Virtue on Vacation

Do you remember the first days back to school after a long summer vacation? As a kid, there was the anticipation and excitement of seeing your friends again mixed with a sense of dread at knowing that you were about to be given an endless stream of homework assignments… followed by tests, quizzes, book reports, and term papers.

For professional educators, the challenge was to reinforce what was learned the previous year – much of which was forgotten or at least misplaced during those “lazy, hazy, crazy days of summer” – before forging ahead to new subject matter.

I use that all-too-familiar educational scenario to call attention to what has happened to virtue in America. Generations ago, there was a respect for authority as children obeyed their parents and students listened to their teachers. All a pastor or a policeman needed to do was glance in your direction and you sat up straight and minded your P’s and Q’s.

Meanwhile, the elderly were respected and consulted for their vast storehouse of knowledge and wisdom. Neighbors looked after – and cared for – neighbors and an almost tangible sense of community was commonplace from the rural plains to small-town America… and yes, included inner city neighborhoods, too.

Fast forward to today and, unless you live in the deep south, “yes sirs” and “yes ma’ams” have gone the way of the Edsel, iceboxes, and the rotary phone. Young men, who once were trained to offer their seat to a woman or a senior citizen, now sit while others stand. Profanity, once relegated to men-only conversations, is now used indiscriminately in mixed company with the gals giving as much as they are taking, sometimes more.

However, being an eternal optimist, I refuse to believe that America has reached the point of no return. In fact, return is exactly what we need: a return to God, a return to civility and mutual respect, a return to common courtesy and common decency, and a return to the Judeo-Christian principles that once made us great… and can do so again.

No, it won’t be easy and no, it won’t happen overnight. After all, it took liberals, progressives, and Saul Alinsky acolytes multiple decades to upend and unravel what our Founding Fathers built and weaved together. However, as the sign on Ronald Reagan’s desk said, “It CAN be done!”

If we are willing, if we are diligent, and if we are true Americans. After all, virtue isn’t gone… it simply took an extended vacation.