I was watching 20/20 last night with John Stossel.  Anyone watch that?  It was about teens having sex and the messed up lives that followed as a result.  A big portion of his focus was about the 18 year olds having sex with 15-16 year old girlfriends and ending up on the Sexual Offender Lists all across the country. 

Once you get on such a list, there is no getting off.  So for just about all these young men their lives have been drastically limited as to what they can do with their futures.  One young man had a dream of being in the army and cannot ever be enlisted because of being on such a regisry.  They won't have him.   The only difference between him and another enlisted Army soldier is he got caught. 

Another young man s a volunteer firefighter and has always wanted to be a Paramedic but that too will never be.  All for what?  Having sex with his girlfriend?   The point John was trying to make is these kids are suffering the same consequences as pediphiles and rapists when in fact it was more of a Romeo and Juliet crime of the heart, not a calculated sick fettish;  men having sex with with women and children against their will. 

I don't condone what these kids are doing, but at least let the punishment fit the crime.  I think it's sad that it's really society pushing these kids to engage in such behavior and then pouncing on them when they participate.  We've already discussed at length the giving out of condoms in school.  What ages?  13-19.  So go ahead, give them the candy and then punish them for taking you up on it. 

What are we teaching them anyway? 

History has recorded more than once when there has been first a complete disintegration of the home  the sure collapse of society would follow.   Immorality is a great danger to society.  This was the sin that led to the downfall of ancient Greece, the Roman Empire, Egypt, Babylong and other societies.  These empires eventually collapsed but the decay began with the disintegration of the family.  The family always goes first and then the culture follows.  I think America is on the brink of disintegration today. 

British historian Edward Gibbon wrote "The Rise and Fall of the Roman Empire" and listed five reasons for their collapse.  The first was immorality.  It is the enemy of the home.  Since  the nation is made up of  individual families the enemy of the home is the enemy of the nation.   Will we read one day the "The Rise and Fall of the American Empire?"   I think we're living it everytime I turn on the news. 

We just had yet another high ranking politician in the news take a fall.  What tripped him up?  Immorality.  I am shocked to read from time to time the surveys that ask, "Does it make a difference to you whether a presidential candidate is unfaithful to his wife or not?"    Many say it doesn't make a difference. 

It does make a difference.  Whan a man goes to the altar, takes a solemn vow and then breaks this  vow I cannot trust him.  If his own family can't trust him, why should we?  If a man treats his family this lightly he will treat others lightly as well. 

So what's the answer?  Home Improvement.  We can do better.  It begins with individual families.  It begins when individual families hold up a high standard for their homes and say, "just because everyone else is doing it, we don't have to."  We choose to stay clear of what will weaken and eventually destroy us as a nation.   It's not about rules and regulations but about common decency and morality.