The Way We Were . . . . Why?

I just read an article in the Christian Post under the headline: "New York public school rejects student Christian club, OKs LGBT Pride Club." The longer I live the more I appreciate the remarkable community that nurtured me during my formative years. I read articles like these and wonder, "Why."  Why do these kinds of divide exist? I used to think that my high school years were typical of young people of my generation. But the older I get the more I see that maybe, just maybe they were more exceptional than I have previously thought. To be sure we did all the things that other high schools were doing during that era. We played basketball, football and a host of other sports. We had bands that practiced in our garages, choirs in church and at school and in after hours were developing the music of the 1960's (You need to read Vicki Welch Ayo's The Boys From Houston for details of that last comment). We had boy and girl friends, went to school dances and drive in movies. I say all this to point out on the surface at least we appeared to be like all the others of our time. But there was something about the class of 1965 that was different. It is hard to put one's finger on just what made it different but I assure you looking back from the advantage of 2019 something made it special. I really don't recall students being divided by their religious, political, or moral beliefs or lack thereof. I have strained my brain trying to recall the few people with whom I had issues. In the few cases I recall was not because of the beliefs but because of what they either did to me or said about me or my family. And, I should add that treated my friends badly. But even in these cases there was never any lasting animosity or was my anger transferred to others of their particular demographic. In fact, a few of these became good friends over time. Now, I can hear some of you reading saying, "Well, sounds like you're describing a homogeneous group." I guess in a sense I am but not in the traditional sense. We didn't look alike; we weren't all from the same social or cultural backgrounds; we weren't all religious and those who were religious spanned the gamut of religions. I suppose we were by default homogeneously Caucasian but it was not an intentional thing and not exclusively so since there was also in our community a large Hispanic population (I distinguish between Latino and Hispanic. For me Hispanic represents people from a Spanish tradition while Latino speaks of people speaking a "romance language" of Spanish, Portuguese or Italian.) With all the religious, cultural, and individual heritage traditions there was an over arching acceptance of people different in many ways from ourselves. I know it was true for me and I suspect for most of my friends and fellow students. We just didn't see our differences as a reason to dislike or condemn. I can't speak for others but I trace this tendency in myself back to the days when we lived in Orange, Texas just a block down the street from the "Projects" (government low income housing). That and a father who taught me long before Martin Luther King came on the scene that you judge people based on their actions and character and not such superficial things such as color, culture etc. In talking with fellow students from those days I find they had a similar upbringing. We often speak of our parents as the "Greatest Generation" and that largely because of the Second World War. But I see them as the Greatest generation because not only what they did historically but what they taught and modeled to their children. It seems that my friends parents were teaching them essentially the same things I was learning at home. Indeed, home seemed in those days to be the pot in which our character was molded. All I know is that the few organizations to which I belonged were blind to color, social standing, and culture. In many ways we were a curious lot. Not curious in the sense of strange but in the sense that we had a wide ranging curiosity. It wasn't until the so called university experts began to gain a voice in our social structure that the high view of the home, church and culture began to be chipped away. In their efforts to "fix" the so called deficiencies in our basic institutions that societies fabric and individual lives really began to come unraveled. This has continued at an ever increasing rate and I see little change on the horizon. Instead of "fixing" our institutions we weakened them. We moved societally away from absolute values that there are things you just do not do and others that are required of you to a system of situational ethics that taught that every situation must be decided on its own merit. In our growing up everyone knew what the boundaries were. We may have crossed them but we knew we were at risk by doing so. Rights were expanded as maturity was developed. I recall that when I was at Houston Baptist College the only qualifiers for a group on campus was that it must have a service and learning component and if memory has not totally atrophied that was the standard in High School as well. I must add that membership was restricted enrolled students. There were no cultural, racial, or social barriers or qualifications to restrict membership. So, our clubs and organizations were composed of people who chose to be involved because of their interest sets. You were not involved in baseball because you liked the game. The same was true of the Thespian Club. You were not accepted or rejected based on anything other than your desire to be a part of that group (Some groups, such as a few competitive sports groups, had a maximum number set by the State and some like Regional and State musical groups were restricted by number of places and level of talent and ability). So, what to do? Well, in my ideal world Christians would get back to basics and realize that God's intends to change society not by social manipulation but by conversion; nor by legislation but through persuasion that the Judeo-Christian ethic is the superior foundation for government that is inclusive; and that individual family values are more effective than University created systems in developing individuals of good character and integrity. We need to take a pause in "looking to the future" and take a few minutes to look to the past and relearn the truth that "the hand that rocks the cradle rules the world." I long to see a day when the lessons taught and the example set during our formative years are consistent with one another. I want to see parents set high moral and ethical standards and then to consistently live them. I have been told that we each have a preferred way of learning. But I believe however you learn the moral and ethical principles of life you must see them being lived out. Morality and ethics like spirituality is more caught than taught. In my mind knowledge is meaningful only if it is reflected in action. We are what we do and not just what we think. This is true for children and it is true adults. Here is what I wish we had learned before we reached first grade. I wish we had learned the lesson of the bean sprout in the cup. The bean sprouted, grew-up and then dies. That was intended to teach us everything we needed to know about life's tenure. We are born, we live and we will die and that will prove to be a short time over our three score and ten years. We also should have learned that we need others. We need to find our support group and family is the first place we find support from others. That is followed by our friends, life companion, workplace, and church. Remember how we were told in preschool to "Hold hands and stick together” as you go outside. Why, because that's where the danger lies and that is where we need each other. Besides, the world can be a lonely place when you're alone. I think maybe, because of our parents and then later reinforced by our teachers and hammered home by the untimely passing of high school friends we had an underlying sense of the importance and brevity of life and the significance other people have in our well-being. This produced a group of people where lawyers weren't need to build community or resolves differences.