I was raised in an old fashioned way. Lying was a bad thing. A really bad thing. So was cheating. Bullying—picking on those smaller or weaker—was totally out of bounds. Religion was private and personal, not a club to wield over others. It was important to always do your best. But to play fair and be a good sport if you didn’t win. Good manners were important. Promises and oaths were taken very seriously, and it was understood that public or military oaths were sacred and taken to the constitution, not to some faux ‘leader.’ I was raised to believe that real leaders led responsibly, and that ‘the buck stopped with them.’ That war was a serious thing—the most serious thing any leader could undertake—not a matter of bragging, posing, and preening. I was raised to believe in kindness, integrity, dignity and respect.

It is profoundly disturbing to think that children and young people are now being raised with an entirely different, contrary philosophy of the proper way to live. By a once legitimate legacy party and its political and religious ‘leadership’. And, to be honest and blunt, by a great many moms and dads and grandparents of that MAGA movement. In which each of the moral markers I listed above are consistently lived and presented in the precisely opposite way. In both words and actions.

But maybe that’s just me. I’m old fashioned and I was raised in an old fashioned way.

How were you raised?

(This post is also on my Substack platform. You can support/subscribe to me there at Notes From The Campfire@douglaswoodauthor. https://substack.com/@douglaswoodauthor)