An Imaginative Role

Let's just imagine...

That we are concerned about what is happening to our youth, so many kids dropping out of school, so many attracted to alcohol and drugs, so many young women ending up pregnant, crime, venereal disease. Should we really be blind to the influence of the media? Of course not all films promote dangerous life styles, not all rap music supports drug use or tears down women's self esteem, not all radio commentators advocate challenge traditional morality. But some do. Some that our young people listen to. And with dire consequences. Of course we live in a free and democratic society and I strongly support those values. I believe also, based on our culture's profound and diverse religious traditions that there are core values, that there are certain behaviors we can identify as immoral, as unethical, as inappropriate especially for young people. We need to maintain our values and protect vulnerable people from the inappropriate, damaging pornographic and illicit garbage that is actually dangerous. Standing up for our most basic believes and principals demands that we do this. Some have called us "censors," but we are not "censors" so much as preservers and protectors of the values our society most cherishes, of the fundamental rights and responsiblities that our constitutions protects. It is in the name of "we the people" that we need to keep young people in that "we" not falling by the wayside.