Where Have Our Values Gone?

Where Have Our Values Gone?

Can’t we all get along? That is the refrain that followed the riots in Los Angeles. It is also the publicly-stated message from President Obama after Jared Loughner tried to assassinate Congresswoman Gabby Giffords and killed 6 people with impunity, including a 9 year old girl. Following that incident, the news media immediately blamed it on conservatives. Of course, they were proven wrong. Did anyone take them to task for erroneous reporting? Did the president do so? Since those incidents, we have had other periods of domestic unrest beginning with the Occupy Wall Street Protestors. They were labeled as freedom fighters by the press and members of Congress. Of course, the tone changed after it was exposed that those same “freedom fighters” were raping and robbing their own people. After they were cleaned out of the park area, it took 2 days for sanitation workers to return the park to a somewhat usable condition. Did anyone investigate who hid the facts while the protesters were in the park? Did anyone ask for an apology from members of Congress? Did the president do so?

In the past few weeks, there have been devastating human tragedies unfolding in places like Aurora, Colorado and Oak Creek, Wisconsin. In the first case, one deranged individual planned the assault for more than 2 months and then executed 12 people and injured many others in a senseless shooting rampage. Immediately following the incident, the press were saying that the shooter was part of the Tea Party. In the second one, an equally deranged individual snapped and took out his rage on innocent Sikh churchgoers in his area. Has anyone asked why the press constantly blames conservatives and excuses anarchists when they “report” the news, or God forbid demand an apology on the front page instead of page 64? Has the president demanded that the press keep their mouths out of the gutter?

The fear that something similar might happen in your town is almost palpable. People talk as if the eventuality is a foregone conclusion.

I can remember when something like this happened; people realized that there were deranged people in the world, but they were few and far between. The majority of people felt safe in their home and did not expect someone to kick their door down and murder them. That is not the case today. We have mobs of all different stripes attacking homeless individuals and trashing department stores for fun, and there are others who invade the homes of everyday citizens. What’s worse is that we have local, state, and federal authorities that have their hands tied by the Executive Actions of this administration. Every day, there is another revelation of corruption or interference by this administration. Where have our values gone?

Mr. President, we need you to lead. If you as the president say that we should all treat each other with dignity, then you above everyone else should lead by example. Time and time again, Mr. President, you say one thing but do another. In the public forum, you belittle anyone who disagrees with you or even hints that you might be mistaken. As President, shouldn’t you represent the nation and not just your constituents. Please, we need you to lead by example. In all my 60+ years, I have never heard such reprehensible rhetoric from the President of the United States or his surrogates. I can’t remember anything approaching this level of discourse. Not even Jimmy Carter, in his malaise speeches, sunk to these depths. Why are the American people being subjected to this level of discourse? And if the tone from the top condones such actions, then what can we expect from the rest of the population?