In our society, we have abdicated a trust we assume whenever a man and a woman create a child. When a child is brought into the world, a trust is placed upon the parents to raise that child to be a productive member of society. One who will contribute and better that society. One who will not suck off the labor of others. One who will not be a leech. In our society, no longer are parents expected to raise their children. Our schools are now expected to raise productive children. The chaos we see growing around us is the only possible outcome when a handful of people are responsible for raising a group of children they see but a few hours each day.

There are two facets to the mental growth and maturity of a child. The intellectual side: arithmetic, language, sciences such as biology and chemistry, and the "spiritual" side. I use spiritual hesitatingly, for I do not necessarily mean religion, but morals and values. As children grow, they increase their knowledge and awareness of these things. They learn that 2+2=4. Later on they learn that if a=b and b=c, then a=c. They also learn what is considered right and wrong in their society. They learn these things from their parents and from the schools they attend. The question plaguing our society now is, where should children learn what?

Schools have been around for almost as long as mankind has existed. They serve to pool the intelligence of members of the community and make it available to the children of that community with the hope that the children will become more knowledgeable than their predecessors.

Factual knowledge is grounded in reality. It is easily spread, proven, and reproduced. It is not up to a personal choice. It is. 2+2=4 regardless of anyone’s personal feelings. 2+2 always equals four. Schools were created to pass on this sort of knowledge. In the beginning, children were taught where to find berries to eat and how to make spear heads. Both are matters of fact. Now, our children are taught how to solve quadratic equations and model the path of a stone thrown into a 20-knot head wind at a 45.8-degree angle. Those too, are matters of fact. These pieces of knowledge are given to our children in schools to form a basis for their own explorations and discoveries. This knowledge is provided to our children to allow them to deal with and understand reality. We send our children to school that they may learn to understand reality. We send our children to school that they might benefit from the knowledge of others that we do not posses ourselves.

However, there are things that we can teach our children, and should teach them. Those things are morals and values. Morals are a very personal matter. They are determined by our belief or lack of belief in a higher power, our view of other men, and a host of other things. These things must be taught in the home by parents. These things are taught by parents: consciously or unconsciously. Children instinctively model themselves after their parents or, lacking parental input, the closest source of affection and approval. It is from the source of affection and approval that a child learns his/her morals and values.

In our society, many parents are abdicating their responsibility to educate their children about morals and values. Children grow up learning values from other children. They drift in a fog of uncertainty, grasping for something to cling to. They look for reassurance. These children find each other in the fog and a gang emerges; a group of children with uncertain values and no morals. Without a parent to provide those things, a child is lost. Now, the parents are crying about the lost children.

Lying at the root of this problem is a word that is losing the place of honor it once held in our society. Responsibility. The concept of consequences. Ideas have consequences. Actions have consequences. Choices have consequences.

However, a handful of people have been telling us that consequences don’t matter. They have had our country’s ear for too long and we are now reaping the consequences. From gangs, to falling academic performance, to the current White House administration, we are reaping the consequences of listening to long the sweet voices telling us that we don’t have to worry about consequences. We are still following those voices.

Instead of taking responsibility and owning up to the consequences of our actions and choices, of owning up to our children and admitting that they are indeed products of their parents, we are turning to the schools to do the job we didn’t do. We are demanding they become parents. We cry that it is the schools that must teach our children appropriate values and morals. What are appropriate values and morals? That is the question that has yet to be answered. I submit that the question should never have been asked.

As a society, we must learn that it is our responsibility to teach our children to act as we want them to act. Each parent must teach their children to behave as the parent wishes their child to behave. The teachers in our schools have enough trouble teaching the enormous amount of information to our children that they need to survive in today’s world. Yet we also ask them to teach an ambiguous and often conflicting set of morals. Then we complain when what they teach is not what we want.

The subject of sex education is a perfect example. Children must be taught about sex. The presence of AIDS and other diseases in our society requires it. To fail to do so is to send a man into battle blindfolded with a loaded weapon. This education, if not received at home, falls to the schools to be provided. All to often, parents will not discuss this topic with their children. However, they then complain that what the schools teach is not appropriate and is immoral.

We must educate our children about reality. Whether we like it or not, AIDS is a reality. People have sex. That is reality. Our children must know this. Forewarned is forearmed. It falls to the morals and values a person holds as to how they react to this reality. Again, it comes back to the parents to supply that morality.

A child without a morality to guide it is a truck throttled up with no one in the driver seat. It will go, but it will not go where anyone wants it. I find that to be a very scary thought.

I am a member of the so-called Generation-X. I am still engaged in attaining my education. I look around me and see a large number of people throttling up with nothing at the controls. I hear many people crying that our schools are failing to prepare children to deal with the world. In reality, it is the parents who are failing in their responsibilities; and the children are a direct product of that failure.

