"My Kids"

I stated in earlier articles that I have a part-time job as a crossing guard for our local elementary school. I have been doing this job since last August and I really enjoy the time I get to talk to the kids as they walk to school. I have been given flowers, candy and even a rock from some of my “admirers”; I signed my first autograph on a little girl’s book last week. This job is more than a few dollars toward gasoline and groceries to me. I have a real attachment for “my kids”.

Yesterday was the end of the term; you must remember, that last hour or so we had to return to school for report cards, a required state attendance day. I decided to wait at the school rather than return home. As I sat in my van, I thought about the summers I spent as a little boy, running around the grade school playground, playing softball, riding my bicycle and finding dead animals with my buddies (it’s a boy thing). We didn’t have video games or computers, and television only had five channels (including PBS). If you got stuck in the house, all you had were board games and books, and who wanted books after a year of school. I remember sitting in our kitchen while my Mom ironed and listened to “Stella Dallas” on the radio, or “Don McNeill’s Breakfast Club”. America was in a time of prosperity and world leadership; it was the standard for everybody else. Even as children, we all knew nobody could “whip the U.S.A.” and we were proud of that. My Dad and my Uncles got rid of Hitler and Hirohito, who could stand up to the power of a free America; the Russians, not a chance!!

I now look at the world “my kids” are going to be living in and I’m concerned for their future. It seems America is no longer the “Tower of Power” it once was. Not everyone’s dad has a job, or if he does, it doesn’t allow for their moms to stay at home with them, as she needs to work too. They live at a time which has blurred the lines between what is right and what is wrong, and many of them are confused in this society that has bred confusion about every aspect of their lives. Some of them may have teachers who tell them America isn’t a good place, that America has guilt for the rest of the world’s problems. Our children face ambiguous morality, and nobody wants to commit to setting a standard for fear of offending one minority or another. They are in a country where their President has apologized to people who are responsible for killing innocent Americans with an unprovoked attack. There isn’t much they see at the store that says “made in U.S.A.”; it is usually China, Korea or Thailand. This may be the reason why their dads sometimes do not have jobs. Some of these kids won’t be able to take a vacation because the cost of fuel makes that vacation unreachable for their parents.

I wonder where this country will be over the course of the next few years. Our businesses and industries have been slowed down to the point of stopping because of over-regulation and fringe group interference in the market place. Our national security is in jeopardy from policies that weaken our defenses both at home and abroad, and our nation is perilously close to a financial collapse because of a huge debt which we accumulated in only four years, and our current leadership seems intent on increasing.

As the kids ran out of school today, many of them stopped to give me a hug and wish me a good summer. I have great fondness for those children. I hope America can respond to what those children really need; not an America on her knees, but an America committed to her founding principles and morals. These young smiling faces deserve our best, and that is giving them a government that won’t interfere, but will encourage; a strong America that stands in fear of no other nation, an America we can be proud of!!