One hears and reads often about the moral decline of our nation. Signs, it seems, abound for those with eyes to see.
I guess I need that set of eyes, because I don't see it.
In the midst of an economic slump, quite against historic trends, crime including violent crime is down. With the pending possible repeal of DADT, the US military will join the armed forces of much of the rest of the western world in allowing sexual minorities to serve their country openly. The biggest legitimate critics of many of the Obama Administration's actions are those from the left that insist he take an even more humanitarian stand on issues concerning the treatment of prisoners in our custody from conflicts in the Middle East and South Asia. Domestically, with the passage of health care reform our country now has embedded in its law the idea that health care should be available to any and all, regardless of ability to pay. Even as they kick and scream against it, the financial industry will return to a regime of stricter regulation and oversight because they have proved, once again, they cannot be trusted to act in their own, or society's, best interest in pursuit of quarterly profits.
I realize there are some on the right who insist the country is going to hell in a handbasket. I would like to think they are at least working from the same set of facts and within the same frame of reality the rest of us have access to. Unfortunately, I don't think that's the case. While I certainly think there is much in our society and culture that is crass and vulgar, this is usually the case, anyway. Far better to just ignore it all, which is easy enough to do, as long as you are intentional about it.
I am open to being convinced that, indeed, our entire country will look like Caligula, but I think those who make the argument for moral decline have a whole lot of heavy lifting to do.
