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America needs soul-searching

Date published: 12/28/2002

EVERY NOW AND THEN, we need to take a good look at ourselves as a society. With the old year ending and a new one about to begin, perhaps now is as good a time as any for a self-evaluation.

We too often tend to think that we have come so far, that we are so much more socially advanced and open-minded than our ancestors, that we live in a tolerant society where all men are equal and ideas are judged simply on merit.

But do we?

The truth is, we live in one of the most repressive periods in our country's post-Civil War history. Only the communist witch-hunts of the 1950s overshadow America's intolerance during the past decade.

We have made virtually everything a crime and everyone a criminal. If you want to do it, chances are there is a law against it and you will be arrested if you--even unknowingly--step over the line.

Third-grade girls who bring table knives to school to butter their bread are treated as criminals and arrogant-looking men wearing black suits and earphones hassle little old ladies in airports.

The Righteous Right condemns people who would dare light up a cigarette, and those without college degrees are treated like second-class citizens in a society where education is synonymous with God.

We spend billions of dollars trying to keep our kids off mind-altering drugs, then turn right around and dose them up with Ritalin when they act like children and get on our nerves.

While the police are fighting a war on drugs, doctors are prescribing Prozac and other anti-depressants to anyone who ever had a sad day, and psychiatrists are busy inventing mental disorders for some who seek the easy road.

Schools and daycare facilities raise our children and we ship our aged parents off to nursing homes. And after the young and the old are neatly tucked away, we permanently indenture ourselves to banks and credit-card companies as we search vainly for that bigger house or the ultimate technological gadget.

Freedom of speech is virtually lost.

We can't laugh at ourselves anymore without being viewed as monsters. Ethnic jokes and blonde jokes, no matter how innocent, are out. About the only thing that is fair game for comedians is sex, and then we complain that prime-time television situation-comedy shows are so dirty.

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Date published: 12/28/2002