Red Flag Warning: The Moral Decline

Of recent times we read with distain and disgust behaviors that can be only described as pornographic and demonstrations of vulgarity. Our Secret Service is awash with lurid stories of late night carousing, brawls, whoremongering, and who knows what else. These were security specialist who guard our leaders and nations treasures. Then we were treated to the photos of two gay individuals at a White House party, specifically to honor the gay community, flipping the bird beneath the portrait of President Ronald Reagan, blaming him for the aids epidemic. Lastly, Fox news reports letters have been sent to the Department of the Air Force by congressional leaders complaining of the Air Force's over zealous sanitizing "God" from the department's programs and documents. One offending item reported as part of an officer training course:

"In the case of the Squadron Officer School course, the training document in question contained the following paragraph: "If you attend chapel regularly, both officers and Airmen are likely to follow this example. If you are morally lax in your personal life, a general moral indifference within the command can be expected." AF Hostile Fox News (July 23,2012)

The Supreme Court this week also in a basic way ruled a few naughty words or the view of a bare tush is acceptable during prime time on broadcast public airwaves. Look for a few words to expand to a whole monolog soon. In the Denver Post this week appeared an editorial warning about the tidal wave of "Sexting", a form of obcene communication, apparently rampant in the teen culture. From every corner of our great realm comes a cacophony of vulgar, obscenity laced speech and action. A Starz TV weekly show about a female vice-president had the actress dropping F-bombs every other sentence. Very clever dialogue by the writers. Real class. But here is the kicker. All her staff emulated the VP. They bombed the airwaves like a B-52 over Hanoi with the F- word along with a few other Mensa-like vocabulary from the barn-yard. It was comedy that wasn't funny, just grimy dirt.

What caught my attention is the last line in the quote above paired along with the VP's staff response. In the case of the Secret Service, one wonders if there is a learned "general moral indifference within the command"? Is there a thread of moral laxness within the administration that Secret Service agents have picked up on and figured what is good for the leadership is acceptable for the lower level staff? And the same could be said for schools, churches, hospitals, factories, and every other human institution. Just look at what happened in Penn State. Moral laxness led directly to young boys abuse.

So then what does the Watchman suggest? If we adults, leaders, parents, teachers and other public figures exhibit moral laxity, ultimately others will pick up the tune and whistle it too. Its time we cleaned up our act. We don't have to wear "God" on our sleeve or walk about pronouncing Bible verses to simply become a more gentle, polished society of respect for one another. Maybe if we teach our children the golden rule, applying it to ourselves in the process, we can halt the moral decline of our society. Let's all start today!


(Updated to correct title)