The Erosion of American Lives

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.

I was never afraid. I was never molested or threatened in any way. I was never afraid of the dark, and my parents were happy that their girl was strong, tanned, healthy, and suited to the outside world. I spent the bulk of my childhood being harmoniously a part of the great outdoors. The trees, bugs, and me – in perfect harmony.

As I grew a bit, people began to ask me what I wanted to be when I grew up. Every time asked, I said, “ I want to be a mother.” No one laughed. No one said I was too stupid to go to college. No one thought I was lacking in ambition, for in those times, being a mother had great value in the hearts of both men and women, but also in the community and nation, at large. Motherhood was known to be a job, a difficult one, and a full-time one. It was also held in high regard.

And when I was young, people had many, many more practical knowledge skills. All fathers and brothers could fix cars, lawn mowers, tractors, boat engines, toasters, leaking faucets and spigots. They could fix broken septic systems and toilets and electrical problems. They could fix furnaces of every kind, and they could build just about anything from houses and barns to tree houses to furniture to patios. They could install windows and doors. They could fix tires, bicycles, motorbikes, and scooters. They could plant crops, design and plant vegetable gardens. They could hunt and fish and provide food, and they did. Most felt responsible for their families and provided for them.

Women knew how to cook. They knew how to set tables. They knew how to can. They knew how to make clothes, to crochet, knit, quilt, make curtains, lace, rugs, and how to re-cover furniture. They knew what was wrong with their children without having to run to pediatricians for rashes and runny noses. They knew how to treat injuries and contusions without having to run to emergency rooms or clinics. They knew how and what kind of medicines to give to children, and they kept medicines on hand. They could diagnose and treat all ordinary childhood illnesses.

Women knew how to save for rainy days, and they did. They knew how to keep pantries, and what was needed for storage. They knew not to waste money – ever, and they didn’t. And most women didn’t find or lift their self-esteem with tanning booths, bleached teeth, make-up, day spas, workout routines, designer clothing, chronic diets, and all the other television-implanted behaviors that damage females.

And school children never saw armed guards and metal detectors in their school buildings. They never wore RFID tags or were spied upon while doing arithmetic. And school personnel did not decide upon a child’s sanity and document their findings in government files. Teachers taught what children needed to learn instead of conservation and ethics re-education from the United Nations.

When times were tough, families buckled down and stopped spending money. They did not accumulate debt because they knew better. They knew that debt meant vulnerability. When times were good, they saved and were thrilled to death to be able to save because saving money meant that you had some money. Having money meant that you were doing well and had savings.

Many people lived in cities and towns because there was very little crime. It was safe to live in the cities. Most people didn’t take drugs or even drink very much, because drinking alcohol was for special occasions, as a rule. And many, many people simply didn’t drink alcohol at all, and they were not looked upon as socially bankrupt.

Crop farmers, dairymen, cattlemen, pig farmers, goat and poultry farmers and seed farming were all held in the highest regard by most people, because most were at least related to a farming family and knew how important farms were to the country.

Building and expansion was performed on an as-needed basis. Urban and suburban expansion was taken to the people as plans so that they had a voice and a say in urban development.

And the parks, wildlife sanctuaries, and the wilderness and water areas were loved and cared for by the American people. Don’t you ever believe otherwise.

Today’s world feels much like an alien landscape to many of us living today. So many people, who are younger, don’t understand how much has been lost – how much individual liberty and freedom has been lost. For instance, human safety, security, and self-confidence have been enormously eroded. This is particularly true for women.

The freedom of self-definition has all but gone by the wayside. Today media tells us how to look, how to eat, what to wear, where to shop, what to buy, what we need, what we want, on and on and on. It’s endless, endless mind control. Please consider this: 50 years ago, no one, minus parents, told anyone, any of the above.

People today are virtually skill-less. The best way to demonstrate the dangerous vulnerability of people with no life skills is to imagine a nuclear event or any other event that would take out all power for one month. No car, no running water or stored water, no heat, probably no cash, probably 1 to 3 days of non-perishable foods on hand, no stored medicines or first aid supplies, no extra diapers, wipers, or formula, no potassium iodide, on and on. Add to this, no ability to find or chop wood, for you have no trees in your new neighborhoods and you do not own an axe or a hatchet, and besides, the forested lands are off-limits to people.

You have no stove or fireplace. You know not how to fix even one appliance in your home. You have no heat source, no cooking source, and almost all of your food is processed boxed food, frozen, or microwave food. And you have no water at all and no cash on hand.

The point I hope to make is that American people have lost and are continuing to lose, at a genuinely frightening pace, their basic rights under the Constitution, their liberties as American people, and their personal, individual freedoms.

They’ve lost confidence, definition, life skills, grit, determination, bravery, ability, and gumption. It a hard thing to see, or even comprehend, if you are in your 20’s, 30’s, or even 40’s. But listen to me: you don’t know what you’ve got until it’s gone. If even half as much is gone from you when you are in your 50s, as has eroded in my lifetime, then America is going to be gone.

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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.

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...

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...

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.

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.

"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)?

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.
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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

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.

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.

"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.

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.

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.

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. :)

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