1. the love of money and power
2. the lack of faith
3. the loss of dignity and honor, from the very topmost economic and political positions, all the way down through the ranks to the very poor
it's why I'm very much in favor of every person born in these U.S.'s having to perform 2-3 years of public service to our country. And I think it should be implemented by our military.
That's not to say there's not greed and corruption in our military. But at least the ideals of personal responsibility to a cause larger than yourself, honor and dignity are still qualities that are strongly emphasized by that institution.
For pete's sake, so many of our youth would be well served to find out what they haven't been taught at home, that yes indeed they are capable of making their bed after rising at an appropriate time, presenting a neat and clean experience and doing a full days work that benefits others.
doesn't mean that all youth would serve in combat units, quite the contrary.
I can envision our roadways being cleaned by our youth, our hospitals being staffed by many young people, those on SS that have no family but still trying to live independently having their yards and minor house maintenance performed by these well scrubbed youth, in neat attire with a neat appearance, graffiti being painted over or scrubbed off.
I see some pitfalls with it, but I like Shane's idea that it be a prerequisite before your vote counts for anything, and I believe we could go a long ways towards preparing our youth for the real world by giving them a chance at public service before they go on to college, or whatever work they choose to be a part of in their adult lives. NO ONE exempted, no Senators kids, no college athletes etc. everyone serves. If done properly we should be able to lower our tax rates by all of this cheap labor and I think if we stressed duty and honor and personal responsibility along with the ideals this nation was founded upon during their service we just might find we've done a better job of preparing our youth for the real world and perhaps a better world of their own creation.
