LL

_______________________________Two out of three think the country is seriously off track.
Doubts about the presidents character have driven his
standing in the polls down about 15 points. Social
dysfunction haunts the land: crime and drug abuse, the
breakup of the family, the slump in academic performance, the
disfigurement of public places by druggies, thugs, and
exhibitionists. Are we now, to use Sen. Danial Patrick
Moynihan's phrase, "defining deviancy down," accepting as
part of life what we once found repugnant?
 We certainly seem to have lost the balance between
societal rights and individual freedoms. There are daily
confrontations with almost everyone in authority: blacks
against the white power structure, women against patriarchy,
feminists against feminism, gays against homophobia,
children against parents, mothers against matrimony, fathers
against child support, churchgoers against the church,
students against universities. Instead of a culture of
common good, we have a culture of constant complaint.
Everyone is a victim. The have-nots claim victimization at
the hands of the successful. Crime is sanctioned by the
fact, real or imagined, that the criminal had an unhappy
childhood. Gone are the habits America once admired:
industriousness, thrift, self-discipline, commitment.
 The combined effect of these sicknesses, rooted in phony
doctrines of liberalism, has been to tax the nation's
optimism and sap its confidence in the future. And it is the
youth who are strikingly vulnerable. They are being
deprived-like no previous generation-of the emotional comfort
and moral nurturing provided by the traditional family.
Instant gratification is the new order of the day. Personal
impulses, especially sexual, are constantly stimulated by
popular music and television, with other mass media not far
behind. TV and music often seem to honor everything that the
true American ethic abhors-violence, infidelity, drugs,
drinking-and to despise everything that it embraces-religion,
marriage, respect for authority.
 No wonder it is difficult to sustain parental values and
parental continuity. Behind the popular culture lies a
capitalist system whose development now also contributes to
the erosion of family and community. The individual
flourishes best in small neighborly communities based on the
traditions and habits of the family, the church, the
township, where trust, intimacy and cooperation are prized.
There is a great yearning in the country to provide our
national life and institutions with a larger moral dimension:
The success of the movie Forrest Gump lies in its appeal to
the decency of Americans. Redemption has to begin with
television, education, and most of all, the information
highway. This is why your sysop Rich Allen is running this
BBS. Children spend more time before TV than they do at
school. Society must find some way for the information
highway and Television to have a higher purpose than making
money. Consistent with our nation's commitment to freedom of
the press the president should establish a national
commission to review the impact of TV and suggest how it
might play a more constructive role in our society.
Education is an economic imperative since business requires
greater skills and sophistication from its employees. But it
is also a moral imperative. Everyone who could benefit
should have the opportunity not just for learning how to find
sustenance in knowledge.
 The nation's hunger for a public commitment to social
and moral betterment is not a simple nostalgic for the
greater simplicities of yesteryear; the clock cannot be put
back. It is profound and anxious desire to arrest decay.
But if the dysfunctional trends continue that anxiety will
turn to fear, and even panic. And when fear comes to
dominate social policy, reason and tolerance are at risk.
That is our predicament. How much longer until we will be
free from these bonds of confusion? God only knows. Until
then this sysop is doing his part and he begs you to do
yours. I like all of the members of THE RICH ALLEN BBS look
forward to the day when we will "truly" be free in America.
Allow me to end this writing in the words of Martin Luther
King. ...I have a dream that one day black men and white
men, Jews and Gentiles, Protestants and Catholics will one
day join hands and sing in the words of the old negro
spiritual, free at last, free at last, thank God almighty we
are free at last!