June 2002

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Opinionated Becky.

No, I do not think the rate of moral decline is on the increase. This thought-provoking question has been around at least since Ancient Rome. It was asked repeatedly during my teenage years. I thought we were in pretty good shape then, and I still think so. There is evil in the world. There has always been evil in the world. But there is much more in the world that is good.

What has changed, in this information age in which we're living, is how much we know about the evil that is extant. People who have suffered as a result of evil are more willing to come forward and talk about what happened. The reason we're now hearing, for instance, about so many priests who have been molesters is not that all of a sudden there is an increase in the priestly population of molesters. It is, rather, that molestation victims are realizing that it's safe to tell about it. That they will be believed and seen as the innocents they are.

Something else I've heard all my adult life is a cry for more coverage of good news. For the record, I don't think there is nothing but bad news given to us by the media. I think we may have to look past the main headlines to see it, but the good news is there.

And why isn't it the main headline more often? Some of it likely has to do with how many people are likely to be affected by any given story. If there is a murderer in our midst, for instance, we need to know to take precautions. If, on the other hand, there is a good samaritan on the loose, well, that's nice but we don't need to lock the doors about it. So the murderer makes the main headline, and the good sam goes inside.

Moral decline? Nope. The bad parts of humanity outweighing the good? Nope. Just more information available. And the more light that shines, the more good will be evident, too.

A final opinion for this entry: I agree with the decision that it's wrong to make public school children recite something that includes the line, "One nation, under God." I am, in case you haven't figured this out a long time ago, a big believer in the separation of Church and State, and I see this line as crossing that one.