A Forgotten Lesson--My opinion...
Published, Henderson Daily News, June, 2001
It is no longer unusual for our headlines to reveal men without an internal morality base who assert a personal power over the norms of Society, and feel no need to qualify their right to do so.
To what arena of life are we guilty of assigning the instruction of our children in moral self-discipline? And at how early an age?
Should we expect a 13 year old to make constructive decisions without having been enlightened as to the privileges, pitfalls and consequences of the options offered?
When I was old enough to graduate from my mother's lap to my own place at the breakfast table, I claimed the seat, as did all my brothers and sisters who preceded me, on the right side of my father, who set at the head of our table. One of the first memories I claim is of the warm, tasty teaspoons of creamed and sugared coffee he fed me between bites of biscuit softened with milk gravy.
The milk and sugar liquid was to satisfy a child's taste; the solidity of biscuit and gravy was to acquaint and prepare me for the plate of food a liberal world serves up, from which I would be faced with making a choice.
What percentage of today's children sit at breakfast tables with fathers who offer up thanksgiving, and ask for blessings on those partaking of God's bounty? And are taught, directly or by example, from an established base of self-discipline?
It is said that our houses have become classrooms for the making of delinquents. And we, in turn, ask how many of the laws of leniency passed by self-effacing officials (that we elected, that seek reelection) affect the moral strength of our breakfast tables today. As long as our children's enlightenment is reassigned to the continental breakfast plate of others, our headlines will shout of men who embarrass us with experiences of complete lack of moral self-discipline.
Comments accepted...
Published, Henderson Daily News, June, 2001
It is no longer unusual for our headlines to reveal men without an internal morality base who assert a personal power over the norms of Society, and feel no need to qualify their right to do so.
To what arena of life are we guilty of assigning the instruction of our children in moral self-discipline? And at how early an age?
Should we expect a 13 year old to make constructive decisions without having been enlightened as to the privileges, pitfalls and consequences of the options offered?
When I was old enough to graduate from my mother's lap to my own place at the breakfast table, I claimed the seat, as did all my brothers and sisters who preceded me, on the right side of my father, who set at the head of our table. One of the first memories I claim is of the warm, tasty teaspoons of creamed and sugared coffee he fed me between bites of biscuit softened with milk gravy.
The milk and sugar liquid was to satisfy a child's taste; the solidity of biscuit and gravy was to acquaint and prepare me for the plate of food a liberal world serves up, from which I would be faced with making a choice.
What percentage of today's children sit at breakfast tables with fathers who offer up thanksgiving, and ask for blessings on those partaking of God's bounty? And are taught, directly or by example, from an established base of self-discipline?
It is said that our houses have become classrooms for the making of delinquents. And we, in turn, ask how many of the laws of leniency passed by self-effacing officials (that we elected, that seek reelection) affect the moral strength of our breakfast tables today. As long as our children's enlightenment is reassigned to the continental breakfast plate of others, our headlines will shout of men who embarrass us with experiences of complete lack of moral self-discipline.
Comments accepted...
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