Grinding Towards Gomorrah

[Posted by Jake]

My neighbor, Cousin Sue on this site, is enjoying some well-deserved notoriety. An article in another newspaper discussed the inappropriate MTV-style touching that had taken over the local high school dances. As co-President of the Parent/Teachers Group, she had to deliver the difficult message to parents that students were engaging in "sexually suggestive dancing" and the custodians were "cleaning bodily fluids off the floor."

So much for the classy prom experience for today's kids. But are we really that shocked? This is the generation of girls providing daily shows of cleavage, while the boys compete to wear their pants the furthest down their butt. Sexting passes for courtship and gratuitous "hook-ups" are the norm, even for television shows in the supposed family hour. What parent can forget having to explain oral sex to these kids when they were in elementary school, courtesy of Bubba Clinton's wandering eye and open fly?

I don't get rap music any more than the next adult, but I understand different generations have different cultural benchmarks. Whether it is personified with Elvis, Dirty Dancing, Black Sabbath, or Kanye West, rebellion is celebrated. If it doesn't offend your parents, what's the point?

Where we've let our kids down is that our cynical, oversexed society doesn't balance the rebellion with sound, traditional values. Any mention of church or God in our schools is forbidden. The new religions are diversity, Gaia the Earth Mother and moral relativism. Our entitlement bureaucracy undermines two-parent families and our unionized school system luxuriates in the public's largesse. The mainstream media spends more time looking for dirt on straight arrows like Tim Tebow than saluting the courage it takes to live his upright life.

Let's get the Viagra commercials off football games. Let's return the sexual lubricant ads to the back pages of third-rate publications. Let's encourage local priests, ministers and rabbis to have a more prominent role in our schools and communities. Let's dress our daughters as young ladies rather than porn stars, and our sons as young men rather than gangsters.

The current solution from our school district has the students sign behavior contracts to be eligible to attend the school dances. How about this? Instead of just settling for a contract with our kids for dances, let's make a contract for a better quality of life.