Please keep reading! I am not going to give one more analysis of the recent non-elections or the hypocrisy of politicians and their earmarked spending habits. Nor am I going to issue another nostalgic paean to Thanksgiving – though it is one of the purest Holidays we have.

Today my mind is drawn backwards and forwards. “Back to the Future” is not only a fun trio of movies; it is one of my mottos for sanity. You see, when we look back, we find great resources for the future in the heroism and heartaches of our ancestors.

Politicians can be noble. William Wilberforce was probably the greatest social reformer in Western history, working tirelessly for the abolition of slavery for half a century and championing scores of other social reforms in late 18th and early 19th century England. Wilberforce was everything campus radicals of the last four decades claim they hate: He was an aristocrat, an evangelical Christian, a Member of Parliament and (gasp!) white. This diminuitive little man thundered like a prophet, divested much of his wealth, called his peers to account and kept England from the anarchy of the Continent! Where is the next one?

Preachers can be pure. As Billy Graham moves into retirement, we see a legacy of integrity worthy of emulation. A man on a mission, Rev. Graham found the balance between an unalterable gospel message and the necessity of personal growth and social flexibility. He never wavered in calling people to personal faith in Christ and in his firm commitment to racial and social equality. He willingly lost friends when he integrated his meetings in the South during the 1950s. When haircuts grew longer, he let his grow a bit and welcomed young people. As music styles changed, he opened the door to fresh talents while keeping the message clear. And through all of this he remained faithful to his wife and never allowed a hint of financial scandal to taint his efforts. Let’s be thankful for such examples.

Business Leaders can be compassionate and ethical. The Owenite communities of England in the 1820s and 1830s were radical attempts to educate, house and train laborers for a better future. Malden Mills kept all the employees on the payroll while the factory was rebuilt in the 1990s. Today there are hundreds of business networks and investment firms going past the letter of the law and making sure that everyone – from the farmer to the retail clerk – gets a fair share of the revenue. Please patronize companies known for fairness and opportunity.

Families can be healthy. We hear about abuse and divorce; we are deluged with experts inventing new pathologies. In the midst of all this, millions of Americans are staying married, raising healthy kids, going to religious services and giving back to the community.

I guess this is a Thanksgiving essay after all!

Enjoy the food and the football – and make sure faith and family come first.

One of the most startling realities of our day is the short attention span of the public. We are daily exposed to new “factoids” and inherently unable to focus on the most serious issues for any length of time. I call this phenomenon the “ADD generation.”

(One caveat: As an educator, I am aware and sympathetic to chidren and adults who struggle with ADD, ADHD and similar challenges. In this article. I am referring to the plurality of the public who are carried along by the hyperstimulation of our sound-byte era.)

As I write, another political figure is found to be sexually corrupt and resigns in disgrace. The timing of the expose causes his party to cry, “foul play!’ while opponents assume a posture of moral sobriety completely contrary to their defense of adulterer Bill Clinton.

At the same time, tragedy strikes several schools, including murder in an Amish community. Psychologists, sociologists and a few celebrities will comment on the “culture of violence” and the ubuiquity of guns and call for more government involvement. Meanwhile, families will grieve, religious leaders will offer comfort, local communities will rally and the third planet from the sun will keep on spinning.

In the midst of today’s headlines, far more serious issues are obscured. Borders are still porous, North Korea and Iran are still going nuclear, Iraq is a mess and our national debt goes up nearly $50 billion dollars a month! In spite of 24/7 internet communication, satellites everywhere and millions communicating, it is hard to find agreement on the most basic facts of current events. For example, Bob Woodward of the Washington Post argues that there are scores of attacks every week in Iraq while the Administration contends that slow progress is being made. Whom do we believe? It depends on your sources – but even more perniciously, for many, it depends on conscious or unconscious ideological assumptions that affirm or negate the “facts” of any matter.

Until the last two generations, historians and philosophers argued vigorously about the meaning of events and ideas; however, they were, for the most part, deriving their conclusions from the same body of information. Today, the pessimism of the powerful who were trained in the 1960s unites with postmodern agnosticism concerning any “facts” to produce a lethal alchemy of subjectivism that daily reinvents the universe . When this poison is mated to a short attention span, finding knowledge and wisdom becomes even more daunting.

