How Silly

Times are hard here in Michigan, the unemployment rate is 10.5% or so, that’s a lot of people without jobs. Allstate Insurance is currently running an ad stating that they started up during the great depression and have lasted through 11 down turns”. The ad goes on to say that during the hard times, we turn back to the simple things in life. The ad is trying to get people to purchase Allstate insurance, but that’s ok, the overall message is a positive one, one of hope, one of family and friends.

Back when Michigan started to show signs that it was in a recession, my sister and I were talking, we both agree that maybe, just maybe this is what our great state needs. Maybe we need to cut some of the fat off our state, learn to live on less, and learn to lean on our neighbors a little more. You know get back to basics.

The idea of getting back to basics will strike some as odd, or even hard others will see it as a step or two backwards. Me, I see it as a step in the right direction. For way to long we have been a society that wants to be left along, closed off from family, friends and neighbors.

We have built privacy fences in our yards to keep the neighbors out of our life, and we have built privacy fences in our hearts, to keep the world out. It is a sad state of affairs, but it is where we are at. Neighbors do not want the help of neighbors; the old adage of it takes a village to raise a child no longer fits in to the American way of life. The “New American family” is a family on its own.

The Family channel (ABC Family) uses “A New Kind of Family” as its tag line… I would have to question what they mean by that, is the new kind of family TV shows about sex, drinking and drama that most preteens and “Family Time” TV watching really don’t need to see. Now please don’t get me wrong, I watch The Family Chanel from time to time, and some of the shows are enjoy, but that does not mean it is made for “family”. The American view of family use to be the envy of a lot of people around the world. We treasured our families, and placed family above all. Now the American view of family is that of a burden or a prize, depending on your point of view.

America needs to get back to the basics, America needs to remember her roots, and return to the core values that built this great nation. Money and credit card debt, expensive homes and living large are not the values we cherished, but they are now. Our value system is in upheaval; it is spinning out of control and shows no real sign of stopping or correcting itself.

Now some will be saying that I, as a conservative, don’t want anything to change, that I am “stuck” in the past, happy with status quo, and to some degree I am. But that is not the case here, what I am arguing (in a nice way) is for balance. The current system is failing us, and by system I am not referring to the government, but rather the current family system. A system that tell the world mind your own business, not to bother us. A system that tells its children that respect is not valued, and comes at a price. We have a culture of self-serving youth that see no one as worthy of respect. We have a society that teaches the only way to respect each other is to accept all actions as privet, concerning and affecting no one. We have a nation that has built up privacy fences around the individual hearts and souls.

We as Americans must take back the value system our founding fathers left us. We must return to a system based on faith, family and nation. Now before all the liberals start a lynch mob for me, let me explain. Once again, I am not anti-progress, but I am anti-progress just for progress sake.  And that truly seems to be where we are, over all as a society. There often times is no rhyme or reason for the progress except that its progress. How silly….

Paul