America, Faith, and The Moral Compass

I was reading a post on Another Black Conservative where Cliff made the observation that our society's moral compass is in disrepair on his post about the latest photos released by TMZ on Anthony Weiner's obsession with taking pictures of his private parts. My comment to him was that it is more than just in disrepair, the compass is on all out life support. Cliff was really talking about how we get the government we deserve. What does it say when Weiner's district wants him to stay in office?



I truly believe that America's turn to the type of permissiveness that allows this to happen can be traced back to the court case that forever changed the way we view religion in our country. While it doesn't have the name recognition that a Brown V. Board of Ed has, the change in our country has been substantial. McCollum v. Board of Ed was a landmark decision in this country. Many people don't realize that the words separation of church and state don't exist in our constitution. I remember years back I stupidly took a job with a progressive DM agency thinking I could just put my head down and do my job. I went for the paycheck instead of my principles. It didn't go well to say the least. I was a fish out of water. I am sure that the majority of people there backed Obama over Hillary years ago in the primary, and I would feel safe in saying that they don't feel Obama has gone far enough. Don't get me wrong, most of them were very nice people who I happened to disagree with. Bush was in office at the time and the Bush bashing was done on a regular basis. I was talking to a young guy about something. I can't recall what the conversation was actually about but I had mentioned to him that it doesn't exist in the constitution. He didn't believe me. I told him if he could find it I would give him $1,000. I also told him to do some research on Judge Hugo Black, the former KKK member. Yes, that is right we had a KKK member on the highest court of the land at one time in this country. McCollum was a case brought by an atheist mom who didn't like that her local school system had VOLUNTARY religious classes. The premise of her case was that her son was subject to ridicule due to the fact that he didn't attend these classes. The classes were put on by a council that included Jews, Protestants, and Roman Catholics. This was designed specifically to give children a choice in religious education. This was not done to exclude anyone nor was it forced on anyone. It well-known how the KKK felt about Catholics and Jews.


The battle to remove God from our lives has been an ongoing struggle in this country for about a century, but this case in particular made major changes. This case opened the door for the ACLU to sue at the drop of the hat over high school graduations, Christmas celebrations done in the squares of small towns and big cities across this nation. They rarely miss an opportunity to do so. The founders of this country were very clear about what they wanted for the country. No federally mandated religion was to be allowed, but they wanted a society that could openly worship. The founders believed that in order for a society to survive it must have a moral compass.


Morality of course is in the eye of beholder. But by relegated religion to almost a back room status we have opened our society up to changing social norms and we have acquiesced what it is that we find acceptable in our society. Look at the things that the far left can accomplish by pushing religion to the back burner. Abortion on demand, because human life is no longer kept at the forefront. We are also seeing a push for assisted suicide. You can face heavy fines for damaging bird eggs in this country, but you can kill an unborn human being at will. The left never has to answer for this hypocrisy because the unborn is no longer characterized as life. It is just a bunch of cells. If it feels good, do it. If you want to have sex with five different partners in one week, go ahead. There shouldn't be any differences between men and women, when the differences are long, varied, and obvious. The stay at home traditional mom is vilified and the men who support the traditional mom are called Neanderthals, even by people on the right.


What organizations like the ACLU have done is diminish our society, not improve it. They have given us a society that allows a congressman to take naked pictures of his private parts and have no price to pay. The polls in Weiner's district show that they are OK with what he did and don't feel he needs to step aside. What kind of twisted logic does it take to write off his behavior as a personal failing and say that his personal judgement in no way gets in the way of his professional judgement to make decisions that effects the lives of everyday Americans? If Anthony Weiner worked in the private sector and his job found out he was texting pictures of himself wearing next to nothing while working out in the company gym he would be fired, yet we have people in this country who think that he should still be allowed to continue in the legislative body of our federal government. This is a loss of a moral compass. This is a loss of faith in our society and our God. The fact that the congressman worships God in a different fashion than I do, is irrelevant to me. What is relevant to me is that people like him are constantly pushing for more and more laws in this country that take away my rights to worship freely and openly, yet gives government a larger say in my life and how I live it. The same government that says it is OK for him to keep his position.


