The moral laxity in our way of life has become so pervasive that we have lost even the element of choice.

Driving down the road listening to a popular hip-hop radio station lost in the up-beat tempo of the music, I suddenly froze. Suddenly the lyrics overshadowed the music, "She’s feeling herself", stunned me into reality. Song after song blared lyrics that transcended suggestive content, they were downright pornographic. Everything from condoning drugs, alcohol, sexually permissive behavior to violence combined with graphic language is being transmitted on radio stations across the country 24 hours a day.

Home was once a haven that you could escape from situations that you found offensive. Turn on your television, search for a family friendly or educational program, commercials quickly advertise sexual content that is not appropriate for young viewers. Rent a movie, look at the rating, read the content, go home pop it in your DVD player with the kids gathered round…5 minutes into the movie explicit sex act flashes across the screen. No warning or indication that this would be in the movie, it’s the only inappropriate scene for a movie rated "G". You had no say in whether your children would be exposed to this situation.

We have taken the right of free speech to a dangerous level. We have become so permissive that boundaries no longer exist. Girls, not women walk around wearing thong underwear. Young children wear clothing with slogans on their bottoms with disturbing messages. Young and old go about their day to day activities with Ipods, cell phones and gaming devices glued into their sensory organs. And we wonder…how our world is going to hell in a handbasket!

Where are the parents and authority figures that once set rules and boundaries? Who is teaching our girls to become young ladies with self-respect and morals? What role models are there for our boys to show them how to be responsible, upstanding young men? It appears that these parents and authority figures are being phased out, slowly they will become extinct…like dinosaurs.

Lou Rawls, Katherine Hepburn, Ghandi and Martin Luther King, just to name a few had class and integrity. These people although not perfect had a quiet dignity and understood social responsibility, something that is lacking in most performers, government officials and civic leaders today.

The United States of America was once a great nation respected for it’s family values. Not anymore. We have become corrupt and devoid of morals and character. We are greedy. Material possessions outweigh decency, caring and compassion. We want what we want any way we want it regardless of the cost. It is costing us…

A good website to visit is   http//www.ethics.org

Originally written on 1/8/06