The Price of … Freedom?

After the news of the recent shooting in Portland Oregon I thought, outbursts of violence like this is becoming more and more frequent – how soon before it happens yet again – and here we are less than a week later – bearing horror unfathomable – again.

And again, we ask ourselves – how could this be, and what’s the answer?

A while ago I spent a few days in Paris France. It was nearing the end of a vacation, about the time when I started thinking that I was bereft of any gifts to bring back home to my grandkids. As I went out on the town that night, I decided to find a few articles that would make these kids of mine happy. I took the metro to the famous Les Halles shopping area and thought it would be a cinch to find something appropriate. I left empty handed. I was shocked to see the entire district taken over by Hip Hop shops with their obscenities menacingly bulging out just about every doorway. Nowhere in sight was a cute little children’s shop where I could pick up a French beret or scarf for a couple of little girls. No, lost moral principles is not relegated to America.

Of course there will be some that would argue that morality in the first place is the problem, as it tosses up road blocks to ‘free expression’; that morality is wives’ tale residue from defunct religion. I beg to differ; regardless of its source, morality is the fibre of civilization, providing a defined compass and a safe haven of sanity in a wilderness of human behavior.

I recall a number of years ago listening to a discourse on a local talk radio show on sexual promiscuity among high school students, early pregnancies and abortion. The very popular radio host was describing the problem, interviewing parents, school officials, and others that one after the other offered their lament on the subject while groping for answers. I found it ironic that at the end of the discussion on the matter he went on to his next topic, and that was to feature the music from a particular pop singer that without a shadow of a doubt was blatant in its promotion of the very promiscuity that was the subject of the former topic. It appeared to me that the talk show host, in order to be politically correct, was totally blind to the connection.

Let’s face it, through movies, television and music there’s a lot of garbage being pumped into the minds of our youth and we might as well wipe off the ‘whodunit’ look on our face as if we cannot imagine why gang activity, suicide, sexual promiscuity, STD, drug use, random violence, graffiti, and a total disregard of law and order is rife in our society. Our society that tolerates such mindless drumbeat must be willing to suffer the consequences.

No I don’t advocate censorship, but I do advocate that in a free society where just about anything goes, we had better combat these negative factors by stronger positive measures. It makes total sense to me that there should be a cigarette tax to help defray the cost of the health hazards that accompany smoking. What is it called, a ‘sin’ tax? Hey, we might be onto something. With all the billions the entertainment industry is making, they can pony up to help pay for the rehabilitation, prisons, additional security and mental hospitals to house the burned out victims of our free society.

Those who espouse and promote violence and licentious living are culpable. Regardless of the sources or origins of morality, they are dunning it down. They want freedom of expression? Make ’em pay for it. God knows we as a society are certainly paying… In sorrow and grief.