Our Future At Stake

A significant event occurred in the fall of 1993. On a Friday evening, the Mayor of Washington, D.C. asked the President of the United States to call out the National Guard because the streets of the nation's capitol were "out of control". President Clinton denied the request, and the Guard was not activated. The event was significant nonetheless, because it was another alarm that should tell us how urgent our society's problems have become.

There was no natural catastrophe that night. There was no specific mass civil disturbance, such as the Los Angeles riot. The crisis that prompted the major's request was that the "normal" level of crime and disorder had reached such proportions that the regular police force was judged to be insufficient to contain it.

Although that news report faded from the front page after a few short days, its meaning is profound for our society and for our children. A free democratic society depends on certain characteristics in its citizens for its very survival. Those characteristics include respect for others, the ability to cooperate, self-discipline, and a sense of justice. As those traits begin to disappear, our ability to carry on as a viable society is jeopardized. When we cannot get along as a society, external forces need to be brought in to maintain law and order, and the freedoms of a democracy become more limited. The request by Mayor Kelley should be a warning bell for all of us.

The rapid escalation in concern over violent crime had caused a strong national reaction by 1994. President Clinton and the Congress passed a "crime control" bill in the summer of that year. The legislation authorized funds for 100,000 additional police officers, and for other law enforcement measures. While those steps may have been necessary, we need to realize they are not the solution. They are another signal that more and more, external force is becoming necessary to control the effects of a problem that is eating away at our nation's soul. Although we may need to apply force as a stop-gap measure, we cannot hope to cure the root of the problem until we address it for what it is: the deterioration of values, particularly among our children.

When it comes to promoting positive values, American society has been avoiding taking action for decades. One reason may be that since we often think of values as being tied into a set of religious beliefs, we as a society have been reluctant to advance a set of values lest a certain religious agenda be forced on everyone. However, the values that are vital to the health of our society transcend all religions and cultures. We can have an articulated, agreed upon set of values that we can all stand behind as a society no matter how varied our individual backgrounds. Furthermore, we must have one so our social institutions can reinforce the values of our families.

This process of norm setting and norm reinforcement is basic to a well-functioning society. Partly as a result of America's value vacuum, the values of the marketplace have taken over. The powerful voices of American culture have not been reinforcing the values that are necessary for our society to remain strong. Rather, they have been enlisted to promote whatever values increase sales and maximize profits.

What we desperately need to do is identify, teach, and reinforce a set of cultural values that are essential for healthy children and a healthy society. As I've mentioned, these values transcend those of religious denominations. They are the bedrock that we can all subscribe to, regardless of religious affiliation or personal philosophy. As we identify, teach, and reinforce them, these values can be translated into norms that are taught and reinforced by families, communities, and our larger society.

At present, we have individual parents and families teaching a set of values that are undermined by our society. They are contradicted and drowned out by powerful and often technologically advanced voices. When faced with these odds, parents' messages have difficulty competing.

Throughout this book there have been numerous references to conflicting sets of values. On the one hand, we have values that are essential for the survival of a free democratic society. These are often taught and reinforced by parents. On the other hand, we have the values of the marketplace. These are taught by our larger society, through mass media. As we've seen, in too many instances these sets of values are diametrically opposed to one another. Our children are caught in the crossfire, and eventually end up being trained in the values of the marketplace.

I would never presume to prescribe a complete set of values we should all live by. However, there is a list of values with which we can build a broad consensus. The following is a contrast between what our society is teaching our kids and these values:

While there might be debate about wording or emphasis, I believe that a consensus on healthy values among individuals from all populations already exists. As an example, a July 1993 meeting in Aspen, Colorado of representatives of 30 youth and education organizations agreed on the following "six pillars of character": respect, trustworthiness, caring, justice, civic virtue, and citizenship.

Given that we can agree as individuals on the values we would like to promote in our children, the discrepancy between that and our society's values are all the more alarming. Until we begin to address the education our children are getting from our popular culture, our expenditures on more police and jails will continue to escalate without providing any real solution.

Just as it would be a mistake to say that we can ignore external remedies and just attend to the underlying value issues, it would likewise be a mistake to ignore our cultural messages and try to solve this crisis by simply handing down tougher sentences and hiring more police. The only truly effective solution will be to use both internal and external means. It is important for us to avoid the "either/or" trap and to confront the problem in both ways. And just as we must use two methods to solve this national problem, so must we commit ourselves to reclaiming America's children both in our own homes and as members of our larger society.

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This article was excerpted from the book Selling Out America's Children: How America Puts Profits before Values and What Parents Can Do, ©, by David Walsh, Ph.D. Reprinted with permission of the publisher, Fairview Press (formerly known as Deaconess Press). www.fairviewpress.org.

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