Mother's Day and Family Values

I've been thinking for some time about family values, or the lack thereof, in these United States. Having a kid in high school really opens your eyes to what kids are thinking and doing in this age of MTV, gang violence, single-parent homes and rap music. I drop my son off at school and see how the other kids are dressed, their Ipod headphones jammed firmly in their ears, fingers texting away on their cell-phones. I watch the parents drop these kids off, and, as soon as Mom or Dad are out of sight, the kid turns around and walks off campus to do who-knows-what. And I can't help but wonder if I, too, am that far out of touch with modern-day America.

In San Diego, the city is being sued to remove a giant cross that's part of a Veteran's Memorial that has been in place for some fifty years. Protesters across the country carry Mexican flags rather than American ones. There's no Christmas in schools, but rather, a "Winter break." It seems like old-fashioned Americans with family-values are the bad guys even here at home.

I try to teach family-values to my kid, but it seems that the lessons go right out the window as soon as he gets to school and he is back among his peers. I lost the battle to keep rap music (and all the sex, drug and violence related lyrics) out of my house, and I talk to him every chance I get about the pitfalls of smoking, drugs, gangs, and going outside at all, but I wonder how successful I will ultimately be. Only time will tell, I suppose.

But we have to keep fighting the good fight, the fight to protect our kids from child predators, to keep gang members and drug dealers out of their schools, to teach them the value of hard work and the love of family and good friends. TV is not there friend and what happens there is not real. Ditto for Eminem and "artists" of his ilk. In this day and age, the virtues of honor, loyalty, courage, patriotism and honesty are more important than ever. These kids will be running the country one day, and that's a scary thing, indeed.

So happy Mother's Day, to those of you that have earned it. My Mother has passed away but not a day goes by that I don't think of her and wish she were still with us. She raised my siblings and I right, and hopefully I can carry on the tradition.