Gregory Freeman: Lessons Needed In Right, Wrong. StL P-D 1/12/1992

Headline: LESSONS NEEDED IN RIGHT, WRONG
Reporter: By Gregory Freeman

Publication: ST. LOUIS POST-DISPATCH
Last Printed: Sun., Jan. 12, 1992
Section: NEWS, Page: 4B, Edition: LATE FIVE STAR

''Life is a short walk. There is so little time and so much living to achieve.''
- John Oliver Killens

THE STORIES have become all too common.
A nun is shot because she tells someone to stay off of wet cement.
Two young men are killed at a McDonald's in front of customers and employees because of a dispute over clothing.

There's a whole new world out there, folks, and it ain't pretty. Homicides are becoming more and more commonplace, taking place at a dizzying pace. People are being shot, stabbed, bludgeoned, strangled and beaten to death on a regular basis.
Many of these murders are being committed by young people, ranging from those in their teens to people in their 20s. At an age when many of them should be enjoying life, too many of them are living rough, unseemly lives.

Far too many of these kids are children of parents who - quite frankly - didn't give a damn when their youngsters were coming up. Many didn't take the time or the effort to try to raise their kids properly, to instill in them a sense of morals and values.
When you've got no morals, blowing someone away takes no more thought than blinking an eye. And remorse is out of the question.

And that's what's so tragic about all of this.
How does someone shoot a nun? A grandfather walking with his grandkids? A small child?
I suppose it's easy when no one's ever bothered to instill in you a sense of what's right and what's wrong.

A colleague and I discussed this issue the other day. ''I guess I'm old fashioned, '' he said, ''but it's as if a whole generation has lost the notion of shame.'' He noted the words to a song of a generation ago, ''Love Child, '' by the Supremes.
The song, about the shame a young woman felt because her parents weren't married to one another, ''sounds almost ridiculous today, '' he said.
The same concept applies to the nation's ever climbing homicide rate - 25,000 last year compared with 23,440 the year before. People were once ashamed when they did something horrendous like killing someone. Today, people brag about it to their friends, as if it were some sort of ''manhood rite.''

Some attribute these problems to the economy. A lack of jobs, they say, is forcing people to go out and support themselves in any way they can.
There is some truth to that, certainly. In St. Louis, a great many of the perpetrators of these crimes are black. And if Americans in general are living in a recession right now, black Americans are living in a depression.
But a lack of jobs hardly paints a complete picture. After all, America lived with a 37.6 percent unemployment rate during the Great Depression. And while times are certainly tough now, today's 7.1 percent unemployment rate - even if higher among African-Americans - doesn't begin to compare with that of the Depression.

Others attribute the problems to an increase in single-head households - many youngsters have mothers at home but not fathers.
Again, the point is an important one and probably a contributor to the problem. But, once more, it's hardly the only one. Too many people have grown up in such homes and become upstanding citizens to try to blame single-head households for all of the problems.

Much of the problem seems to boil down to short tempers, a lack of an ability to resolve conflicts verbally and - perhaps most important - a basic lack of morals and ethics. Tragically, an entire generation seems to be plagued with these problems. Even more tragically, these individuals are the parents of tomorrow - and in some cases the parents of today - and we can hardly expect people without morals and ethics to pass them along to their offspring.

So what do we do? Sit idly by and watch this phenomenon grow? Or take steps to improve the situation?
   Obviously, the latter choice is the preferable one.
   But where can we start?
   Today's disaffected society does not help in the transmission of such information. And how do you deliver it if people don't go to church, are not close to neighbors, have no positive role models?

There's no perfect solution. If parents aren't passing this information along to their children, the matter has to fall into the hands of others.
A likely conduit is the already overburdened educational system. Too often, educators find themselves having to serve as both teachers and parents. But when there's no success on the homefront, the responsibility lies elsewhere, and young people spend a great amount of time at school.
Individuals and organizations that deal with young people - boys and girls clubs, day-care centers, coaches, neighbors, any and every source available - must also become more attuned to the problem.

Every step possible must be taken to try to teach youngsters wrong from right.
It's no easy task, and there's no assurance that it will work.
But action has to be taken somewhere. And this seems to be the most logical direction.

Daniel Schesch - Webweaver

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