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June 20, 2006
American Portrait
by Tina Grazier
“I unconsciously decided that, even if it wasn’t an ideal world,
it should be and so painted only the ideal aspects of it—pictures
in which there are no drunken slatterns or self-centered mothers…
only foxy grandpas who played baseball with the kids and boys
who fished from logs and got up circuses in the backyard.�
Norman Rockwell
When I was a kid, being outside was the best. My friends and
I were free to explore our world with complete abandon...and
boy did we! We hiked the canyons and rode our bikes to the
schools and the park. We played hide and seek and kick the
can at night until after dark. We hung out at the movies or the
pool without our parents. We left our bikes wherever they fell,
unlocked, and found them again, right where we left them, even
if we forgot and had to retrieve them the next day. I know, I know,
you don't really want to take another walk down memory lane
so I won't bore you with more of the "good old days". The "good
old days" isn't the point anyway, character is. Character and the
broken portrait of American society.
Today I heard yet another story of a teacher who was fired due
to her involvement in dubious activities and I began to consider
the many stories like this that reflect the tapestry of society and
life in America. Columbine, Amber alerts, gang wars, Meth scares,
drug use, sexually transmitted diseases, abortion on demand,
and so much more make this "villiage" of ours a sadly dangerous
and discouraging place, especially for our children. Some
celebrate it as the "diversity of experience" and variety and art of
self-expression. I call it self-indulgence to a destructive and
disgraceful degree. I do so without reservation or any sense of
being unfair, bigoted or mean-spirited because I firmly believe that
those activities and expressions can be indulged in by grown-up
folks in private. Adults have the ability to effect privacy in their lives.
Children today are not given a choice. They are constantly
assaulted with other peoples choices, even in their own homes,
and it's got to end.
How do we reverse this degrading trend? How do we clean up
the mess we've made with our hip attitudes and open philosophy?
Although repairing the damage is a worthy goal, the task is daunting
and progress will take years. But I believe it's worth the effort and
commitment. The children are the future and a future worth living is
in jeapordy unless we take a stand now. Peer pressure has brought
us to this place and peer pressure is the simple solution. Pressure
for higher standards in education, at home, with friends and neighbors,
in churches and elsewhere in society will work. We must set the
standards for personal conduct very high. We must shove sordid
activities back into the shadows where they belong. It's insane that
adults-only "entertainment" is front and center in our living rooms,
on the covers of magazines at grocery counters and in movies and
music. People who choose to indulge in such activities should bear
the burden of inconvenience. It should be hard to find this kind of
entertainment. Let them install programing enablers on the TV so that
children are not forced to be witnesses, or worse, victims of it. They
would argue that parents alone bear this responsibility. I don't buy that
excuse. Although I firmly believe it is up to parents to direct their
childrens lives, I equally agree it is a societal responsibility to create
a healthy, safe, and supportive atmosphere for all children and to teach
the qualities that build strong character.
If Norman Rockwell were painting scenes in America today what
would he choose to paint? I believe he was a man of great humor
and insight with a positive outlook and so his paintings would
probably be much like they were in his time.
Quoting Norman Rockwell:
"The view of life I communicate in my pictures, excludes the sordid
and ugly. I paint life as I would like it to be."
We can all make a difference in the lives of children if we paint
this ideal view into our participation every day. If we insist that
"the sordid and the ugly" be excluded from public discourse and
expression, and if we encourage the building of solid character,
we will discover in time that we have managed to paint a great
American portrait and a better future for our kids.
Posted by Post Scripts at June 20, 2006 07:55 PM
Comments
Growing up with Hop-a-long Cassidy, the Lone Ranger and the Cisco Kid, etc., it wasn't that hard to understand good character when you saw it, good and bad were clearly defined. Good always won out over evil too. That was a great moral code to grow up with! And in my time, it not hard to find lessons in patriotism, as I grew up in one of America's most patriotic times. WWII was over and the Korean War drawing to a close, American business were booming and I was just about to turn 5, it was a great time.
Vets were teachers at my school, vets coached me in Little League, vets lived on my block. Our milkman was a veteran of Batan. Vets worked at my Dad's gas station (and he was a Navy vet too). It seemed like vets were everywhere and everywhere there was a story about character and courage for me to hear. I was a little boy surrounded by America's greatest generation.
I grew up on films like Sands of Iwo Jima, the Fighting Seabees and Operation Pacific. Character and love of country embraced the kids in my generation and economically, we never had it so good. And then there were the [happy days] of the 50's and on into the early 60's. That was a pretty ideal time too, "American Graffiti", heck, that was my life in the 60's. lol Simple, honest and red, white and blue...that’s what it was all about and looking back it was a great experience...until the hippies (spoiled, idealistic kids that were over-educated and under motivated) and the new liberal movement came along and things changed abruptly.
Today, thanks to that movement of, anything goes, TV now has tens of thousand of homicides depicted every month on 150 channels! Hollywood has replaced the moral movies, of hope, courage and the American Way with slasher movies and raunchy, drug laden, sexcapade films. "The Passion of the Christ" wouldn't have been made if it were up to Hollyweird. The rap songs glorify rape, sexism and brutality. This is like a virus for a sick society that breeds gang violence and devalues human life and moral behavior and replaces them with prison values. Our colleges and their liberal professors introduce with each new class their bunk on socialism, situational ethics, as they degrade our former American heros that inspired us as kids of the 50's. Those wackos from the drug culture have they turned right into wrong on an alarming scale! This and everything you said in your piece and more, causes me to worry that too many of our little kids don't have a chance at being innocent little kids and grow up to be honest, caring adults.
We've lost something very precious when that happens. I agree, we have to try to repair the damage that's degraded life in America. Given the alternative to not repairing it, what choice do we have?
Posted by: Jack Lee at June 20, 2006 08:07 AM
It's summer...maybe it's the perfect time to reflect on better times. We do it for the pure joy of remembering but also to kick start and broaden the search for solutions to the problems we face in our society. The difficult thing is that change happens slowly, especially when the forces working against us are so determined. I try to keep my eyes open for small victories. These are the stepping stones that later will reveal how we managed to reach our goal. The one thing in life that really turns my crank is the destruction of that good life we grew up in and it bugs me even more that my generation is responsible. My "mission" is to restore the decency of that time (not perfection, dear reader, no generation is perfect) and hopefully mend the tear that has caused so much division in American. Class of '65 here Jack, how about you?
Posted by: Tina at June 20, 2006 08:03 PM
Wow, that was close, Class of 64 here. However, age wise it should have been the Class of 65.
Posted by: Jack at June 20, 2006 08:56 PM
Thank you Tina and Jack for jolting my memory. I revel in memories of my childhood years, anything before 1964! I could not better express than you both have my sentiments on "then and now." I am a 59 year old grandmother who is raising her 9 1/2 year old granddaughter. It is so discouraging, not to mention frightening, wherever you turn. But I refuse to give up. Every day we effort to bring goodness, manners, character, patriotism, and the ability to recognize right from wrong to her world. It is hard. We often feel alone on the trail!
I loved the memory of being able to throw your bike down and it would be right where you left it when you went back to get it! Another memory that I savor is driving/walking/biking around our home town until all hours on hot summer nights. No worries! Linda in Salem, Oregon
Posted by: Linda at June 22, 2006 12:36 PM