I say no thank you to the liberalism view that it is OK for the government/public school systems to decide how I feed my child, because I may not pick the foods that are "healthy" or to decide for me how often I can use my air conditioner to save the planet against man-made global warming when the science for this is still unclear and recent events have left many questioning if this is not just some money-making hoax. A government that hires people who specialize in using marketing tools to get the public to do what it wants and the main stream media covering the story like it is a good thing instead of the scary thing that it really is. Yet doesn't feel that what Anthony Weiner did rises to the level of bringing dishonor to the House of Representatives than we as a society no longer have a moral compass. When a sitting member of congress who was writing tax laws for the rest of us slubs is cheating on his taxes and is allowed to stay in congress we have lost our moral compass. When the people in the district of Charlie Rangel re-elected him knowing he was a cheat saying "they all do it" we have lost our moral compass. When we allow people to work on Capitol Hill that owe back taxes we have lost our moral compass. When the U.S. Senate confirms a man who is a tax cheat to head Treasury, we have lost our moral compass. By turning our back to faith and to God, we have created a society that is losing its moral compass.


What liberals need to realize is that practicing faith out in the open will only enrich our society. By having acts of faith in our town squares will help bring our moral compass back to life. It is nothing to fear, as you will not be forced to participate. But you will wreak the benefits of a society that cherishes values that don't allow people like Anthony Weiner and Charlie Rangel to continue to serve at the highest levels of government when anyone in the private sector would pay a high price for the behavior. We would all benefit from expecting our government officials to act in a moral and ethical way.

What Have We Come To? 18 Year Old Beaten to Death, 58 Witnesses Didn't Help UPDATES

Saturday night a family outside of Atlanta allowed their teen aged daughters to throw a party at their home. Word must have gotten out and the party seemed to get a little out of control.  More than 50 kids were in attendance. 

Several girls started having a fight outside the home and some teenage boys got involved in that altercation.  Witnesses say the four boys said that they were going to give a beat down to the next guy that arrives.  Shortly after midnight, Bobby Maurice Tillman, a small 18 year old, then came onto the scene.  Four teenagers then beat and stomped him to death. 

One young man is dead and four more in are in police custody and charged with murder.  Five lives ruined for no reason.  This is not to mention what this is going to do the families involved.  A mother and father will now have to bury their baby, not something that any parent should have to do.  It goes against nature that you bury a child.  Parents are supposed to go first, that is the natural order of things. 

One would think that since the cause of death was caused by being beaten and stomped on, there would have been blood.  Did none of these 58 other kids ever stop to think to try and stop what was happening?  They couldn't have maybe turned on a hose to try and stop this?  I realize that one may be afraid that you in turn may get beaten up if you threw yourself in the middle of it all, but that hardly seems like a good enough reason to not try. 

We are losing our moral compass as a society if these type of things can happen.  Sadly, this is not a whole lot different than the story of young woman who was ganged raped and the ten witnesses did nothing to help her. 

Where were the adults?  The people who owned the home allowed all those teenagers at their home after midnight with no supervision?  What about the neighbors?  Didn't they hear anything?  It is not a stretch to think that poor Bobby Tillman made some cries for help while he was being beaten to death.  One of the saddest parts of this story is how the parents of the children who witnessed this have reacted.  They are upset with the local police.  Yes, you read that correctly, upset with the police.  Once the cops were on the scene they decided the easiest way to question every kid who was there was to put them on a police bus and bring them down to the station.  The parents were upset that they were not called before their kids were questioned.  OK, how many teenagers do you know that don't have a cell phone?  These kids could have easily called their parents on the way to the police station.  Even if several of them didn't have a cell, the others did.  This is part of the problem.  These parents seem to be more upset at the police than they are at their children for not trying to save this young man's life.  Simply stunning. 

When you take a child home for the hospital, you are responsible for them.  Yes, most of them were technically adults, but you as a parent you should know better than to leave this many teenagers alone late at night.  People need to get a grip, be responsible for your children and what they are doing in your own home.  We continue to diminish life in our society.  The four kids arrested for this are 18 and 19 years old.  At that age, they should have an understanding of their actions.  Sadly, now they will more than likely spend most of the lives in jail.  Maybe someone can teach them that lesson while they are in jail. 

