"Sean Connery." What's the first thing you think of when I say that name? (every woman, I think, over 35 goes, "oooohhh...") And why is that?
Next question, related to it: What do Ronald Reagan, Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis, and Captain von Trapp all have in common? Give up? They are people that - in my mind - exuded a sense of Class.
For those of you wondering what I am ranting about this time ... I am grieving the loss of a sense of nobility or "class," in our American society. If you ask the Brits, they will tell you that there never WAS any class in the States anyways, but I disagree. I think there were enough people that had a sense of decorum, at one point, but that is all but vanishing.
How do I know it's gone - well, at least almost gone? Take the White House as an example. Please. Take the White House, and someone re-infuse some class there. On this point, the left and the right have accidentally agreed.
I have friends who are good, moral people and they could not vote for Donald Trump because he had no class. I told them not to look at his behavior, but at his stance on the issues - he is, after all, from Downstate New York and those people live in a herd and yell at each other all the time. It is their way. In his case, once he got into Office, he couldn't stop the damn Tweeting. Although, to be fair, Tweeting was his way of getting his opinion out there before the Media took it, re-spun it, and presented something completely Other as the rendition of what was said. But sometimes he was crass, blunt, and behaved like an 8th grader with no parental controls on him.
I myself, who am personally familiar with a fair cache of swear words, take issue with the utilization of them in formal diplomatic meetings. The current occupant of the Oval Office has been an all-around disappointment and disgrace to both the Office and the Religion he claims to be a member of for many reasons. Last week, I watched a Press conference where he looked down at the podium and said, out loud, "Stupid sons-of-bitches." WHAT?! In a Press Conference?! And maybe the reporter was Stupid - which my mother taught me was "not nice" to call someone that - I don't know. But why drag the person's mother into the slur - I who own dogs know that there are bitches (a breeding female dog's formal title) and there are bitches - a dog that is snappy and disagreeable and can't be trusted to behave properly. Or, as a female theologian I knew once said: "by definition, a bitch is a person who takes up a lot of psychological space." Mull that over for a bit.
Another Biden Conference blunder: "what the hell is going on here?" And he's looking around the circle of people where he is sitting as if he doesn't KNOW where he is.... maybe he did not. But, again, can we not trust him to represent the face of the country with a certain sense of class or decorum?
I will give it to the British Monarchy, Queen Elizabeth in particular, she has walked through decades of all kinds of heartache, critique, opposition, and the attempted re-defining of the role of the aristocracy, etc. and yet she still dresses up nicely, puts on a stylish hat and smiles pleasantly when the situation warrants. I remember the era of Lady Diana being taught to do the little "royal wave" when she was out and about, her bashful girlish smile endeared us all. She made Princess-ship look, well, absolutely royal. What does America have that can touch that with a ten-foot pole? Nothing. Really.
From our rock stars to our Miss America pageants, we have brought forth generations of stoners and tarts. To a large degree, the music that started out so fun in the 1940's and 1950's has morphed into an audio version of violence, profanity and indecency. We have allowed our young people to memorize words to songs that could make my grandmother's ears fall off the side of her head, and yet they don't know the Constitution, the Ten Commandments or the Golden Rule. They have been proselytized by music.
How the heck did barbarians take over this country? One kid at a time. When parents stop parenting and don't weed out behavior - when they in fact, actively role model bad behavior in front of their kids because their generation bought the "everybody's doing/saying it" lie, everything began to trend morally towards entropy. When parents stop standing with teachers and police and principals and pastors and start siding with Junior and Missy, divide-and-conquer morality has won the day. Your kid can grow up to wear the smartest designer clothing and drive the best car and live in opulent luxury but if you haven't taught him/her to be a decent human being, you have given him nothing of real value.
True story: I was at a Parent/Teacher conference and the parent in front of me came to school in uniform ... with a gun on his hip. Now if that is not an attempt to intimidate, I am not sure what IS. His wife had called me on the phone wailing that I was "picking-on" their child ... I wrote a detention for her incessant talking ... and then the rest of the class miraculously became quiet students. So all I needed to do was write ONE detention, and then I could teach class without the annoying chattering going on. I told that mother: "what I do to the other kids is not your concern. Your concern needs to be your kid. I want it QUIET in my class. I will write the detention to whomever I see talking. All I need to do is write ONE. Your job is to tell your kid not to be THAT ONE. Don't talk to me about how unfair my practice is. My JOB is to teach. Your kid's job is to learn." Well that was the general gist of the conversation and the mother still had the impression I was "picking on" her kid.
Here's why I bring that up. When you look at someone's parenting style, you can also tell how they will deal with other problems in life. I am now realizing that is why St. Paul spells out the importance of a man having control over his own house before he becomes a deacon in the church. If you have no control, authority or respect at home, you won't have it anywhere else. Take THAT idea to the White House. The Current occupant of the Oval Office clearly is covering for and dismissing the bad behavior of one of his sons. He also referred to him as the smartest man he knows. Hmmm. The smartest man you know let himself be filmed with a woman who "worked the night shift" in a seedy hotel? How is that a good image for a "smart man"? I am willing to bet that his parenting of his sons involved a lot of useless pleading and proposing alternatives, rather than a meeting with the Board of Education to the Seat of Understanding.
So put this failure as a parent in a role of leading an entire country. And when one big entity of evil invades, terrorizes, murders and annihilates a much smaller country, do NOT stand up at your podium and say, "We will hold you accountable. You've got it coming." or any such nonsense. Because your son is living proof that you have no bite behind your meaningless barking. And that big entity of evil is going to continue slaughtering and marauding a much smaller country, and then another, and then another, etc., because you have no moral spine. You have no moral authority and you have no class. There is no reason for anyone to respect you. If the reporters in your Press Conference won't treat you with respect, and the best you can do is mutter swear words under your breath - and accidentally into the microphone - do you expect any major world power to take you seriously? Come on, now.
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