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Morals eroding in U.S.

The crime rate is far lower than it was twenty-five years ago. The teen pregnancy rate is lower, the divorce rate is lower, the abortion rate is lower. Teens take fewer drugs and smoke fewer cigarettes than their parents did. Some things have gotten worse, but there is good news out there if you want to look for it.

I think we can look to our leaders and understand when one says our morals have faded - we use sports players as idols, musicians as Gods i.e. MJ & Elvis will never die yet they did not live great lives of good examples. Our leaders are so corrupt - yep the little people may have better morals

When you have leaders telling us there are WMD's in a sovereign country to bomb it when there clearly were none and citizens were bombed anyway, and political parties supportive of such lies, it is no wonder morals are eroding in the U.S.

When we have presidents who are willing to indebt our children, just to lessen the pain of financial difficulties now. How inconsiderate!
p.s. the whole world believed there were wmd's including the sanctimonious dems. Saadam, uday and kusay are gone; so are the executions and the rapes... How evil we are?

I used to take these kinds of statements more seriously, but as I've been around for a while, I realize that every generation says the same thing and this has been going on for centuries. These IS a lot of good, and in many respects, I do think the world is a better place than it was in the 70s and 80s. The world changes, but it does not mean it is always for the worse.

Great! 20 years after the biggest problems stopped, we acted to end them....

Meanwhile, the same and worse is happening in Darfur and we say and do nothing...

Perhaps in another 20 years we will feel inclined to act on Darfur....

I agree with the above posters the world is far from falling apart. There are certainly areas of concern anytime there are wars and poverty but there has also been much progress as Roland has eluded too. What is sad to me is that people like the letter writer choose to focus in on narrow proclamations of what is bad about the world instead of embracing what is good in the world and themselves.

When this whole WMD thing was going on, I was listening to NPR everyday - I knew there were no WMD.

Pretty sad when public radio has better intelligence than what our elected officials have access to.

Another coded anti-Obama letter? Sidney, you're being too vague - you didn't even credit the writer of whom you quote. Say what you want to say; there's integrity in clear communication also.

Is this todays 'get off my lawn' letter?
In my day, the world was made of cotton candy and lollipops and everything was perfect except the walking up hill to school both ways.

When you have America's first and only preemptive war based on bare-faced lies and costing gazillions of taxpayer dollars per day and indebting our children, just to appear "patriotic" in the history books, it's no wonder the morality of the country has eroded.

There was a time in this nation's history where an affair like Governor Sanford's would not have been reported. The internet changed all that.

The same sins were happening in "the good ol days". Now we hear about them fast and often.

That is a complete myth.
Read the book: "The way we never were".
It illustrates they myth that prior generations were somehow more "moral" than the current one.
The fact is "moral" is a relative term but if you're talking about sexual promiscuity, past generations were NOT more 'moral'.
If your idea of "morals" is taking money from other people/old women, in ponzi schemes, then this generation if far WORSE than past generations.
Republicans have proven to have loose morals, but at least we have dems to look up to.

Could the publisher of this letter please supply us with the answer key? There seems to be a point here and much anguish in making it, but what it is escapes me.

great book, read it, loved it!

Morals are erroding and it starts from up top.

Lying about WMD.
Declaring a particular country a threat to our national security when they really weren't.
Saying that a particular country harbored terrorists when they really didn't.
Declaring a mission is accomplished years before it really ever was.
Saying that you're the man for the people when in reality you ignore health care problems, education, illegal immigration, and give tax cuts for the rich.
Kill thousands of innocents.
Offend allies.
Ignore real threats to our country, like N Korea.
Lie.
Torture "suspected" terrorists.
Make yourself king.
Take away the rights of Americans.
Release names of CIA agents.
Pardon the punishments of proven and sentenced criminals.
Play dirty politics.
Failed to keep Americans safe and allowing the worst terrorist attack in our history to occur.
Refused to act after a devastating Hurricane destroyed a major city.


Yes, I would say that morals are eroding in our country. Good thing change came and not a minute too soon!

There's been a gradual degeneration.

While the rising generation (with outstanding exceptions)have often been 'enabled' by those parents and others who have not taught morality, or made excuses for immoral and irresponsible children, everyone ultimately must accept personal responsiblity.

People did ignorantly smoke tobacco two generations ago (a generation now mostly dead) but did not smoke heroin and cocaine. They did not usually opt for a hedonistic lifestyle.

Some of the next generation took marijuana and were more promiscuous, on average, than before. Other 'recreational' drugs followed. Tobacco was used less. Homosexuality began to be excused, along with adultery and fornication generally.

So far as 'crime' rates are concerned it depends on changing definitions of crime, with today's definitions often different than previously. Children under 18 are now often adjudged blameless 'victims' when they commit crimes, and there is an increasingly enabling secret and permissive tribunal known as the "juvenile court" still in place. Some crimes are no longer on the books or not prosecuted.

We blur the distiction between unwed mothers and young married couples in their (usually late) teens by talking only of "teenage pregnancy", as if the evil was not promiscuity but having babies.

the problem is your "common sense" does not square with the research or history. Try looking up some stats or read a book you maybe surprised. you will also likely find the exact same statements you are making that where made by someone else claiming "common sense" 150 years ago.

I've been around long enough and seen enough that I absolutely agree with the letter writer.

I am a historian. I have a personal library of well over a thousand books. Your pathetic response tells me nothing specific. It is the usual trite and insulting protest of an ignoramus.