Too Much Information: Vieira Informs World Guest Had Hot Flash

Again, I don't disagree with you or governs on the subject of worsening moral standards. However, when one needs a shining example of how such behavior is perpetuated, a better example could have been found that would have made a much better case than this one. This is extremely small potatoes as these things go.

The "culture" was poisoned by people your own age, MissMarple, who decided that sex without consequence, avoidance of responsibility, rampant drug use, and situational ethics were a God-given right, and which, having no other example but their own selfishness to go on, passed it on to their kids. It is not the fault of my generation, which has had to live with the consequences, and which will continue to pay for them (especially when you all retire and expect free Viagra well into your 90's).

I don't mean to implicate you personally in that accusation, only the overwhelming majority of your contemporaries. You complain about the "dreck of popular culture"; take a look at who RUNS the popular culture -- the TV executives and personalities, the anchormen, the advertizing bosses, the movie producers, the editors of the prominent newspapers and magazines are, almost to the last person, Baby Boomers. The rot started there, now they're cashing in on it, and typical of the "Me Generation", so what if other people's kids are irreperably harmed?

Whether or not I have children is irrelevant. I have no children of my own, but my wife has two daughters from a previous marriage (both in their early 20's and college students). I have four young nephews (between the ages of 2 and 10). I am the eldest of three children and the eldest of 9 grandchildren, raised in a strict Italian household, where I was expected to set the proper example at all times. It never mattered growing up what the "other kids" were doing; I was raised to know what I should be doing, regardless.

And while I may not be 63, I am old enough to remember "clean and wholesome entertainment" as child; I grew up watching re-runs of I Love Lucy, Father Knows Best, Leave it To Beaver, etc. I remeber a time when the greatest outrage on TV was Archie Bunker's racism, and Alan Alda's TV-lechery was forgiven because his was the voice of reason. It was also a time of violent cartoons (Bugs Bunny, Woody Woodpecker and Tom and Jerry, most of which were produced, GASP! in the 1940's and 50's! Go figure!), which no one at the time thought were enough to make us youngins' who viewed them into axe-murderers, and which make today's children's entertainment look tame in comparison (no one actually gets hit with an anvil on Power Rangers, blown to smithereens on SpongeBob Squarepants, or plots an ambush murder vis-a-vis Wile E. Coyote on Jimmy Neutron).

I'm sure you have fond memories of such days when television was wholesome and family-friendly, where Robert Young and Danny Thomas were the perfect fathers and young girls always sat for dinner in formal attire, and all of life's little problems were solved in 30 minutes with a little fatherly advice. I find it hilarious that you harken back to the 1950's when it was your generation in the 60's that started the downward trend (indeed, DEMANDED IT!) and now you want to put that genie back in the bottle?

Perhaps a little guilt over what your generation has wrought?

Good point! The news got reported, bt the way it came out you would be hard pressed to understand the full impact of the discovery.

"Dr. Nancy Snyderman was Meredith Vieira's guest for purposes of discussing the good news that scientists have discovered a way to extract stem cells from amniotic fluid and placentas, a breakthrough that could render moot the embryonic stem cell controversy." There is a good reason why embryonic stem cells show up in amniotic fluid ... the fluid is replete with cells made by the embryonic human being as he or she builds a body for survival in the air world. The least noticed significance of this is the TRTH that a human organism is living and growing while floating about in this fluid. Even as an embryo-aged life, this is a human ORGANISM, an alive human organism we may assume has a soul and spirit even at earliest age in the lifetime being lived in the womb. But you will never hear Meredith or any other media agent of liberalism state that, thus diminishing the significance is called for by raqising distraction.

Well, well, well. Just as some misguided people in my generation blamed everything on those awful people over 30, here you are blaming your parents' generation for your generation's mistakes. Rather ironic, if you ask me.

While some people in my generation (and not as many as the media would have you believe) were demonstrating on campuses and toking up at Woodstock, I was a young mother living in West Berlin; my huband was serving in the Air Force. My son was born in the US Army Hospital there.

Contrary to popular belief, most of us didn't believe in sex without responsibility, honored our parents, and raised our children to be responsible adults.

This constant generational battle didn't really materialize in the United States until the (ta-da) Sixties, when it was trumpeted by (again..ta-da) the media, who had a vested interest in stirring up the campuses and pushing their magazines and movies onto an ignorant and unsuspecting public.

So the question is now, what is to be done? Are we to accept society the way it currently is, or do we strive for improvement? Do we say that manners don't matter, that vulgarity is the norm, and that children's innocence should be stolen from them as early as possible? OR, do we start to speak out and say that some things are just plain wrong, and decent people won't tolerate it? This statement of Viera's may, on the surface, seem inconsequential to you, but it was a violation of accepted norms on so many fronts...she revealed something told to her in confidence, she made a personal comment about someone without that person's permission, she discussed medical/sexual information on broadcast television, and she did all of this in order to humiliate the person with whom she disagreed.

Why don't you tell me when you think we need to start speaking up about stuff like this? Myself, I think there should have been more outrage 15 years ago when that smart-mouthed daughter of an NBC producer asked Clinton "boxers or briefs?" I could, of course, blame everyone in your generation for that comment, but I choose to see it as a symptom of the media's pernicious influence and not an indictment of everyone born after 1960.

I most certainly did not blame your generation for my mistakes (I make those easily enough without help, thank you); I blamed it for getting the ball rolling on the general lack of morality and decency which you now rail about. I often find it hilarious when I'm lectured about morality by anybody over 50 (incidentally, I'm 40, so the "boxers or briefs" question certianly is NOT one asked by my generation).

As to whether we "accept society the way it is", my answer would be; certainly not. However, your solution (turning back the clock to a mythical golden age which never really existed to begin with) is as impractical (and illusionary) as the solution profferred by "the other side" (i.e. anything goes, especially if it can be advanced under the guise of a 'civil right').

However, when minutiae of this sort is blown way out of proportion it only serves to make your cause look silly and petty. How about this as a solution: you can go through life with ears and eyes covered, protecting your loved ones as best as possible (I would suggest living wihtout electricity, television, a telephone and perhaps you could cease reading, too), and those of us who don't see things in stark, simplistic terms of black and white will exercise our own judgement. Far more of us are far more capable of doing just that than you choose to believe.

The problem with that solution, however, is that Cultural Conservatives believe that only they can responsibly exercise any sort of judgement, at all (that is when they aren't being judgemental in that disgustingly-smug fashion formerly reserved for Iranian Ayatollahs, and so-called liberals in love with the sound of their own voices and vices).

And while I'm certainly proud of you for being an Air Force mom, you make the mistake of equating connection with the military as some sort of shield from criticism, or as a credential intended to prop your argument up. I served 12 years in the United States Navy and Naval Reserve, and am a combat veteran. There were three generations of Wombats serving in the USMC before that (all of them combat veterans, also); having married someone who wore the uniform doesn't give you a pass, or a bully pulpit, MissM.

I don't diagree with you in general, only on this specific point; save your outrage from when it can actually advance your cause. Compared to a lot of other things happening in our society nowadays, Miss Viera's comment is certainly small potatoes.

My POINT isn't that I am immune from criticism, but that I shouldn't be tarred with the same brush as those used for the Woodstock people. Of course, you just did it again by telling me you are amused when you are lectured on morality by anyone over 50.

Do you honestly think that everyone over 50 is immoral? Is that your position?

Well, I am done arguiung about this, because it is obvious that you and I have two different views. You continue to mischaracterize mine, and I am just not getting why this post was so important to you.

Enough's enough. I am moving onto other threads.

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