The Moral Decline of America

As most of you know, I am a staunch defender of free speech and I believe censorship in most forms is a bad idea. I agree with Mark Twain when he said, "Censorship is telling a man he can't have a steak just because a baby can't chew it." I also believe that the American audience will eventually wise up and stop buying what the media is currently selling. At some point, the American audience will tire of the endless killings shown in action movies, the casual sex portrayed in sit-coms, and the downright shameful behavior seen in tabloids and magazines. But until we stop talking about these silly stories and watching these shameful shows, the media and the networks will continue to give them to us. Although it is probably time for the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) to enforce stricter laws, I think it would be vastly more effective to have the people boycott than the politicians legislate.

Currently America is the most hated country in the world. And sadly, with every passing day, we become the most disrespected country in the world. We are seen overseas as a rich, pompous, egotistical, wasteful, shameful, and sinful society. We are accused of embracing a double standard that allows us to do one thing, while saying another. Examples of this include our insistence to expand the military while asking Middle Eastern countries to disarm; Polluting the environment more than any other country, yet refusing to join international programs to save the planet and expecting the rest of the world to abide by international laws but getting immunity from the International Criminal Court.

The United States is surrounded by legal issues revolving around same-sex marriages which are further complicated by the nation’s federal system of government. We are living in a time that we must deal with child sexual abuse in the priesthood and in society at large as well as kidnapping. Our children are our future and we must protect them. Unfortunately, there are no simplistic solutions to getting rid of pedophiles. We must deal with the painful truth that sexual abuse of children is a crime that not only occurs in the priesthood, but most of the time is committed in our own families. Obviously there are many more examples of Americans living a double standard and each of us must admit our role in perpetuating this.

Whether we’re talking about the media, the environment, the war, or local crime, it is all the same – we must stop the moral decline of America if we wish to avoid the fate of other past empires.