I have agreed with many, probably most of the editorials written by Jim White, but the one on Aug. 26 entitled “What is wrong with us?” pushed his writing and reasoning skills to their best effort yet for me.
Every word about how our country has fallen into such a state of immorality, that we no longer even recognize it, was excellent. His focus was on the three teenagers who killed a young man they did not know simply because they “were bored” that day. He could also have pointed to the older man who was beaten to death in that same week by young people, or the baby that was shot in his stroller, while his mother watched.
I use the word “immorality” because it covers so many areas of our public life. Obviously, the movies, television, video games and internet have assumed the position of anything goes in violence and sexual exhibitionism. Consider young Miley Cyrus, who used to be the ideal role model as Hannah Montana, which many children enjoyed. She has become the newest vulgar “artist” at the MTV Video Music Awards ceremony. What an honor for her to have performed even more unconscionable sexual dances and songs than the old standby, Madonna, who seems almost prim and proper now, in comparison to Miley and others who are entertaining our children and teenagers today.
Where will this stop? Does our country have to become the Netherlands, where the bar of decency is so low, darkness seems to have fallen on their culture and perversion taken control of the citizenry?
How can our teenagers lose the idea of every person having value, of people having a right to live? How can they lose that comprehension in the sense that they kill people for the fun of it, the thrill overriding any sense of conscience? As Jim rightly concludes, abortion was our country’s first step toward insensitivity for human life, way back in 1973.
We should not be surprised about the behavior of our youth, when we realize how much violence they see in the media. I can remember when my children were young, allowing them to only watch certain television programs I considered appropriate for their ages and even then, only a certain amount of time was allowed for that entertainment. I wonder if parents today have any kind of limits for their children and, if they do not, as it would seem is often the case, how can they think they are responsible mothers and fathers? Are they trying to win the approval of their children by giving them free rein on these important issues?
I have posed a lot of questions and I pray that it is not too late for our children and our country to pull back from this place where there is no shame.
Peggy Sawyers, McDowell, Va.