The abuse of the defenseless is one of the many faces of a civilization in decline. The ability to know right from wrong is the gift that separates mankind from the animal world. The great test for mankind is how we use this gift. We, as individuals and as a society, are tested each day by the way we protect and care for our most vulnerable fellow human beings. The abuse of our children, our mentally deficient, and our elderly are more evidence of our devaluation of human life and avoiding our personal responsibilities.
The neglect, the physical, mental, and or sexual abuse of an innocent child is beyond any excuse, anytime, anyway, anywhere!!! This statement of natural law is a defining point in man kinds long quest to rise from the dark and self serving animals we are and stand in the light of reason with the angels. Society deviated from this natural law in 1973 when a child became not the gift of life and a fellow human being, but something less, something disposable , only a choice. We, as a nation, sanction and encourage the ultimate abuse, the taking of an innocent human life.
This degrading of human life is also a defining point in our nations and man kinds history. This legal and moral retreat from personal responsibilities is having effects throughout our society. We now accept the taking of a very young human life for our convenience. What is the next step down this path? Is it the mentally deficient and the elderly? While the abuse and the neglect of our children, and those who are mentally children, is a profound problem rooted in the worst selfish nature of man, I see it as more clear cut and definable than my primary topic, the abuse of those nearer the end of life. As child abuse receives national attention, as well it should, most abuse of the senior member of our society goes unnoticed.
What is elder abuse? In the worst case it is physical abuse. Other abuses include mental, medical, financial, neglect, a combo of these abuses or all of them put together. While this is hard core criminal activity, it’s very hard to detect. After such abuse is detected, I like to think, our society is dealing with the criminals and helping the victims. But at that point we are dealing with a problem and not the underlying causes of that problem.
With an aging population and the so called demands of modern life what is expected of us? What is right? Clearly the days of the extended family are over. The basic family (mother, father, and children) and the extended family ( grandparents, aunts, uncles, cousins, etc.) have been the building blocks of civilization for thousands of years and now these self supporting structures are breaking down.
This break down of the family and the idea that you are not personally responsible for yourself or your children, and you are surely not responsible for your parents or grandparents well being, is the result of generations of government promoted dependence. Every well intentioned government social program has bred this dependance and lack of personal character into what was, not long ago, the strongest, most self reliant, people on earth. We have been conditioned to feel no shame in taking what we have not earned with the sweat of our labor or in letting others carry a burden that is rightfully our duty. Your natural obligations to your family and the shame you must feel if you don’t meet these obligations, as a human being, is the most valuable thing any government has ever taken from any society.
How can we restore what was once the pride and honor of protecting and supporting yourself and your family to our nation? Can government put back what it has done so much to take away? As much as I dislike government involvement in anything beyond its basic functions, government can and must work to defend the helpless and restore a rational sense of responsibility to our nation. I am not wise enough to know how to accomplish this or to see the unintended consequences of what I suggest. I do know most of the problems of family breakdown and abuse are an unintended consequence. I do know we can’t continue down the path we have taken for so many years. We must turn things around, we have no choice.
Here are some suggestions for consideration:
1.) Declare an unborn child to be a human being with all natural human rights and protections.
2.) Declare the care, well being and education of a child is the responsibility of both parents, mother and father, equally and absolutely. The parents, not the tax payers, are legally charged with this duty to the age of legal majority of the child.
3.) Declare the care and well being of persons with a child or children, to be the responsibility of the child or children of those parents equally and absolutely, when and if it is required. End the long established practice of transferring the assets of the parents out of their ownership and then having the parents supported by the tax payers. Off springs, not taxpayers, are legally charged with this duty.
4.) Completely revise or end all, so called, entitlement programs that give our people the sense that the purpose of government is to meet all of their needs and wants. This is destroying our nation.
These are just four of the many very broad concepts that speak to what I see as the root causes of our social breakdown. I realize governments can not dictate morality, but they must not provide the easy path to immorality.
