of Americans, across party lines, aren't optimistic about the future of their country's moral climate.
Among Republicans, the percentage of those saying the state of moral values in the country is getting worse rose from 64 percent in 2003 to 87 percent in 2008. Among independents and Democrats, a similar pattern is seen but both these groups show a bit less pessimism than the Republicans.
The Gallup Poll also found that Americans with lower income are significantly more pessimistic about the moral state in the country compared to upper-income Americans. Results from the poll show that 51 percent of Americans with a household income of less than $30,000 consider the moral state "poor" while only 35 percent of those with an income of $75,000 and more say so. Since 2002 a majority of Americans have consistently said the moral climate is less than good and getting worse, according to the report.
Results from the recent Gallup Poll are based on telephone interviews with 1,017 adults, aged 18 and older, conducted May 8-11, 2008. You can find this study at
Gallup Poll
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17 comments:
These are SUCH important posts. I cannot applaud you enough. This is VERY important work. Bless you a thousand times. Thank you for still "seeing" and not turning a blind eye. Speaking out like this takes courage...often people don't want to see the truth. I am stunned reading this. The examples you give, the depth of insight and courage you have to "tell it like it is". Don't let ANYONE dampen your voice. It is people like you that the world needs right now. Thank you my friend for listening to your heart.
Great Post.
I strongly believing in educating kids in with a strong moral value starts from infancy. Too much commercialization, bad examples doesn't equate that our kids should take that as the norm and follow suite. Even though this maybe sensitive issues for some it is great that you have made your stand.
I agree...we need more writers like you..Spread the word!
Till this day...i still don't understand..how OJ got away. Your words are so true to the core. We have forgotten the goodness of the past and embrace a future that's full of experimentations as if the past wasn't good enough. No wonder we have children killing parents
Very good post along with points to ponder and facts. Thank you for sharing and speaking out!
Fantastic post.
Thanks for opening my eyes. I looked clearly at the pics you have added to your post and realised there are a couple of kissing scenes in those cartoons. Those Japanes Anime are so loved by my daughter, I had though that the story line is just about girls and school and such but realise now there may be more to it. Fortunately, I have always stressed good moral values with all my kids from young.
Great posts! I agree with you completely. Society is not what it used to be when we were growing up. It is sad to see how much has become acceptable on tv and radio now days. We will have to keep teaching and guiding our children about what is right/acceptable and what is wrong and hope that foundation leads them to make the best decisions in life. It is scary to think about, as I have two sons under five, one who will turn five next year!
Your words are so true. I am just glad, it was written to serve as an awakening.
I agree with you that you have to be careful what you expose your children to, since they are very impressable and do whatever they see you do.
Most excellent posts, I really mean that. The things in which you talk about have bothered and concerned me about being a parent in this day and age, even before we had our son. Now that I am a mother of a two year old boy, it is very real and very scary. It will not and is not an easy road for any of us parents, no matter what age our children are. Morals are not a common place anymore, they are far and few between.
Very Well said!
And my thoughts somehow jive with some of the things you wrote in your post.
I have been quite out of the loop and haven't even visited my blogs, nor my blogging friends, am just here in my gmail trying to answer some that I could. But, your statements have really caught my attention for the truths it has successfully conveyed.
Right on!
Cheers!
We seem to be out of control in UK nowadays. It is frightening!
It's absolutely ridiculous for you to write of longing for the times of "remember when" and make the claim that at one time there was an "absolute truth" or a solidly defined moral standard.
Remember when the milkman used to drop off your weekly milk?
And blacks were lynched and women couldn't vote?
Remember when it was legal to make children work 15-hour days in factories and there was no minimum wage or labor law to keep corporations from abusing their workers?
There's always something.
Every generation thinks back to the "more innocent" time when they were growing up.
It's irresponsible to presume that society should be parenting your child. It's YOUR responsibility to pass on the ability to look critically at the world, make good decisions, and try to help make it a better place for all of us.
Passing on cliches heralding yesteryear and blindly following some church-decreed "morality" only make the situation worse. If you can't think for yourself, you have nothing. You can decide to teach your child to analyze what they're seeing and hearing, or you can decide to be a passive "victim."
If parents like you spent less time worrying about the world and more time parenting their children, we'd see a much more positive, nurturing place to live.
Your message is so conflicted!
For me, the images you choose to use speaks volumes in contrast to your words. Using "manga" images of childlike characters engaging in what appears to be adult kisses and embraces bothers me. I've always been very suspicious of grown men who are attracted to those images. There are plenty of images of innocent little first kisses between children. These are not innocent.
Interesting that you say these reflections on the state of morality in society were spurred by a conversation about your opinion that gays and lesbians are immoral -- yet the examples in this post of misbehaving figures in the public eye are exclusively heterosexual. Sounds like the gays are an exemplary model by comparison.
This is a very conflicted post. It talks about the disparity between the rick and the poor, but I don't know HOW you can blame that on homosexuals.
Not to mention, that the disparity between the rich and the poor is fostered by the conservative ideals that you seem to embrace in this blog.
These last eight years, the gap between the rich and the poor has gotten WIDER, and there are more people sleeping under bridges, loosing their homes, etc. thanks to the policies of the conservative right-- which is supposedly the "religious majority."
If you REALLY cared about the poor, you'd be a liberal, because we are the ones who want to raise all boats, give people health care, make sure that everyone (regardless of their sexuality) is given a fair chance in society, and allowed to keep their homes.
It's the uber conservatives who are giving their dogs massages, not us.
The examples you give that are actually relevant to this discussion, such as the man fathering multiple children, are unfortunate. But that's a side effect of the greater freedom afforded to the current generation. There will always be idiots that take things too far and ruin it for everyone else. Society is not going to fall apart. It is not going to disintegrate into a disgusting pile of sleaze and filth. At the heart of things most people want stability, monogamy, an enjoyable life and happiness.
The days of "morals" involved pretending women weren't allowed to have sex until marriage and that homosexuality was a disgusting sin, and that if you didn't believe in God you were doomed to hell. Society's state was restrictive, shaming and unnatural for us as a species. It's changed for the better and will continue to alter. I for one will take all the negatives in order to allow people choice, rather then society's condemnation.
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