But the Committee Says it's All Right

I was talking to a friend of mine the other day, which is something I do often enough to have some sort of disagreement... about one thing or another... usually about world issues.

Issues that no one else would think to talk about.

Things like, how our planet is dying or why people just don't care about anything anymore... or why it is that we won't fight for what we believe in. Instead we let "society" tell us what is right and what is wrong.

We let someone else decide for us what we can watch on television or in the movies, or what we can and can't read. We who believe in freedom of speech or freedom of choice, let someone else tell us our choice is WRONG. And we sit back and say, "Well, it's a sign of the times."

We reminisce about the way things were. Like when an "R" rating in a movie usually meant more than heavy petting, drug use, extreme violence or smoking a cigarette. An "R" rating meant that that particular movie had all of the above. Now, it will most likely have sexual content or extreme violence or both, but a "PG" movie is violence.

So we're saying that violence is okay, but sex is not. I would rather let my child, if I had one, watch a movie with sexual undertones (not SEX) than one with VIOLENCE. But then I would also sit with my child and EXPLAIN that what they are seeing is not real, but fantasy. And then EXPLAIN the difference between fantasy and reality.

We reminisce about how life used to be. How it used to be safe to go out at night with our friends and walk down to the local hangout, even though it was at least two miles away. We remember the fear we had of our parents when we broke curfew, so we didn't do it. Because not only were we afraid of them, we respected them. If only deep down inside and never openly admitted to our friends. Because we knew we all felt the same way. Most of us called to say we were going to be late, if only to stop our mothers from worrying to death about us. And then, we dealt with the wrath of our fathers even though we knew that we could be grounded for the rest of our lives. (At least that's what it felt like.)

And we reminisce about how we actually had to work for what we wanted because it would be a cold day in hell before our parents GAVE us what we wanted. Sure they might help out - maybe, buy us a fixer-upper, but we had to pay for our own gas and insurance - which meant we had to WORK. We had to give up our weekends or after school time to the local grocery or fast food joint. Our summers meant working to save up enough to buy a better car or to move out at the end of our senior year. Because we were taught to fend for ourselves, to rely on ourselves - because if we couldn't rely on ourselves, then who could we rely on?

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We knew the difference between right and wrong.

We knew how to stand up for what we believed in.

We never let anyone order us around and we knew when not to take NO for an answer.

We are the people.

We should never let someone else make up our minds for us if it the WRONG decision for us.

We need to stand up for what we believe in.