How do we battle this epidemic? We can not retreat to a premodern existence. We can not avoid our civic and moral responsibility to be informed and take action for the world. Let me suggest the following mental pathway to sanity. I am stating these ideas as personal affirmations:

• I am personally responsible for much of what occurs in my life, especially my reactions to circumstances, the quality of my relationships and my moral choices.
• In a representative republic such as the USA, I bear responsibilty – with my fellow voters – for the quality of government we have. My apathy or activism makes a difference. My own moral compass impacts whom I vote for and how I hold politicians accountable for their actions.
• I owe it to myself, my fellow-human beings and future generations to learn all I can about the critical issues of our day and to think seriously about the implications of public policy.
• I can not solve every problem or even understand every issue perfectly, but I can assess whom I trust to partner with to tackle the issues.
• I must SLOW DOWN inside my own head and heart and be careful about hasty conclusions or refusing to consider evidence contrary to my prior notions.
• I need to be clear about my guiding moral and spiritual principles and find others who will help me develop into a more mature person.
• I choose humility daily, refusing to capitulate to the arrogance of the immediate or fuzzy nostalgia.
• I will learn from history even as I realize that my choices create history every day.

Let’s slow down, think deeply, pray humbly and act judiciously. The Hebrew prophet Micah said it best over 2,500 years ago. We must “do justice, love mercy and walk humbly with our God.” Then and only then will we be liberated from media manipulation and spin doctor solutions.

As I survey the world scene and the ideological coloring of all reporting – whether domestic or foreign – there is a shrill refrain that that attacks my sensibilities.

I am speaking of the visceral hatred for the USA, Israel, Great Briain and the few other nations willing to name the enemies of freedom and combat the perfidious evils of our day. Here is just a sampling of the idiocy that passes as significant political discourse, followed by the proper response to such refuse:

Lie: “Zionism is colonialism and racism”

Truth: The founding of the modern State of Israel is the reversal of colonialsm and a proper response to a world that wants all Jews eliminated. Please show me another real democracy in the Middle East.

Lie: “The neocolonial, capitalist machinations of Bush and others keep millions of Arabs in poverty and fuel terrorism.”

Truth: Yes, world capitalism props up corrupt Arab regimes; however, there are enough petrodollars controlled by Muslim powers to ensure that there is no poverty!

Lie: “Israel is the aggressor in the current war and if she would just show restraint we might have peace.”

Truth: Israel’s soldiers were kidnapped. Israel’s civilian population is targeted by amoral cowards hiding in villages. The ‘freedom fighters’ entire raison d’etre is the destruction of Israel.

Lie: “Israel’s ‘Lobby’ controls America.”

Truth: The USA is committed to Israel’s well-being, but the State Department is full of people who dislike Israel and America is one of the few ‘honest brokers’ in the region.

Lie: “The USA is an uncultured bully, seeking to dominate the world.”

Truth: The USA is one of several compteting power blocs, including the EU, China, India, Russia and OPEC – we hardly have a corner on money and power

The list could go on endlessly. Between doctored photos of Qana and Mike Wallce’s outright treason, it is difficult to remain calm. Why do so many in academic and media circles promote such foolish and subversive thinking?

The root cause is a deep self-hatred of all things American, Christian, Jewish and/or Western by those nurtured by the radicalism of the 1960s and 1970s (some of which was fed by the unrepentant Marxists of the 1930s and 1940s!). All the evils of West are catalogued, commented on and castigated, with almost no appreciation for the fact that the only places freedom has a home are where these “out-of-date” values have been planted.

This self-hatred is so deep that some on the Left have joined (at least emotionally) forces with the Islamonazis to aid in the destruction of 3000 years of civilizing progress.

Such self-hatred is self-destructive of the very liberties that allow the venom to be published.

There is another even more sinister explanation: moral license. For half a century these self-anointed guardians of radicalism have urged us to cast off traditional morality and redefine decency, sexuality and family. The result is anarchy, disease and even greater contempt from our enemies. Sexual and financial restraint unleash amazing creativity and ptroductivity, while indulgence saps energy and motivation.