The homeowner was at home and was the person who called the police.  The police has stated that there are no signs that the kids were drinking or doing drugs.  Apparently, the motive seemed to be that one of the boys was hit by one of the girls that was involved in the fight outside of the house.  The boy didn't want to hit a girl so decided to beat up the next boy who showed up.  Bobby was that boy.  He was just in the wrong place at the wrong time. 

UPDATES

The NAACP has now gotten involved with how the police handled the witnesses.  Which I find unbelievable.  This is one of the reasons that the NAACP has no credibility to me.  What they should be addressing is the issues of black on black violence and the lack of compassion these kids exhibited.  This was a senseless death of young man who had not even finished high school yet.  The police put these kids on a bus so they could interview them and find out who was responsible and what the motive was.  That is their job.  Bobby's family deserves to see justice done in this case.  Rest in Peace Bobby. 

The Moral Argument?

There is an short article on The New Republic on The Moral Argument for "soaking the rich".  It contains the normal meme of the progressive left that the rich owe society and the ridiculous idea that somehow this will make things "fair".  I personally get a real kick out of the left talking about morals. 

One of the most important issues to the left is abortion.  That is just a fact that can't be denied, at least not honestly.  So if you want to talk about the government doing the "moral" thing, than abortion has to become part of that discussion.  Pro life people are not against abortion just for the sake of it.  They firmly believe that morally it is murder and life begins at conception. 

I was talking to someone that I had never met before at The Tea Party Convention, she is the sister of someone I know who is very involved in the 9/12 and tea party movement.  We were discussing my experience the night of the final health care vote.  I had an unhinged woman screaming at me that I had no soul.  There was a group of Catholics for Social Justice there that night.  She was explained to quite a few different people that she is a doctor and her 30 year old daughter lost her job and was without insurance and how dare we not want her to not see a doctor if she gets sick. 

1. I have never said that I would not want someone in her position to not see a doctor.
2. If this woman is a doctor, she probably makes a good income, therefore she can afford to help her daughter out and get cobra coverage while she is looking for another job so can afford her own coverage.

Yet, I am the one who doesn't have a soul.  What progressives just don't get about conservatives (and not that this will be the only thing) is that we believe in helping people out of sense of right and wrong.  We believe in charity in a way that the left just doesn't want to see.  My gosh, Vice President Biden gives next to nothing to charity.  Last year was a banner year for the Bidens, they gave about 4% of their income if I remember correctly.  That was the highest number he has given in many years.  I give about 15%.  Who is doing more to help the needy, me or VP Biden?  Now, you may disagree with the charities I choose to give to, but they are issues that I care about and feel need to be addressed in our society, school vouchers being one.

What conservatives believe is that the government is actually interfering by giving all this help to people.  It interferes with our relationships.  If your best friend is in trouble you want to help in any way that you can.  If the government is doing that for you, than your friend is not coming to you to confide in you.  It then takes away the relationships that you have spent a lifetime creating.  The government then becomes your best friend, your parent, or whoever else you would confide in when you have problems.  Those relationships are part of your morality.  They are the things that keep you grounded and give you a moral compass of what type of person you want to be. 

I have had hard times in my life, just like everyone else.  I had serious issues some years back and had to move in with friends.  I tried to start my own business and it failed miserably and I had sunk all my money into it and needed help when it failed. They helped me get back onto my feet.  My moral obligation is to do the same for someone else if and when the need arises.  That is morality.  It comes from within. 

For those on the left, you don't get to have it both ways, you can't say that "soaking the rich" is the moral thing to do and then insist that killing a baby is simply a choice; all the while saying that pro life people are trying to push their morality onto your life.  You either want to discuss morality or you don't.   

Shades of Gray

I have been pondering the idea of absolutes of late. Jesus is the one true way to heaven, there is but one God, limited government leads to individual liberties, if you make the choice to bring a child into your home, you are then responsible for the health and welfare of that child; these are a few of mine. Much in life are shades of gray so they say. But is it really?



