“What’s the Problem?’ You Ask…

Johnny-on-the-Spot … by John Foster …

I read or hear all the time, “What’s the problem in America?”

If you’re like me, born in the 50’s, grew up in the 60’s, raised families in the 70’s and now observing your grandchildren moving into leadership roles, you might be “nervous”.

Every time I think our future is looking pretty dim, I hear from or observe local high school graduates and I find myself thinking, “We’ll, we’ve got a chance”.

But there are some things I think we need to think about when we consider the future’s “brightness”.

Now, I confess to being an optimist so that will always flavor my thoughts and opinions.

But I would like to offer some things to consider when we assess our future’s brightness.

When I entered this world, our population was about 151 million.

Today, it stands at 347 million.

In the 1950’s, 87% of us had two-parent families.

Today that number is 65%.

Now, despite the fact there were 24% more married families with two parents when I grew up, I lost my Dad when I was 19 which meant my younger sisters were fatherless for larger portions of their lives.

There’s no doubt that how ever brief his time was with us, his influence was impactful.

I also remember divorce was something that was “whispered” about when I was a kid, but my wife and I raised two daughters who have both been married and remarried.

When I was young, we attended church weekly.

Statistics reveal about 50% of America did the same.

Every Easter season, I like to post a picture of me and my 3 sisters in our new Easter clothes.

My Mom used to remind me that I colored Jesus purple in Sunday school.

Today, just our younger daughter Stacey and her family attended church regularly.

Neav and I haven’t attended church regularly now for several years but I still consider myself to be a person of faith, in large part to my faith experiences.

But, I’ll admit to missing regular church attendance.

So, is that the total issue?

I think not.

In my opinion, cell phones and the Internet have been major players in disrupting the “American way”.

Both allow mostly anonymous opinions to be offered up as “facts” and the many who don’t “have the time” to research or dig deeper take it all in at face value.

When emails and text messages first showed up on the scene, I thought, “This is pretty cool to be able to receive written info almost immediately,”

But then I realized that it also opened the door for rash, not fully-thought-out opinions to be fired off to someone before “cooler heads” might prevail.

It’s funny.

With the ability to communicate the best it’s ever been, the actual art of communication has really slipped in my opinion.

I also think we want for leaders.

The word “statesman” comes to mind.

If you’d prefer, “statesperson” although that might be a bit of the problem we’re looking at.

“Statesman” is defined as a “skilled, experienced and respected political leader or figure.”

I could name several from my younger years.

Today?

It’s a challenge.

I look at our nation’s capital and I’m hard-pressed to come up with suggestions.

There’s another term that I find missing and it’s “gentleman”.

It’s not so much about a man or a woman but what the term implies or means.

“:Behaving with kindness, respect and consideration for others, particularly in social situations.”

However, I think America’s “problems” started with the hyphen.

A simple definition for hyphen is “a punctuation mark used to join words together.”

But, instead of joining us together, it’s lead to us drifting apart.

Growing up, I was never a “white-American” or a “European-American”, I was just an “American”.

But for several years, we’ve hyphenated our heritage to the point that we’ve lost what we could at one time pretty much agree upon.

Why can’t we simply be “Americans?”

Like the ones artist Norman Rockwell used to paint.

I’m an American with European roots.

Maybe my thoughts and ideas are way too idealistic or naive` for many but in my “Bosco and Captain Penny” youth, it’s what I felt brought us altogether.

Combined with USAF basic training, when everybody got their head shaved, we all looked pretty much alike…hairless and abandoned.

In 1992, Rodney King said, “I just want to say -you know- can we, can we all get along?”

I think if enough of us want to, it will happen.

But, then again, I am an optimist.