Notebook: We have changed
EDITORIAL MUG: Larry Anderson
Most would agree change is necessary and inevitableWithout it looms stagnation, but any goal regarding social improvement should be prompted by the recognition of wrong-doing or pressing need. There is usually plenty of that.
If you are older like me, you will recall in the 1950s-60s and beyond black people were virtually left out of popular media whether television shows, advertising, print or films. It was as if they barely existed, their presence and contribution negated.
This was a racist social practice that went beyond the reach of legislation alone. Change within the larger society had to occur through an awareness of what was fair and what was not. Reform in this area occurred gradually out of necessity but also because of a growing sense of fair play. Today there are far more black Americans in prominent roles in all aspects of the media. This is as it should be.
The aforementioned is a positive but not everything that changes is necessarily so. Change due wholly to political prompting or merely for the sake of it may do more harm than good. We must be careful with change, and thinking critically about it doesn’t hurt either. There is more than one way of looking at things.
One troubling change I have noticed is we seem to be losing our ability to laugh at the human condition. Humor has been replaced by offense, a shrillness that often goes too far when a few words are uttered carelessly but without malice. Context rarely matters. Who speaks often does.
At the root of this is rabid political correctness which demands utter conformity to liberal dogma or face ridicule or worse. It invades free speech by forcing fear and hesitation into the conversation. It is judgmental and political. It is also the singular practice of the left forever in search of more control of thought and speech. We should not pretend it is anything else.
America has a haunting history, but we have striven to be better and are. Anyone claiming otherwise either has an ax to grind or hasn’t lived as long as I have
Another change I have observed in some parts of the country is parents must now fight for their rights and those of their children. Some insist a school board or an activist teacher or a politically-driven principal has more authority over certain matters regarding a child’s well-being than the parents themselves. This expanding practice isn’t about doing right for the child. It’s really about power and control and an agenda with which many are just now becoming acquainted. It’s about individual rights versus statist insistence.
Some reflective states are now passing legislation to protect parents’ rights to be parents. What a fantastic step from within a country where freedom was once a given, but this defines what mom and dad may be up against in the future no matter where one abides.
Parents, if you want to see to it that you are the primary influence in your child’s life instead of a doctrine that you had no hand in, you are going to have to stop electing the wrong people to positions of power. You will have to be tough and insistent. You will have to be involved, and you will have to be prepared to defend your rights persistently because the left doesn’t quit, accept responsibility, or forgive.
Attacking parental rights is a change, but is it a good change? I think the opposite. Not every change is good merely because it is different or new.
What do you think about this matter and on a larger scale what do you think of America’s direction right now, at this moment in history as the wheel loosens at the hub?
Perhaps we do need change. Everywhere.
Larry W. Anderson is a retired educator.
