Remember that famous line in the Wizard of Oz? I am all too familiar with this phrase, as I do happen to live in Kansas. I like it in Kansas; and frankly, so do many other hardworking, hardplaying, honest people who want to raise a family in an environment that supports that sort of blessing in life.
Unfortunately, the (perhaps I am just naive) simplistic, moral, innocent life that once was the midwest/southwest has deteriorated to the point where a body stops to consider what changed, and how did it change so fast, and where was I when all this was coming about? Oh, I don't mean to imply that it is bad in Kansas or that you can't raise a family here, or that life as we have known it is over... far from it. Instead, I am pointing to the notion that where there was a view I held as reality, I have come to find that it doesn't exist in the way I believed. So what do I mean by that?
I believe that no matter who you are in America you want the same things: the ability to worship God in a manner fitting to the Almighty, equal opportunity, safe streets, educational opportunity, great neighbors, and a community that is clean and free of crime. You want a country that is run by people who are informed, well intentioned, people of integrity, honesty and that you can count on to stay out of your way or provide a path of enablement when the going gets tough. So no divisive descriptions here on Donkey vs. Elephant, Catholic vs. Protestant, Black vs. White. We are people here talking about people.
If that is true, then where did we lose our schools? Why are so many kids scared of school? Why are there multiple sets of rules at school and in society for Wealthy vs. Poor, Black or Hispanic vs. White or Asian? Why are the kids dressing the way they do? Why do middle schoolers go to school like they forgot to change on their way back from a shoot for a Calvin Klein ad or Maxim Magazine? (BTW - I am not advertising for, nor endorsing either)
Why do we live in a society when a man (infront of a crowd of presumably men - and I say that for what they are not what nature afforded them in the plumming department) can raise his hand to a woman and curse her in anger, and when confronted by a real man, other men come to the offender's defense instead of the woman?
A teen told me recently (after while driving him from a friends house home his cell phone rang it was 1 AM) that there is nothing wrong with making and recieving phone calls after midnight. In fact he frequently stays up the entire night for the call fest. So I told him (it was a girl calling him) that if it is OK, and as he stated, no one was in bed everyone is still up, to call the girls parents on the home phone and prove it. He thought that idea was freaky like there was something wrong with me for suggesting that. He couldn't see that the demonstration would prove his inaccuracy, he could only see that the parents would view this as sick and a non issue.
Meanwhile this girls leaves a message on his phone where she is screaming into the phone. OMG - she's so demonstratively unstable, and yet, this teen only sees that it is normal and one of his 'friends'. I am not suggesting that they are more than that, rather I am suggesting that is not a friend as I understand the term.
I heard from a professional in the medical field that at this teen's school that there are frequent 'Oral S**' parties where multiple kids get together to perform oral on eachother, because it is not S** in their view. These girls are being treated for what seems like strep throat conditions that have nothing to do with Strep. Is that the daughter you want to give away in marriage? Or the one you want your son to marry? Is that the boy you want to marry your daughter? Or the one you want to be the head of a household trying to love and protect your daughter in law and grandchildren?
In the same school, there is what is called the 'Mexican hall'. This was the wording offered by the professional speaking of her own daughters words confirming what my son told me a year ago. This hall is lined with hispanic/mexican kids, that do not adhere to the rules yet are not punished or called into question. They pridefully take ownership of that hallway during shool hours and menace the kids that must walk it. They do not obey the rules nor apologize for it, they simply run their hall.
OK, so I just woke up from a crazy dream and I landed in a land where I can't figure out the culture.
We're in an election year and all these talking heads are talking about issues that are so far removed from what the average American wants. We want our country back. The one I described above. The one where there is one set of rules for all, and kids and parents are held accountable by a community of moral people on how to behave in a civilized society.
Something tells me I am not in Kansas anymore. If that is not this land or won't be, please let me click my heels and get back home. Or at least let me wake up from this dream and find that I am really safe in my own back yard.
Saturday, January 19, 2008
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