Let’s not let the forces of license and self-hatred defeat liberty rooted in virtue.

During this July 4th week, we will hear paeans of praise (richly deserved) for the selfless women and men who sacrificed on the fields of battle for our freedom. We will also encounter loud protestors angry at “King George’s” policies in Iraq. We will barbeque a variety of foods and enjoy summer with family and friends. We will also observe disquieting events in North Korea and Iran. We will thank God and the Founders for our nation, even as we look for solutions to seemingly intractable problems.

The greatness of America can be found in these very divergent feelings and thoughts. It is possible to swell with pride when the Flag is raised and forcefully oppose current policies. The freedoms enshrined in our Constitution call us to intelligent patriotism. America is not about the dehumanizing ideologies of Left and Right that ravaged the 20th century. We are not about blood, race and soil. Our values and virtues are richer, more trancendent, and call forth virtue, not blind obedience, from each citizen.

The United States of America is the noblest experiment in political freedom in human history. During our two centuries of nationhood, we have offered the world an example of liberty. The first freedom – conscience and religion – is our greatest gift to humanity and to our own religious communities. All other freedoms derive from this basic one – and we are still striving to live up to the aspirations of our First Principles.

It took a Civil War to humanize millions living among us. It took a World War to let women vote. Another World War united with peaceful religious protest finally allowed millions access to our national bounty.

This gradual and painful march forward was made possible because most citizens – native born or newly received – shared similar values regardong God, family and country. But in the last 50 years this consensus (not unanimity) has eroded and been displaced by narcissism and solipcism that threatens the very freedom we enjoy.

The generation that endured the dust bowl and the sands of Iwo Jima has given way to two generations of self-absorbed and self-destructive citizens who do not understant the virtues necessary for freedom.

The way forward is not blind, visceral patriotism that ignores our faults. Neither can we redefine family, morality and society and expect to enjoy real liberty. We must find a third way – just like our Founders. They understood that liberty rested upon responsible individuals. We must reaffirm our personal responsibility for the welfare of our nation and stop blaming the very people we elect! At the same time, there are no “good old days” that we need to reify.

Let’s be intelligent patriots. Let’s love our flag, our land, and our fellow citizens. Let’s also keep striving to live up to the ideals of our Founders and never rest until all enjoy the blessings of liberty.

As we approach Father’s Day, sentimental stories will abound, along with feminist and post-feminist reflections on fathering and maleness.

Current crises in education and in family stability are causing many to wonder if the androginization experiments of the last 50 years have been helpful or harmful.

“New” research is “discovering” what every rational parent has known for millennia: boys are different from girls and both lads and lasses need positive male influence for their psychological well-being.

The last half-century is not all a loss – women do have more legal and social protection, educational opportunity, and improved employment prospects is some western countries.

But there are more ominous consequences of social experimentation and secularism:

• No-fault/one party divorce and ease of remarriage and “alternate” living arrangments have brought great chaos to the psyches of our children. Men in particular have forsaken their responsibilities.
• Sexual liberation is an oxymoron. By its very nature, sexual intimacy is much more than a momentary pleasure The coasening of our sensibilities and separation of sex and family ties has produced and confused, hedonistc generation that is urged to “think for themselves” about where they fit on a spectrum of gender/identity choices.
• Even in fairly stable homes, a fair and realistic assessment of male and female expectations and roles is hard to find. Somewhere in between “burning man” machismo and “queer eyes for the straight guy” is a clear pathway of peace for men and women.

Back to Father’s Day. We need to celebrate the special role of fathers, enjoying the fact that they are

• Men. Yes, males, with all the challenges and joys of that gender. There is no one stereotype, but we need to honor the fact that maleness is part of Creation, not the Fall (for all of you armchair theologians)
• Husbands. The best way to love children is to love their mother unconditionally and prove that love in sacrifical service. If the marriage is strong, children will feel secure.
• Dads. We are irreplaceable, whether we fix cars, do origami or wrestle on the family room floor.
• Humans made in God’s image – fantastic and flawed, infinitely valuable and imperfect – and capable of enormous good.

Let’s honor Dad this week!