THE SLIDE INTO THE ABYSS

After WWII, when I was growing up, the grandchild of immigrants, values started in the home. They were ingrained in us along with our breakfast. My father was a hard working, loyal husband and parent. My mother kept the home, cooked, sewed, and even went out to work for a while. 

But we were taught by osmosis more than by the book. You knew how to be clean, polite to your elders, study hard, know there is a God. We learned from our parents and grandparents to love good books and good music, to be wary of false friends, etc. 

But what happens when one generation goes awry and does not teach such values? 

Father is unemployed. Mother starts enjoying beer with the boys. Son robs the corner store and gets caught. And the slide into the abyss continues. That son fathers a child by a teenage girl. That baby has that son for a father. And the beat goes on. 

Who puts on the brakes and says, "Whoa !" 

A relative who is not in jail? A thoughtful teacher like my brother, Stephen Rubin, whose concern for the welfare of his students and the system's insistance that he stick to the curriculum cost him his career and his health? A minister who tells the truth and does not rape little children? 

Where does the suffering and injustice stop? Who stops it? How?