Southern Observer - Featured Column

There would be no so-called labor shortage in America if we had not aborted future citizens by the millions.

When the monumental testament entitled, “The Rise and Fall of American Society” is written, and it is certain to be written some day, future generations might be surprised and disgusted at how badly we went wrong.

Few, if any, of us will be around, but it is interesting to speculate about what future historians might write about the demise of American Culture.

I suspect that they will begin to see the genesis of much of our problem was the mounting dependence on a strong, central Federal Government for the solution to every problem in life – problems that our forefathers solved for themselves. Problems that our forbearers traditionally forbade the government to get involved in. Failure to concoct solutions to problems that set us on the path toward losing our independence, therefore, our freedom and, consequently, our way of life.

Although future historians will blame many causes for our downfall, one highpoint in the history of our demise is certain to be the point at which Americans lost their reverence for life. Once we gave way to abortion on demand, it was just a small step toward the eventual concept that man has the right to judge and determine which lives are worthy of being lived. Euthanasia becomes common – first the abortion of unwanted babies followed by the killing off the infirmed and then the old. The selection of which fetus will live and which will die became the judgment solely of prospective parents – based not on reverence of life – but more often upon the perceived inconvenience of the parents. When this trend comes full circle, it will be shown that we lost forever our ability to think of life as sacrosanct. Life will have become “cheap” in America just as in other failed cultures.

It will be noted that a dramatic change in culture occurred when we eliminated the lives of future Americans and replaced those lost lives with un-aborted immigrants, illegal and otherwise, from foreign cultures. All because we needed more people to accomplish the tasks of everyday American life that would have been filled by individuals who did not make it past the abortionist’s sucking tubes. Hard to believe but it’s coming to fruition as we speak.

According to a 2004 study by the Alan Guttmacher Institute, there have been an estimated 50 million abortions performed in America since legalization took hold in 1973. Relatively few of these abortions had anything to do with fetal defects, rape, incest or danger to the mother.

The oldest of these individuals would be over 30 years of age today. These discarded folks would be establishing families of their own. And, each year, as more and more entered the labor force, the numbers would be more than ample to outweigh the supposed need for an equal number of immigrants or the necessity of exporting jobs to other lands.

These 50 million aborted souls would have been native born citizens, speak English, have established families and raised in the bosom of American culture instead of a foreign one. We would not be having this immigration discussion we are now consumed with. Neither would we be searching for teachers from the Philippines; doctors from India, nurses from Thailand, etc. We would already be served by native-born US citizens. Future generations will ponder how many potential doctors, world leaders, teachers, scientists, religious figures, etc. had their lives flushed shortly after conception. The number grows each passing year.

Interestingly, future readers of American history will take note that many (not all) of the very folks who supported the abortion of unborn babies, became the very same people who later decried that there were not enough native-born Americans to fill jobs and places in our society. Therefore, we must establish open US borders – making US Citizenship a God-given right for the whims of any of the world’s six billion inhabitants.

“How utterly unbelievable!” future generations will exclaim.

When our history is written, it will also be noted that many of these same Americans, who supported abortion as a human right were the “progressive” individuals condemning the saving of lives of victims in lands ruled by tyrants in Iraq, Afghanistan, etc. They could never understand the concept of meeting the enemy on foreign soil before even more terror erupted in our own land. The are same folks who failed to recognize the importance of human souls here and in other lands while simultaneously placing greater emphasis on woodpeckers, old trees and historical temperature changes.

Readers of history in the future are certain to proclaim: What were these people thinking?”

Sometimes I wonder if the Southland will lose its traditions and culture with the influx of newcomers. I shudder to think so, but evidence seems to indicate that rather than the South becoming more like America – the nation is becoming more like the South.

After the War Between the States and the ensuing so-called “Reconstruction” every attempt was made to bring the Southland into alignment with the rest of the nation. We were kept in abject poverty as punishment for our role in the war. Unlike Europe and Japan after World War II, we didn’t have a “Marshal Plan” or “Foreign Aid” to help us recover. During the 1930s, President Roosevelt was led to opine that the South was America’s foremost economic problem. But we prevailed.

It took several generations and during the last World War, the South experienced recovery, slowly at first, but it didn’t take long for things to kick into high gear. The so called Sun Belt became the darling of industry, banking and tourists.

The process was accelerated by Interstate highways, a more mobile society and air conditioning causing more folks from more northern climes to march our way. Much has been beneficial but there always remained the threat that Dixie would lose its uniqueness – its special flavor. But, in recent years, it has become apparent that America is adopting Southern Ways.

We can see the fingerprints of Southern culture on just about every facet of American life.

