Brenda’s Blog – January 26, 2016
“The weed of crime bears bitter fruit – crime doesn’t pay – the Shadow knows!”
My faithful companion on my road trips is the Sirius XM channel Radio Classics. I laugh with the comedians, learn from the history serials, get goosebumpy from Suspense and the Traveler, but totally revel in the investigative shows like Johnny Dollar, or The Shadow.
True to the 40s and 50s right always triumphed over wrong. And crime did not pay!
When I switch to the news stations I am stunned by the inversion of this principle. There is very little evidence of right and wrong. Political correctness, tolerance, and comfort have replaced standards and expectations.
Recently, a school announced they were sending report cards to parents, but giving out “grade enhanced reports” to the students so they wouldn’t feel bad about themselves and be discouraged.
The next generations need to understand the value of making good choices. And understanding the penalty for bad ones. But if our culture keeps blurring the lines and rewarding incompetence we will suffer dire consequences.
“Why should I work hard for $8 an hour when I can get $100s by selling drugs?” The young man was asking a serious question, not taunting me. When you erase the weight of the law and the measure of healthy values, this question is valid. The answer isn’t to eliminate the criminality, but to instill an understanding of human life value and the impact of such actions.
The current norms bewilder and sadden me. I guess I will continue listening to radio heroes capture the bad guys assuring them “crime does not pay.”