The Epoch Times recently published an article that normally would be a human interest piece but now touches upon America’s ongoing tragedy. Jeff Minick’s ‘Boomers, Uncle Sam Wants You,’ detailed the value of what the grandparents of today can pass down to America’s youngest generation.
This is nothing new since this has been the norm throughout history.
Mr. Minick refers to the ritual of hand-me-down knowledge that every healthy nation benefits as each generation fills nature’s generational void with a sense of assured knowing, respect, appreciation, and a proud determination to continue on the same pro-American path. Not so today. While his words detailed the usual from past times, what is being passed down today is currently unraveling on our city streets.
A more innocent and beneficial useful for this generational sharing was when mom would open up her sacred and personalized cookbook to her daughter(s). By the way, that’s where that yummy stuffing came from on Thanksgiving Day! This helpful learning was long ago when home cooking was an acquired and proud skill. Today’s landscape usually lacks such abilities since mom is now career minded with her children eating much of their food “on the run” or at school. Talk about a dysfunctional family!
Also, the family unit of today’s progressive environment has become fragmented from this “no-fault” divorce ease. That old-time family unity, having a sense of closeness and togetherness, has disappeared, even within today’s more stable two-parent families. This is evident when a family enters and is seated in a public eatery and then commences to do their cell phone texting while ignoring the service or the menu.
The previous mention of school food eliminated mom from packing the proverbial ‘brown bag” lunch of a peanut butter/jelly sandwich and an apple. Also, “driving ed” classes have long ago removed dad from teaching junior how to drive.
In a previous writing, I mentioned that a family stashed a new two-wheeler at my house in preparation for Christmas morn. Later that day, I asked how their son liked his new bike and was told he never rode it since they also gave him a “Wii” as a gift, and he hasn’t put it down.
Clearly, not only times but also interests and enjoyments have changed during adolescence. This last example is detrimental in that it detracts from the normal energies being released by the physical energy of riding a bike, not to mention being outdoors, enjoying friends, and building friendships.
Along with these changing times of attitudes and family splintering is our fading religious devotion. This is noticeable on Sunday mornings when eateries are full, and yard work or car washing has become so every day. Needless to say, the odds for a family dinner at the dining room table, without cell phones or TV noise, is as unbelievable as even those dining room tables! Naturally, the dinner-time prayer is no longer.
All these instances point to what is so desperately needed: a return to God and a wholesome and loving family, which is the basis for rebuilding a harmonious and respectful society. And this is partially aided by the guidance a family receives from their grandparent’s wisdom, of which a central element of their words is their devotion to what made America great.
Likely, the transformation to this current state of anarchy began when the rudiments of learning were passed from family teachings onto those little one-room schoolhouses, which were then of beneficial value since they remained rooted within the local community. However, as “progress” stole into the classrooms, a gradual shift began to what it is today, which is to say, “What isn’t it today?”
Finally and most ironically, Minick’s reference to what is missing and desperately in need of returning serves us well by offering a comparative or wake-up view of what we have so cavalierly discarded throughout the years of this progressive degradation. We truly have become our own worst enemies, of which this could be our final wake-up call if it’s not too late!