Let’s look at a few examples:

JOBS AND PEOPLE - Over half of the new jobs in recent decades have been created south of the Mason/Dixon Line. The population of the original Confederate states has grown twice as fast as the rest of the nation since 1970. Starting in the 1980s more black Americans moved back south than moved north — reversing a more than one-hundred-year trend.

PRESIDENTIAL ELECTIONS - Four of the last five US presidents have been Southerners. No president since 1932, with rare exception, was elected without carrying the Southland, or at least most of it. The national political leadership in both major parties has been disproportionably dominated by Southerners.

MUSIC – Country Music which boasts Dixie as its birthplace has become America’s music of choice. The Blues created by Southern blacks also claims Dixie as home. Place a dot on the hometown of country music stars on a map of America and the southern tail of Appalachia will be almost completely covered.

RELIGION – The South is home to the “Bible Belt” dubbed so because of the intense influence of religion in the Southern states. Most Southern protestant churches are growing while churches in many other portions of the nation are struggling. One of the fasted growing is the Southern Baptist denomination with 16 million members and they don’t even count children and others who have not been baptized. Neither does it account for the multitude of other “Baptist” denominations. Include additional Calvinistic branches to the mix, and, there can be little doubt that Southern Evangelicals have changed the face of national politics for decades.

NASCAR – Let’s not forget stockcar racing which had its origins in Southern moonshine running and has become a $3 billion American past-time – termed by some as the nation’s premier sport. Once considered a redneck enterprise, stockcar racing has become the sports darling for folks from every walk of life in every corner of America.

These are just a few examples of Southern influence on American life. Many others abound.

For the past fifty years or so, America has taken on the persona of the South, according to New York Times writer and editor, Peter Applebome, in his book, “Dixie Rising – How the South is Shaping American Values, Politics and Culture.” The New York City born writer moved south to cover the news for the Times and became entranced with Dixie – as do many others transplanted to the Southland.

In his book, he provides some of the views expressed above and poses the question: Why does the South wield such influence over the rest of the nation? He answers his own question, “…the South offers a sense of history, roots, place and community while the rest of the nation desperately searches for all four.”

He adds that the South has managed to maintain most of the old virtues while resisting new vices and, thusly, has imprinted the rest of the American society.

There are many reasons that America has taken on the countenance of the South but none more important than the basic aspects of Southern Culture formulated in our traditions of conservatism, religion and images of time and place.

The struggle to hold on to the basic facets of our Southern way of life is not over. With the influx of newcomers expected in the ensuing decades, will the Southland maintain it preeminence?

Only time will tell.

We have prevailed in the past. Let’s hope the future will be as kind.

I don’t know what the practice is today but when I was growing up, schoolteachers and principals always held the threat of my “Permanent Record” over my head like a hammer.

Whenever I misbehaved or even when they suspected that mere thoughts of misbehavior were rattling through my brain, they would threaten me with, “You know this will go on your Permanent Record”.

A student’s Permanent Record attained status with God’s Book of Life and students lived in fear we would be haunted through our lifetimes with what might be recorded within this grave document.

Only in high school did I begin to question the existence of a Permanent Record. But doubts were strong enough that they served to keep me in line throughout my public school education.

A lifetime has passed and I have yet to be confronted with my Permanent Record in any job interview, induction into the US Army, upon joining a new group or, for that matter, at any juncture in my life.

So, I have decided that it is time, once and for all, to settle this haunting question of Permanent Records.

Citing various Freedom of Information laws that did not exist when I was a student but which now guarantee Americans the right to access every private record from their dental records to their school Permanent Records, I have asked the Public School Administration in the town where I grew up to furnish me with a complete and accurate copy of my Permanent Record.

Truth is at hand. If indeed there is such a record, I will learn, at last, if my sins have been recorded for posterity.

Does my PR contain the misdeeds of my youth? Does it recite the times I brought firecrackers to school and set them off at recess? Does it relate my indiscretions regarding shared homework assignments, etc.?

I now await anxiously for a response to my request for a copy of my Permanent Record.

I will let you know if I do indeed get a copy of the dark secrets contained in my Permanent Record and perhaps, I will even share the contents with you.

In the annals of human events, it is time that the mystery of the Permanent Record be settled once and for all.

My sister and I were talking recently about obituaries – the FINAL Permanent Record.

Obituaries consume much of the conversation for people our age. It is one of the first things we look for in the newspaper. As we grow older, more and more of our acquaintances pass on and, of course, we want to know about it when they do.

My sister was lamenting the fact there would be little to record by way of activities from her life. This is not true of course because she has led a full and useful life in every way. Nonetheless, we began to comment on the things some families include in the obituaries of their loved ones.

We decided that we would forego having our families write grandiose obituaries and prepare our own well ahead of our demise.

For instance, we did not want any nicknames used as in “Foster (Happy Dude) Gilligan” passed away. Or “Mary (Great Big Mama) Smith Succumbs.”

