As I stood amongst some peers last week, bragging without shame about my children, one of the fellows kindly listening to me made the following statement: “The hope of our country is in our children, and if we don’t drastically change the societal message they’re getting, our future looks dim.” My very first reaction was to absolutely agree with him. My second reaction was the fearful realization of what that statement meant. I take great faith from some of the legislation that has been passed at the federal and state levels across recent years, but on the other hand, I’ve seen more than I’m interested in seeing on television and in movies. And most of what I’ve seen that I have no use for seems to be what the teenagers of today are drawn to like they’re addicted. The sad truth is that those movies, music videos, etc. are not ABOUT anything. They GLORIFY something, but most often that something is gore, sex, drugs, money, or some other extremely temporary “good time”. The combination of all of that really made me stop and think about our current teenage generation and what we should expect from them in about two decades when they’re running this country – or just taking over.  (more…)