Today's blog revisits a era that many of us may have chosen to forget or thought it was just trivial at the time. On May 19th, 1992, a mere 19 years ago... (by us old folks standards), Dan Quayle then Vice President of the United States, returned from a trade trip to Japan. During this time, Los Angeles broke out into riots over the verdict of Rodney King. Of course the Japanese were dumbfounded that our country was so out of control and did not understand the culture that not only permits this, but promotes it. During that speech, Dan Quayle also addressed what he thought was an underlying factor in our society.
Here is an excerpt from that speech...
" In a nutshell: I believe the lawless social anarchy which we saw is directly related to the breakdown of family structure. personal responsibility and social order in too many areas of our society. For the poor the situation' is compounded by a welfare ethos that impedes individual efforts to move ahead in society, and hampers their ability to take advantage of the opportunities America offers.
If we don't succeed in addressing these fundamental problems, and in restoring basic values, any attempt to fix what's broken will fail. But one reason I believe we won't fail is that we have come so far in the last 25 years". -- Dan Quayle
He talks briefly in the above quote about our current "welfare" state, that is people are impeded from moving forward in society because of the lack of family support, structure and personal responsibility. Now I am not taking this to mean that only the poor are to blame for this., The personal responsibility applies to those in our government, and business leaders as well.
He further states...
"The poor you always have with you, Scripture tells us. And in America we have always had poor people. But in this dynamic, prosperous nation, poverty has traditionally been a stage through which people pass on their way to joining the great middle class. And if one generation didn't get very far up the ladder - their ambitious, better-educated children would.
But the underclass seems to be a new phenomenon. It is a group whose members are dependent on welfare for very long stretches, and whose men are often drawn into lives of crime. There is far too little upward mobility, because the underclass is disconnected from the rules of American society. And these problems have, unfortunately, been particularly acute for Black Americans." -- Dan Quayle.
And I agree in many ways. God prompts us to reach out to the poor and help them. From Jesus' time on earth we are reminded again and again to help the less fortunate. Unfortunately we have chosen to do so from a cold government fund and not face to face, neighborhood to neighborhood, church to community. The government social programs takes money from our pockets to give to others and robs us of the income we need to create some really impactful things in our own communities. George HW Bush talked about the 1000 points of light, how each of us can become a beacon of light to help those in our areas. Great laudable ideas, but without the means to support it, it just becomes volunteerism that makes minimal impact. But he also implies that these same social programs that were designed to help others, is the reason that we are stopping others from growing.
Later in the speech, Dan Quayle addresses the selfishness of the baby boomers and their protests of family values and the "get it now" attitude has robbed our society of the things that we built it on. Families, caring for one another, paying it forward, and personal ethics were all casualties of this movement. Here is the excerpt...
" I was born in 1947, so I'm considered one of those "Baby Boomers" we keep reading about. But let's look at one unfortunate legacy of the "Boomer" generation. When we were young, it was fashionable to declare war against traditional values. Indulgence and self-gratification seemed to have no consequences. Many of our generation glamorized casual sex and drug use, evaded responsibility and trashed authority.
Today the "Boomers" are middle-aged and middle c1ass. The responsibility of having families has helped many recover traditional values. And, of course, the great majority of those in the middle class survived the turbulent legacy of the 60s and 70s. But many of the poor, with less to fall back on, did not.
The intergenerational poverty that troubles us so much today is predominantly a poverty of values. Our inner cities are filled with children having children; with people who have not been able to take advantage of educational opportunities; with people who are dependent on drugs or the narcotic of welfare." -- Dan Quayle
All the things that Dan mentions in these quotes are all facts and are not in dispute. Most people laughed off Dan as a person who was a bumbling idiot incapable of making these societal observations. But here we are 19 years later, watching an entirely new generation of people, burn down buildings, trash parks, shut down ports and demand that the world serve them instead of aspiring to help others. The "Wall Street" crowd is selfishly reaping profits without the regard for their fellow human beings. This is not a new idea. It has been going on for centuries. From the money changers in the Temple, to Ebeneezer Scrooge, people who worship money and the things it brings has been a part of society as long as their have been poor. The only difference in our society, is that we idolized it. We admired those with 4M dollar homes, 500K cars, yachts, vacation homes, and more. The more we looked into those lifestyles the more we found people who sacrificed family, children, social commitment and more to get there. So the model was set, colleges geared up classes, businesses followed the model and the rich got richer, no matter what the consequence.
Later on in the speech, Dan gets off the now famous "Murphy Brown" quote. He reflects on Murphy Brown's (TV Character) decision to have a child out of wedlock. She makes the decision that a dad is not necessary to raise a child and that she can provide all that a child could need. Dan has this do say during his speech...
" It doesn't help matters when prime time TV has Murphy Brown - a character who supposedly epitomizes today's intelligent, highly paid, professional woman - mocking the importance of fathers, by bearing a child alone, and calling it just another "lifestyle choice." -- Dan Quayle
Dan was ridiculed on TV, in the newspapers, by columnists and everywhere for making this kind of speech. But 19 years later, we are suffering from a new generation worse than the last. They are lost because no one gave them a compass to follow. We removed God from our lives our society and our hearts. We sought money, power and things. Dan followed up this by summarizing..
" It's time to talk again about family, hard work, integrity and personal responsibility. We cannot be embarrassed out of our belief that two parents, married to each other, are better in most cases for children than one. That honest work is better than hand-outs - or crime. That we are our brothers' keepers. That it's, worth making an effort, even when 'the rewards aren't immediate. , So I think the time has come to renew our public commitment to our Judeo-Christian values-in our churches and synagogues, our civic organizations and our schools. We are, as our children recite each morning, "one nation under God." That's a useful framework for acknowledging a duty and an authority higher than our own pleasures and personal ambitions.
If we lived more thoroughly by these values, we would live in a better society. For the poor, renewing these values Will give people the strength to help themselves by acquiring the tools to achieve self-sufficiency a good education, job training, and property. Then they will move from permanent dependence to dignified independence." -- Dan Quayle
So Mr. Quayle on behalf of those who refused to acknowledge the contribution to the fiber of or discussion, I sincerely apologize and say.. "You were right"!
Our current cash problems in the world, the decline of our way of life, the dissatisfaction of our existence can be traced back to the time, in which the world turned it's back on God and our own stubborn free will has caused us to hate one another, to fight over the "last crumbs" of government handouts. In the end there will be nothing but our families and our faith to see us through. So as Dan said, it is time to turn to God and the bible for our sustenance, not the world. My only hope is that it happens before it is too late.
For those of you interested in reading the entire speech, follow this link...
http://www.vicepresidentdanquayle.com/speeches_StandingFirm_CCC_3.html
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