We also decided that we did not want platitudes used. I don’t think I have ever read of a Catholic dying without the word “devout” utilized. And have you ever read of a golfer passing on without the notation that he/she was an “avid” golfer or a Baptist who was not a “life-long” Baptist?

Not for us, my sister and I want just the basic facts reported.

We want our obituaries to say just plainly that we died, where the funeral will be held if enough people can be corralled to hold one and that we were “devout” members of AARP, “life-long” members of AAA and, furthermore, we were “avid” card-carrying members of Blockbuster Video.

It seems that a large portion of “Modern” Civilization in general and American society in particular is obsessed with the task of transforming today’s culture into the secular/progressive model by turning everything historically considered to be “abnormal” into “normal.” And, therefore, “acceptable.”

For instance, since the beginning of civilization, marriage has been unquestionably defined as the bonding of one man and one woman as the basis of the family unit. However, the progressive folks are now instructing us that marriage means no such thing. Marriage, according to them, can exist between two people of the same sex. Where do we go from here? Will marriage become acceptable (normal) among two men and one woman, three women and one man, a whole group of people claiming common matrimony bonds among themselves? Their argument can justify all forms of bizarre marriages if we allow it. It’s ridiculous. The natural law of marriage will always be between one man and one woman. If the crazies want to form legal corporations, partnerships, etc., in which the “stockholders” enjoy the economic fruits of their effort, so be it. But leave traditional marriage alone.

And then there is this business of homosexuality. Homosexuality is anomalous. It’s not typical, therefore, it is a variance from the norm – an irregularity. It’s always been that way in civilized society. During most of the millennia of enlightened society, it was actually illegal to openly engage in homosexual acts. It still is in some societies. Most folks are free today to enjoy whatever same-sex activity turns them on. But homosexuality is atypical. And should be treated by society as such. If homosexuality is indeed a genetic matter then, homosexual individuals should be treated with the same love, respect and fairness that we treat others with genetic anomalies. But we must not convert it to “normal.”

Civilized standards once dictated that folks from various countries of the world stay on their side of the border and only cross over when all legal requirements have been met. No more! We have many “progressive” folks telling us that all countries should be “borderless.” So much for law and order! Welcome chaos. The US has pretty much succumbed to this open-borders silliness in recent years. How else do you account for 12 million (or more) illegal aliens running loose in our sovereign nation? And we don’t have the foggiest notion of who they are much less where they are. (They are not all at Wal-Mart). Now, we are being told that these illegal “Americans”, as some folks have taken to calling them, should be forgiven their trespasses and that “amnesty” must become the norm. They want us to just suck up and accept it. If we do tolerate unbridled immigration, our children will never know the America that we enjoyed.

Human sex was once dictated to be only engaged in by adults of different genders within the marriage bond. Normal sex today for most “modern” folks is acceptable when it is between consenting participants in a “meaningful” relationship – whatever that means. Even teenagers as young as 13 and 14 are being encouraged to engage in experimental sex during mandatory public school programs such as that experienced recently at a Colorado high school. According to the progressive crowd, very few boundaries exist for the engagement of sex. Marriage is certainly no longer a prerequisite for these “modern” people. Sexual activity, to them, appears to be that old hippie philosophy: “If it feels good, do it.” Society once regarded that sexual activity was to be engaged within marriage bonds only. Its purpose was primarily for the propagation of the human race. No more. It is now primarily considered as “recreational” activity — proper outside of marriage or cultural norms. Sorry, but that’s not good enough for a truly civilized culture. There have to be legitimate boundaries or we revert to the jungle.

Furthermore, modern civilization in the Western World has revolved around a Judeo-Christian concept of human behavior – the criminal is at fault and should be punished. No longer does this appear to many as the norm. Today, in the eyes of too many people, the criminal is no longer the guilty party. It’s Society’s fault! The rest of us, in their view, are guilty of not showing enough love, compassion, understanding, etc. to the criminal, therefore, he/she turned bad because we didn’t “talk or care enough.” Hogwash! Criminality is a conscious choice.

And regarding the education of our young folks, a large segment of society has deemed that learning to read, write and do long-division are no longer the primary focus of education. Instead, they insist that self-esteem (even unearned esteem) is the main task of education along with the indoctrination of “social consciousness.” Even mathematics has become a social function via so-called “radical math” in which problems revolve around social issues instead of mathematical literacy. For instance, math problems are now couched in the social aspects of society. Instead of problems involving pure mathematics such as: If a tomato weighs eight ounces and a peck of tomatoes weighs seven pounds how many tomatoes will it take to fill a peck basket? Now, we have problems such as this: If an undocumented worker can pick eight pecks of tomatoes an hour, how many hours will it take to enrich the greedy, capitalistic farmer, who is growing “wealthy” on the sweaty backs of Mexican workers?”

