The Erosion of American Lives

http://www.sierratimes.com ^ | Feb. 21, 2005 | Nancy Levant

[Age of Reason]

Everything always seems better when looking at it in the past.

Everything wasn't better back then.

Only the most important things were better back then.

[Axenolith]

An enormous amount of this is due directly to the "trust no one over 30" generation and the general disrespect and tendency towards warehousing we have for our elderly.

The average old "Guru Dude" will spend hours with a young person willing to listen, and that exactly is how all of those skills get passed on.

Pretty much every ounce of practical knowledge I posses is from hanging around with my grandfathers and my dad. They taught all of the stuff like lawnmower repair, how to cut trees and trim branches without crushing yourself or chopping off a foot, what to eat and not eat in the woods, how to skin and butcher things, how to sharpen knives, ad infinitum.

It isn't a chore when you're raised around it because to a 10 year old those types are GODS. Now days the idols are MTV and punk asses with pants around their ankles hammering home the idea that fast change, ambiguous morals and cheap money are all that matters in life.

When and if there is a reckoning over this sea change in America, those that learned and can take care of their own will also have to deal with large numbers of the loosers who demand to be taken care of because for some obscure reason, we'll supposedly owe it to them...

[Axenolith]

That's what kills me about the profligate creation of all of these sexual predator databases. If the perp is enough of a threat that they need to be tracked everywhere, they need to be in jail or dead...

[Riverman94610]

Yes,it many ways it WAS the fault of the liberals for opening up the cultural Pandora's Box that is now corrupting the land and hurting our children gravely.
HOWEVER,it is also the fault of self professed conservatives who in the name of unbridled capitalism have helped turn this country into an amoral materialistic hellhole where even personal relationships are seen as commodities.
I'm a truthteller and if that means taking the Right to task I will do it just as quickly as I castigate the Left wing corrupters.Both sides have to shoulder the blame on this one,folks.We all had a part to play on concocting this nefarious recipe for disaster.
Riverman,glad to have been a child in those wonderful innocent Fifties.

[lbt4000]

I can relate to that. We used to melt lead in an iron kettle over a small wood fire and cast fishing sinkers at 12 and 13, unsupervised I may add. It was more fun to make our own sinkers than to buy them. Can you imagine the charges parents would face now if 12 and 13 year old kids did that today.

[Kinky]

You really are a grouch, you know that?

[A Navy Vet]

"This is part of the problem. We don't need any campaign finance reform."

Why? I agree that the McCain finance reform limiting individuals access 60? days prior to election is definitely an abridgement of the 1st Amendment. No arguement there.

Just think there is still room for improvement. The FF's did not foresee the manipulation of the political process due to future complex financial contribution anomalies. Remember, the system was put in place to encourage temporary citizen legislators and then return to their farms and jobs. It was never meant to foster life-long career politicians. The current system does not work to the benefit of a Republic.

So what do you think of Congressional reform? IMO, therein lies most of the problem. What do you think of my suggestions in the above post (term limits; shorter sessions; grandfathering; Constitutional litmus)?

[rmmcdaniell]

You really are a grouch, you know that?

GGGGGRRRRRRRRRR!

[frannie]

I'm not a cranky old person, just one that has lived and known six generations. From my grand parents to my great grand child.

There is a change. Since my husband traveled much, I learned how to fix minor things,since mu father deserted my mother with 3 children and pregnant with the fourth I can't say what my father could do.

I will tell you about a woman, my mother, who kept these four children together with out food stamps, utility help, rent subsidies,Medicaid or any hand outs by the tax payers. The government doesn't have any money except what she takes from the tax payers. This was through the GREAT depression and some of the mothers who have all the help in the world can't spend four hours a month in neighborhood tasks. We lived as well as those on WPA.
And could go any place with out fear.

I am well enough and able enough to still survive if I have to.
\
My sons were all expected to help. The worked our garden, cut the grass, an acre,and before we could afford house help were taught how to do house work.


Just thinking.

Frannie

[writer33]

So what do you think of Congressional reform? IMO, therein lies most of the problem. What do you think of my suggestions in the above post (term limits; shorter sessions; grandfathering; Constitutional litmus)?

I wouldn't completely disagree with this. Term limits should be added to judges more than Congress. I hesitate to add term limits to legislatures because it's a double edged sword. However, I'm in complete agreement with the rest.

[timestax]

For all of us who are 50-years-old, or older, the world we lived in as children is completely gone. Nothing that exists resembles our lives, as youths, anymore. The greatest memories of my childhood revolved around my ability to wander. I walked, as a child, for miles and miles and miles, every day. I walked to woods, to creeks and streams, to fields, to rivers, to my nieces' and nephews' house in the next town over, to my sister’s house who also lived in a different town, to friends’ houses, to a stable, to find my father when he was on the golf course, to the swimming pool and holes, and to school.

WALKING? Its rare to see a child walking anywhere these days. I would , like you, walk through the woods, walk to the Ma and Pa grocery stores,carring pop bottles to turn in for candy,walk to the local airport to watch the Cessna's, and Pipers, take off and land, some of the route involved walking on the railroad tracks. Those woods are gone now (Apartment Complexes), along with the Ma and Pa stores, airport, GONE..all g o n e.. If I want to walk in a woods, I have to drive to it first.

[A Navy Vet]

"All brought to you by moral-liberalism, with the Libertarian Party champions."

While some of their platform is endemic to the downward spiral, they are hardly the "all" of the problem. Liberalism/socialism is the main culprit. Libertarians have their pie-in-the-sky outlook regarding a few issues, but they are far from the cause of our degeneration - they have little say and no power. It's mostly a result of the 1960's liberal establishment that turned it's back on the values of our Founding Fathers' and created the "if it feels good" generation.

From reading the Libertarian Party platform, they are much closer to the original intent of the FF's than the Republican RINOs of today, certain libertarian positions notwithstanding. Other than the moral relativism that the RINO's are showing nowadays, the Libertarians at least respect and promote the Constitution of the US...something the RINOs seem to ignore daily.

[sarasmom]

durn spell checker!
"diplayed"

[A Navy Vet]

Then we are mostly on the same page. Good. Although I strongly support term limits for legislators...it helped stop the presidency from evolving into a king, rather than a CEO. Of course, it will never happen since it would take a Constitutional Amendment. We're past those days.

[Cultural Jihad]

As an aside, it is odd that the LP hardly mentions the Constitution if they are its supposed vanguard. My DOI Preamble talks about the rights of life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness, not the rights of an early death, slavery to vice, and the pursuit of unneeded suffering.

My comment was against the moral-liberalism which the LP champions, not their wacky party or their impotent platform.

[aculeus]

In the good old days we communicated with real people. Now we "talk" to other screen names supposedly representing other people. But who can be sure?

[Malesherbes]

I was going to post a comment, but Johnnycap said it all for me first.

[writer33]

Easy Sparky. You are not in the Goatlocker and probably should not talk to the locals like you are. Everyone here has different experiences than you and you can disagree without resorting to ignorant Chiefspew. Consider yourself chastised by an ex E-6. At ease sailor. As far as your point of view on the issues, I disagree on all points except the spending increases. Can you really say that Clinton and his ilk did not harm this country a whole lot more than the current White House resident? Seriesly?? With a straight face? Without laughing, or your fingers crossed behind your back?

Sick 'em, Sergeant. Your rank equivocates to a Staff Sergeant in the Army. So sick 'em, Sergeant. :)

[writer33]

Everything wasn't better back then. Only the most important things were better back then.

For example: 1950's medicine wasn't better.

[potlatch]

Good 'old times' article!