Sex, Debt, Drugs - America's Epidemic & New York’s Governor

I love the United States. I hope you do too. We are the world’s most generous people. We give out of both our public and our private purse. We give hundreds of billions of dollars in aid. We sacrifice the best of our youth in the defense of others. We are not perfect. But as people we are generous and freedom loving, a result of our Judeo-Christian heritage.

We have been blessed with prosperity. Our prosperity made us powerful. Early Mediterranean civilizations of Greece and Rome were also prosperous and powerful. They are no longer prosperous nor powerful.

From 800 to 600 BC, a hundred or more Greek city-states arose along Mediterranean shores—a Golden Age of learning, an age of diversity in people and thought.

The prosperous Athenians became the might of the Mediterranean. By 500 BC, their fleets controlled the water ways. Then in a single season Athens was decimated. Decimation came not from a conquering army nor a powerful navy fleet. The attack came from a mysterious and deadly disease.

In a single season, an epidemic rendered the proud and powerful Athenians impotent. During ensuing years, political and social corruption brought down other promising Mediterranean civilizations. Softened by self-indulgence and corrupted by moral decay, they fell prey to conquering armies from the East and barbarian hordes from the North.

Today's rapid worldwide travel and cross-culture mixing open the door for a potential international health disaster of biblical proportions. Computers and satellites connect the world's interlocking financial institutions. Communications are instantaneous. World stock markets trade around the clock. Failure of one can overnight plunge the world into financial panic—or worse.
Only one epidemic destroyed the pride and the power of Athens. Self-indulgence and moral decay destroyed the other city-states. Due to our own national self-indulgence and moral decay, three potential epidemics threaten our pride and power: debt, drugs, and a self inflicted epidemic.

So far "The Sky is Falling" proclamations of this or that potential worldwide pandemic have proven without substance. America, however, is incubating its own self inflicted epidemic.

March of 2008, we saw self-indulgence and moral disintegration bring down another powerful and promising political figure, the Governor of New York. He was using the illicit services of high-priced prostitutes.

After being caught and exposed, he apologized to his family and the people of New York—and resigned.

For many, the Governor’s moral failure presented either a political problem or a political opportunity. For the morally bankrupt, however, no problem at all. Including one well-known Professor of Law who said on national TV, the American public needed to get over such things. He used the erroneous argument that many great leaders had affairs—politically correct term for engaging in sexual promiscuity. So, according to the Professor, that must make it okay. And of course, the esteemed Professor of Law used the old standby: What one does in his or her private life is his or her business and it should not affect one’s public life. Sorry Professor, but it does—and sin is sin.

Forgotten were the Governor’s three innocent daughters he shamed. Forgotten the innocent wife he publically humiliated and whose life and health he put at risk.

"Men are not punished for their sins, but by them." ____ Elbert Hubbard

And so are the innocent—the wife or husband infected by an unfaithful mate, or the unborn child of an infected mother-to-be.

Since the later 1980s, each year an estimated 10 million or more Americans contract a sexually transmitted disease. Families are torn apart. Teenagers’ futures ruined. New born babies infected face potential mental and physical afflictions. For others the results are fatal. Thousands are dying from AIDS. Yet our Nation's TV and movie media continue to romanticize sexual debauchery. Sexually transmitted disease is a moral problem—the failure of the 1960's so-called new morality.

After four decades of celebrating the new morality and secular sex education for our Nation’s youth, more than 20 sexually transmitted diseases reached epidemic proportions in America. By 2008, one in four teenage girls had a sexually transmitted disease—some with more than one. AIDS causing HIV has already infected an estimated one to three million Americans, or more. Even if we contain the AIDS epidemic, multiple thousands will still die. During the first thirty years of AIDS our Nation's health care cost escalated more than 2,600 percent—and costs continue to rise. In America, AIDS is no longer confined to male homosexuals and intravenous drug users. They are still, however, by far our two highest risk groups.

AIDS and other sexually transmitted diseases are more than a health problem. Sexual promiscuity is a moral problem.

Another devastating failure of the 1960s so-called new morality, illicit drug use. But drugs are not the problem. The numerous Americans of all ages and social standings addicted to drugs are the problem.

The cost uncountable in human misery: Mothers without husbands must raise their children alone. Children with drug-addicted parents struggle to survive. Thousands of babies addicted to meth, cocaine or other drugs are born each day, many with lifelong mental and physical disabilities. The cost in human life from shooting-up or being shot-down equals an all-out war. The cost in medical and custodial care for the survivors continues to escalate. During the coming decade, the yearly cost to care for the drug afflicted could double or triple. It is more than a financial problem. It is a moral problem.

"Go ahead. You deserve it." "Buy now pay later." Our personal and public debt has reached pandemic dimensions. Depending on credit cards or government succor, a growing number of self-indulgent cling to the belief they can have wealth without work, comfort without labor. And the 1990's lust of materialism filled the boardrooms of corporate America with greed and dishonesty.

The voting public demands more, always at someone else’s expense. Democrat or Republican, each succeeding administration promises more. Tax increases to pay for vote buying programs now alienate more voters than can be bought. Congress must increasingly borrow money to pay for votes.

During the 1950s budget deficits grew. During the 1960s federal deficits nearly doubled. In the 1970s deficits soared, then exploded during the 1980s. Interest payments on our Nation's debt became the second largest budget item in fiscal 1990. Interest payments on the debt exceeded the total federal deficit of 1960—that's just the interest payment. And by 1992, interest on the debt consumed more than 50 percent of all personal income taxes collected. From 2004 to 2008 federal deficits exploded. The result? Our dollar’s purchasing power plunged and financial markets shaken.

The struggle to balance the budget long ago replaced any talk of paying off the federal debt. How big is our national debt, including unfunded liabilities? Nobody knows.

"To live beyond our means today is to live below them tomorrow."
____ Dr. Hans Sennholz, Debts and Deficits, 1987

America’s debt, drugs, and sexual promiscuity epidemic is a moral problem. It is also a political problem. As citizens we must work to replace the spiritually bankrupt who rule our public institutions. Our hope, however, cannot be in political parties or their candidates. America needs moral restoration. As the Church we may not be of this world, but we are certainly in it. The Church, individually or collectively, must not withdraw into cultural isolation. In times of moral decay, economic distress, or national disaster, the Church thrives. Only the Church can offer true hope and real comfort to the afflicted and to the heartbroken.

The bad news bearers are wrong. It is not too late. Ours is still the land of opportunity. Time, however, may be running out. To preserve the American Dream, to renew hope for a better tomorrow will take a complete turn about of our Nation’s direction. It will not be easy. But it can be done. But, are we up to it?


Be Informed Be Involved __________ Michael E. Odell

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02-29-08 A Cup of Hemlock for Washington State
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02-12-08 Recession & Inflation - Government the Problem
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