What once were private matters are now very public. Pregnancy outside of marriage was once shameful. Today, it’s accepted as the norm when as many as seventy percent of births among some groups occur outside the bounds of matrimony. Bastardy has become normal. My parents would have a hard time accepting public conversation of today: “Erectile dysfunction,” “feminine hygiene spray,” “condoms,” and so on. Immodesty is in vogue. And I’m fairly certain that my grandmother (maybe even my mother) never heard the vile, vulgar language in common usage today, not only in the movies and on television, but on the grounds of elementary schools all around the nation. We have debased civilized conversation and have made the abnormal normal. And that’s “first-rate” in the eyes of the misguided.

The secular/progressives herald all of this as “progress.” We must ponder how the history of the rise and fall of civilization will view it all.

I have always heard of so-called “Super Glue” but had no first-hand experience with it until recently. I now have a profound respect for the product’s effectiveness. I can even conceive of how the glue could improve political life in a number of ways. We all know people, especially some politicians, whose lips we would like to glue shut.

But back to my experience with this Godzilla adhesive. The inside handle strap had come loose from the door of my automobile. I tried several ways to reattach it but nothing worked. Then, I remembered that I had purchased a package of five small tubes of a product called “Superglue” and I decided to give it a try. It worked!

However, when I tried to separate my fingers, onto which a small portion of the glue had found its way, they were stuck together. I thought, “Well, this is no problem,” but the harder I tried to separate them the more they stuck in place, side-by-side. I tried rubbing alcohol, turpentine and paint thinner but to no avail. I finally pried each finger apart, inch-by-inch with a wooden dowel. But some of the gunky stuff was left on my now separated fingers. I didn’t learn until later that acetone, found in many fingernail polish removers, is about the only answer for super-glued fingers. I resorted to a fine-grit sandpaper to remove the remaining residue from my digits. It was several days before the rest of the glue finally wore off.

Believe me, folks, the stuff really works!

Just ask the college student whose fraternity brothers smeared Super Glue on his toilet seat. Can you imagine a visit to the Emergency Room with a commode lid attached to your posterior?

Which reminds me of the ordeal of an uncle of mine who lived over in Anderson. He was a smoker as were most adults fifty years ago in the Southland. As a two-pack-a-day smoker, he even smoked while doing the most mundane of things – including using the toilet.

According to my aunt, who never lied, he came home from work one day shortly after painters had finished painting the bathroom. Unbeknownst to him, they had poured their left-over, flammable lacquer thinner into the commode without flushing it. As my uncle sat, he flicked cigarette ashes into the bowl. Well, you know what happened – a small but explosive fire ensued. The “end” result was Uncle Walt vowed never again to smoke anywhere near the toilet.

Super Glue was discovered by accident during WWII when British scientists were working with new compounds to improve gun sights and came upon the miracle concoction which was ultimately trademarked as “Superglue.”

Nothing was done to utilize the substance until it was rediscovered again in the 1950s. In the second revelation, entrepreneurs realized the commercial adaptations and “Superglue” was born and became available to consumers around the world.

Along with all of the helpful uses of the substance, there have been corresponding mishaps. A woman in New Jersey reached for her eye drops and picked up a bottle of Super Glue by mistake. It took a trip to the ER to pry her eyelids apart.

Another woman in the state of Washington was bathing her dog when one of its little ears floated away. It seems a groomer, earlier in the day, had cut the pooch’s ear off by mistake while trimming the little doggie. The groomer had tried to glue the ear back on, and it held temporarily until the bath water loosened the sticky stuff.

In another mishap, an illegal, immigrant alien Super-glued himself to his legal-resident girlfriend because the immigration officials were coming to deport him. After a quick trip to the ER, the illegal was on a plane headed back to his country of origin.

I can’t give the complete details in a family newspaper but one irate wife found a horrible way to avenge her errant husband’s wandering and lustful ways. He will never forget THAT trip to the emergency room.

One chap in England decided to give up on the socialized medical system in his homeland by solving his immediate problem with Super Glue. His tooth cap had come off, but he was unable to see a dentist in his negotiation of the country’s socialized medical system. It was going to take months before he could be seen by a dentist. He took matters into his own hands by Super-gluing his dental cap back in place. “You can’t really taste it but you do have to be careful not to use too much, in case you glue your mouth shut,” he opined.

So much for Socialized Medicine but perhaps we have stumbled upon a possible solution for the circus going on in Washington.

Now, if we can figure out a way to get a drop or two on the lips of most politicians, it could result in a better world.

Just think: no more useless Congressional hearings; no more childish political posturing; no more slamming political opponents; no meaningless bantering, no whining and best of all – just plain Silence!

Sounds like a good plan to me!