A Family is: Parents and Kids

People speak about family values. What are family values? Well, to begin with traditionally there are two parents. If we follow the example of the bible, they are male and female. (Works for me!) Then these two units breed and produce offspring for which they are responsible. The rearing and care of the children is up to the parents and to a small extent the education system and society. Parents used to be the major role models for their kids. I guess that model has been pretty successful, until the economy in the US became such that you couldn't rear a family on one provider's income. I would say that could be the major change in family values being effective. When middle class jobs disappeared in the US, life changed. World War ll and the proud veterans of this nation no longer remained a unifying element in our lives. NAFTA, although the bail out of the peso was a huge economic disaster, may have contributed to large companies easily "outsourcing" our middle class jobs to other countries where the work force commanded only a fraction of what we would consider to be a normal family income. Life has changed forever. Soccer moms are born. Single parents begin to be a predominant force in the US. The divorce rate reaches 50%. Can you still consider preaching "family values" when the real model, the great american dream, is almost undeniably unobtainable anymore? People have to work their ass off in this country to scrape by, all except for the rich. I found out early in life, rich people's kids are stupid, spoiled, party animals. They have not had good family rearing, because their affluent parents are too busy hosting functions and making money. They sometimes inherit their parents "old money" through a trust fund, but more likely than not the children never learn anything about life. You don't learn without trying it on your own. Bush won because people saw that he goes to church and "is a family man." That is another phrase I don't want to hear anymore. I grew up with good parents, but that no longer seems applicable to life in the US. That, and nine years of college, have given me the strength and confidence to see through the bullshit that is life in the US. Get up, go to work everyday, come home. People put stock in their houses and their loved ones. Take away the home and the loved one, the spouse, and what is out there for the rest of America that doesn't fit into that mold? People ragged on Ralph Nader because he had never been married and lived in apartment. For Christ's sake, this does not make him an irresponsible college brat. Not all Americans are destined for the American Dream. Not everyone sees a house with a white picket fence, two cars in a garage, and a pet as the chest of gold. I can't imagine how so many millions of people mow, dig, and clean a miniature plot of land with grass around a house they call their yard. No everyone wants to be a slave in the field to a piece of dirt. Is a house really equity? Of course rent has been and always is "pissing your money away." The aquisition of a huge, wooden building with pipes and wires surrounded by unknown neighbors doesn't really sound like a good investment. You spend your life caring for this "thing." In turn it shelters you in storm, keeps you warm and cool, and maybe lets you sleep at night. It also can be a prison on a miniature workfarm with the Son of Sam living across the street and your not being able to do a damn thing about it. (except try to sell) What I am saying is, mainstream America has disappeared. No one really seems to know what life is really about anymore. We have always had clear images of how people lived their lives in this country, and when there was any doubt, corporate America stepped in and put in their two cents. Hollywood was part of it. Thousands of transplanted Jews created a fantasy world, despite the ugliness of Adolph Hitler and the holocaust. There is nothing wrong with that. Many motivational speakers say you can only live something if you can see it in your mind. You have to plan your work and work your plan. Seeing your goals, seeing clearly what you want helps make it happen. Nurturing a little egg in a nest that blooms into your dream. In a confused and changing world where many leaders seem out of touch with the mainstream, it is even more difficult to develop a plan of happiness. What will the world really be like in a decade? 50% of people in the US believe Armageddon will happen in their lifetimes. The second coming of Christ, judgement day for everyone on this earth, including the destruction of the world as we know it, could be looming around the corner. Kind of makes it difficult to get along in the year 2005.