Posted: Oct 24, 07 9:03am
When I was born, there was a rigid definition for family: mother, father, children. In previous generations a family often consisted of multi-generations and extended family but was built around the same primary core.
In recent years, there have been so many alternative and experimental lifestyles that the edges of the old paradigm have suffered severe slippage causing great stress in many segments of society. We now have one of two major political parties with a significant branch that refuses to accept any change in those "traditional" values and it may have disastrous effects upon how that party (the Republican Party) deals with the upcoming national election.
Truth of the mnatter is: Read the Bible. There is so much random sex in there, they couldn't ever possibly turn it into a film without getting an NC-17 rating!
This same forces of change has caused problems in the education system, how and what the media presents and where the resources of our country will be focused. Schools districts are in an uproar over what "truths" to allow in their textbooks. The media is awash with controversy as to what is allowed. Now, if you pay for it (cable) anything goes! If you don't, Ozzie still has to have one foot out of the bed when he shtups Harriet!
These are certainly interesting times we live in. I managed to uphold the traditional family values without any great effort. It fit my own lifeplan. Yet, at the same time, I have friends who live in a commune in which thirteen people are part of a very nontraditional marriage. That life is not for me, but I still respect them as friends and the resulting children seem as focused and able to find their own way in the world as my own son, raised in front of a traditional hearth.
My own belief is that we would be best to stick to another old paradigm: Keep your nose out of other people's business and your business out of other people's noses!
Should I be worried if society is willing to give medical insurance to a gay couple? Should I care if some kid has two mommies or two daddies? For God's sake, with the rate of divorce, that is a much healthier family unit than having four or six heterosexual parents and step parents and a variety of half siblings, many of whom are in conflict because the old couplings are still feuding!
Another shifting paradigm is: Who should be allowed to live in this country ... but I'll save my comments on that shifting paradigm of the meaning of citizenship and residency for another rant.
