The article goes on to say, "Gari-Lynn Smith's husband was blown up in Iraq in 2006. His remains were disposed of in the landfill." "My only peace of mind in losing my husband was that he was taken to Dover and that he was handled with dignity, love, respect and honor," Smith told The Washington Post. "That was completely shattered for me when I was told that he was thrown in the trash." The general responsible for the personnel explained that the procedure in practice covered the "disposal of medical waste." So the lesson here must be, "fight to protect your country and if you die, you may be worth no more than trash."
And after this bizarre practice was uncovered what corrective measures were taken by the military to restore honor and respect? Well, since then the military has begun to dispose of the remains of the deceased by "dumping them" in the sea. What? Why in hell can they not bury them with dignity in Arlington Cemetery in a decent grave in the country for which they fought? This is just one more example in which highly immoral and disgusting behavior continued until the perpetrators were caught.
How about ethical and moral behavior in government? This nation continues to have a terrible problem existing at the highest levels of government. Think about the many senators and U.S. representatives who have been caught performing immoral acts involving prostitutes, someone else's spouse or, believe it or not, young congressional pages! Many Republicans and some Democrats have been exposed in recent times and worst of all, almost all of them were never brought before ethics committees or censured in any way; at least one of them remains in Congress, exhibiting no shame whatsoever.
What about those people who sat in the audience at one of the Republican debates and yelled, cheered, and wildly applauded when Governor Perry's record of executions was mentioned; when they booed and catcalled as a gay member of the military tried to speak. And during another debate when the audience cheered after a candidate indicated she approved of water boarding.
Politicians, football coaches and celebrities are not the only ones crossing the lines of morality; corporations, the pseudo-human beings that the U.S. Supreme Court created in the Citizens United case, have corrupted the political process with their tainted campaign contributions and turned greedy politicians into their pawns. And then we have the Wall Street manipulators that have effectively outlawed ethics and morality so that they can bend and twist financial regulations at will.
If these examples of a breakdown in moral behavior were just isolated, random cases then the situation would not be that problematic. But these incidents are happening with far too much consistency. They are living proof of the degree to which morals and values have declined. On the surface and in day to day relations it may seem that this society and people are quite ethical and moral. But just give someone a big enough temptation, in most cases involving money or sex, and see how fast that person can lose his or her moral compass and go astray.
When this society is being pulled in the wrong direction, it needs something to pull it back in the right direction. That something should be this nation's religious leaders who should be speaking out loudly and strongly against these kinds of abuses. But as these terrible abuses are exposed for all to see, what do we hear from our religious leaders? Virtually nothing. Except for a very few, do we see them on TV or hear them on the radio speaking out on these issues? They are failing to rise to the occasion when the people of America need guidance; and that is one of the reasons why this nation continues in this state of societal decline.
The mainstream media are also failing the American people. They could encourage religious leaders and academics with knowledge and expertise in human behavior to discuss and debate these issues and try to find ways to address them. But that's just not happening as media outlets continue to concentrate on the reporting of murders, rapes, kidnapping of children, burglaries, and endless debates by presidential candidates. They have no interest in helping to find solutions to these problems; they are only interested in ratings.
Those who study patterns and trends in behavior tell us that what we are seeing happen in America today as related to issues of morality is but the tip of the iceberg; that the problem is far more extensive than we can imagine and that it is, in fact, rapidly escalating. That's a very scary thought to say the least.
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