I hear many people decrying Generation-X. My generation is unmotivated. My generation is going to hell in a hand-basket. Congratulations. You got what you deserved. You, the generation that looks down upon mine is directly responsible. You defaulted on your responsibilities. Look around you. This is the result. College graduates that cannot read. Plummeting test scores compared to other countries. God help the nation if the coming generation is to run it.

My response: you reap what you sow. Too long, our nation has bought into the lie that everything is relative. That every "fact" of life is instead a personal choice. This belief has permeated our culture and has found a safe haven in our education system. However, it is that education system that our dysfunctional parents turn to to raise their children.

We now need to remove the rose-colored glasses that the 60’s and 70’s put over our eyes and see life for what it is. We need, first, to choose a morality for ourselves, then teach it to our children. We need to relearn that the schools are there to teach our children mathematics, language skills, sciences and such. They are not there to teach them how to live. Only how to survive. It is our morals that let us live. Those must be taught at home.

Just a few days ago, the radio announced that a young boy of 16 had stabbed his mother and girlfriend before shooting another girl with a hunting rifle. I don’t believe I saw one shocked face that entire day, including mine. We have become inured to the horrors that seem to occur on a daily basis in America.

Many of us have heard the term "going postal." The origin of that phrase is rather sick when one really considers it. However, it is most often met with a laugh when used in conversation. Why is this? Is it because Americans are so incredibly violent as a people that the daily violence that occurs across the country is nothing special? Is it because there is so much violence in our country today that we can’t help but become accustomed to it? Or is there another reason?

I submit that, while America is the most violent industrialized nation on earth, our crime problem is not of the proportions that many would have us believe. Our problem is not one of violence, but of awareness.

When my parents moved to this town 23 years ago, they had to wait two days for taped programs to air on t.v. The newspaper was usually a day behind the current events. Towns farther into "the bush" waited even longer to find out about the world around them. No longer. Through the advent of fiber optics and other technologies, we now have a global media and a true "global awareness."

The amount of crime in the U.S. has, admittedly, increased drastically. However, our awareness of that crime has outstripped it by at least ten-fold. We now have access to whatever happens in the most remote reaches of the world. Our access to knowledge has increased faster than our ability to handle it. So we become inundated with all the atrocities that would have, in an earlier time, never come to our notice. Our window to the world has widened dramatically. No longer are we only aware of our own little worlds, but we are made aware, through the radio, television stations like CNN, and even the Internet of everything that happens everywhere.

It is not so much the increase of crime that is hardening Americans to atrocities so much as the increase of our awareness of them. Like anything we are exposed to for a long amount of time, it becomes commonplace. Unfortunately.

Tonight on Politically Incorrect with Bill Mahr, there was, perhaps, the most diverse group of people he has had assembled on the show. Seated next to Florence Henderson, the epitome of conservative Americ and household values was Marilyn Manson. Across from him sat G. Gordon Libby. There was another female next to G. Gordon Libby, but she is of no consequence. Naturally, the topic turned to censorship, rock and roll, and the decline of America. Of course, Marilyn Manson was used in example after example of what is wrong with America and as it's cause. I suggest that he is not the cause but an effect, a symptom.

Rock music has been blamed as the root of this country's woes since it first came onto the scene. Elvis and his hips were too shocking to show on the Ed Sullivan Show. Mick Jagger had to sing "Let's spend some time together" when the Stones appeared because the true lyrics to the song were over the top. Ozzy Ozbourne sold numerous amounts of records via his antics. Now, we have Marilyn Manson. When Mick Jagger had to change the lyrics to his song, chewing gum was a problem in schools. Now the problem is guns. Has rock music really decayed our society that much? I say no. I say that the music simply reflects the times. It is the lack of guidance of our children that makes these "shocking" performers so successful. So many parents try to censor what children can and cannot have access to. Do these civic minded people ever say WHY the music is so bad? Do they ever tell their children why? Children will listen to reasons a surprising amount of the time. If our parents would simply tell us why they don't want us listening to certain music when they tell us we can't listen to it, we will be much more inclined to obey them.

Children are inherently curious. Forbidding a child something simply makes them all the more curious. This is true whether the child is 2 or 20. Parents, talk to your children. Teach them what you want them to know. Do not bemoan your lost children when you have offered no guidance. There will always be distractions and detours offered your children. And you cannot guard against all of them. That's what growing up is about. Remember back to your childhood when you listened to music that your parents did not like. Remember also the guidance your parents gave you.

Marilyn Manson is not the cause of drug abuse, nor is drug abuse the reason people listen to Marilyn Manson. Censorship of his music will not stop our children from using drugs. Only parental guidance will. Our schools cannot raise our children. Our parents must do that. If we wish to rid our society of the music of Marilyn Manson, then we must make his music unappealing to our children. Don't "Just Say No." Say "No, because.."