I just read a blog by, of all people, J.J.Walker.  Interesting stuff.  He was commenting on the controversy that has been swirling around Bill Cosby for some time now about his razor-sharp observations of today's African American "culture."  His point, other than to rather vapidly support Cosby's comments, was to defensively point out the 3 fingers pointing back at whoever's accusing the Black Community of immorality.  His message seemed to be that the apparent hypocrisy of some critics of modern Black culture waters down the impact and credibility of the message to an unacceptable level.  Should Cosby have had one or more affairs, and/or children out of wedlock?  No.  Does that make his message any less true?  No.  Does it temper the impact of his message?  Possibly.  And that, I believe was J.J. Walker's point.  It's one thing to talk the talk, another to walk the walk.

The one thing that I found objectionable about Mr. Walker's comments was the insistence that traditional moral values are "too high," and are therefore unreachable and invalid.

I beg to differ.  The real problem facing this country is not that traditional moral standards are "too high," as Mr. Walker suggests.  They are not.  Millions quietly live them every day.  They simply aren't being chased around by paparazzi who dog them every time they attend church, or volunteer time at their grandchildren's elementary school.  They're too "boring."  To the media, "boring" is anathema.

And yet, these "boring" non-media-worthy masses somehow manage, for the most part, to avoid the innumerable consequential chasms that claim the "enlightened" amoral contingent year after year... AIDS, violent crime, gangs, fatherlessness, sexually transmitted diseases, domestic violence, drug and alcohol abuse, child abuse, broken homes, and broken hearts.  For the most part, their children grow up to be well-adjusted, well-educated adults with the same values as their parents.  Boring.  But happy.

We need to take a lesson from the quiet, "boring" masses and learn once again how to "be" a moral nation.  "Being" is more than just "saying," as Mr. Walker points out.  It involves actually DOING.  But it even goes beyond that.  It involves actually believing in something, and coupling that belief with action in one's life.  One can go through the motions for appearance' sake, or one can "be" the kind of person that one believes they should be.  Dana Carvey's "Church Lady" character springs to mind here.  Mother Teresa on the other end of the spectrum.

As one very wise man said, addressing surface issues in regard to morality is like "straightening deck chairs on the Titanic."  We need to avoid the icebergs.  And most of all, we need to acknowledge that the icebergs, do in fact exist.