I live in major metropolitan area even though technically I live in a small town. The traffic here is rated as the second worst in the country. I used to live in a bigger city, and happened to work in the same city. My job was about 3 miles away from my condo. Sometimes on a Friday afternoon it would take me close to an hour to get home. Part of the reason was other people thinking that their time was more valuable than mine. In Alexandria, VA one of the main roads is Duke Street. At one time it had the claim to fame as being the street that had more pedestrian hit and killed by cars than any other in the country. Personally, I feel that Duke Street should be outlawed and I avoid it like the plague. Of course this used to be my most direct route home. At one of the many four way intersections was a right turn only lane. There are businesses on both sides of the street as well as an entrance/exit to I-395. It is rare that the traffic there is not heavy. As it happens that is where I turned to go home. Now I would stay in the proper lanes and make my way over to the right turn only lane. Inevitability I would end up behind someone who was going straight and was just in that lane to avoid waiting in line. I would then miss my light to turn. It annoyed me to no end, especially when they would make rude hand gestures at me when I honked so I could turn.


I worked retail on and off for many years as it is an easy job to find as a second job to make some extra money when you work full time. For someone that has never done this before you would be amazed at how many people shoplift in front of their children, they will look you in the face and lie about pricing. They will say they don’t have a receipt while returning something in the hopes that they will get back more than what they paid, once you don’t fall for it they suddenly find the missing receipt. It stunned me at first, but sadly, over time I became immune to it.


The reality is that we have lost our moral compass as a society. Not all that long ago I blogged about 10 people who watched a 15 year-old girl being beaten and gang raped. They did nothing to help this poor young girl. That is not just a moral failing of these parents, but as a society as well.


We watch as the term racist is leveled at people for no other reason than the politics of personal destruction. We have politicians who chair the committee that actually writes tax law evading taxes. He also uses four rent controlled apartments as office space even though his constituents are among the poorest in the nation. He takes away affordable housing from people who need it the most, yet we continually re-elect him. Why would politicos not believe that they are above the rules? Our actions say that we agree with it. Heck, even the head of treasury cheated on his taxes. He only paid when he was up for the job. Yet we gave him the job anyway.


So where has our morality gone? There are no easy answers to this question. America is a society that melds together many cultures that have differing norms. Another explanation is the fact that our government has people to become dependent on it instead of oneself. We have institutionalized poverty in this country with the welfare system. We have said that is ok for your needs to be given to you by someone else.


If you look at the areas of the country that have failing schools systems you will find many are in urban areas. Take D.C. as an example. It has a high level of population that is on some form of government assistance, and the school system is a national disgrace. Near miles from the Capitol Dome and The White House kids walk past crack houses, liquor stores, and gangs to go to a failing school that is quite literally falling down. Yet, the very successful voucher program was discontinued by the current congress. 90% of the kids who received the vouchers were people of color from families receiving public assistance. The District spends somewhere between $15,000-$20,000 /student. That money would be more effectively used to send these kids to high achieving private schools. Cities such as Detroit, Chicago, Los Angeles, and sections of New York don’t fare much better. This does nothing but increases the need for public assistance and yes, institutionalizes poverty.


As levels of dependency grows in this country the need for levels of personal responsibility inevitability shrinks. An easy analogy is to imagine parents of two children. One is a high achiever and the other will do only what is absolutely necessary. Do you take the achievements of the high achiever and give them to the one that can’t be bothered to help himself? If you do, all you are doing is taking away the incentive for either of them to better themselves. Just for different reasons.


Setting a high bar for all is a good thing. While it is true that not all will succeed, the chances for success increases when people are empowered with necessary tools that are needed to succeed. Personal responsibility and striving for a better life are two of these tools. Personal responsibility stops people from buying a house that they cannot pay for among other things. Being personally responsible and striving for a better life is two of the many keys to success in this country. They also lead to a more moral society. The nanny state takes those powers away from people.


I am in no way advocating that we legislate morality in this country. Even if it were possible, moral absolutes have to come from within to be effective. But, what we can do is stop blurring the lines between black and white. There is a right and a wrong. There is a good and an evil. There is selfishness and being personally responsible. We need to stop putting virtually everything into the gray area, because you cannot get gray without parts of black and white.