Recently my husband and I celebrated our 46^th wedding anniversary. There was a time when that was expected. You married your true love and lived happily ever after. Well, you lived together ever after anyway, whether happily or not. Now, I realize that my husband and I are exceptions to the rule. We’re special. He sure is, anyway.

Today it is too commonplace that families no longer stay together. The divorce rate is way too high. I’m not sure if anyone knows what it is. We can all agree, however, just from our personal knowledge, that the figure is way too high.

When I asked my husband why our marriage had lasted, he said, "what, are you crazy? Why would you ever get rid of someone like me?" He has a point.

Feminist ideology, which has strayed so far from its original goals, can share some blame for the decline in the traditional American family. Women were told they were used and abused if they "chose" to stay home and answer the highest calling a woman can have, to be a mother and teach and nurture. This group has even equated motherhood to slavery. These feminists are in favor of any form of support, charity, welfare, etc., except a father in the home taking care of the family. Women were told, "do your own thing," and men were told, "you aren’t responsible, it’s a woman’s choice" (in all matters).

This ideology teaches that the most important goal in life, is personal fulfillment and happiness. When people are more concerned with their own self-gratification than the family as a unit, the results are inevitable. Everyone Loses. A family thrives when the individual units put the family unit as a whole in the priority position and work to make it survive. Everyone Wins.

The so-called women’s movement was founded to address some serious issues. It has now strayed so far off base, it has become irrelevant. These organizations, such as National Organization of Women (Now), have been reduced to hypocrisy in the highest sense. Their leaders do not speak for most women, yet those are the main voices we hear in the mainstream media stage show.

These women believe that everything in the workplace is sexual harassment. That is, unless you are a powerful man who tows the feminist’s line. For example, say President of the United States who receives sexual favors from a lowly intern. On this issue, I once heard the NOW President speak of keeping an open mind. Perhaps, therein lies the problem. With a mind as open as this, maybe their brains have fallen out.

These liberal women’s groups paint women as being unable to make a decision for themselves on anything except abortion. The only reason we could possible make less money than a man is because men are discriminating against us.

It never occurs to them that it just could be the "choices" we make. Although, there is a lot of data out there to support the notion that women, very often, "choose" professions that are less demanding and therefore, the pay scale is usually lower. It shouldn’t matter to anyone, what jobs women tend to seek, as long as it is her "choice".

Why, I wonder, are these women always touted out to speak for women? I believe they represent only a small minority of women and "women’s issues" are the same issues that are important to all members of the family. Surprise! Feminists, most women put their family first and want what is best for the unit as a whole.

I belong to several women’s organizations that has a membership to make the NOW gang look like an afternoon tea party. Strangely enough, with many alternate media organizations now available, these leaders in these groups are finally being asked for opinions on the issues of the day concerning women. Most of the mainstream media aren’t really interested in what real women have to say. They usually feature the radical feminist organizations that have a political and social agenda that fits the media ideology.

Leftist women’s groups have preached the virtues of "pro choice" when it comes to abortion. But when women make decisions regarding their choice of professions to pursue, it just couldn’t possibly be "choice" keeping them on the lower rung of the corporate ladder.

Nor could we little women, who are so suppressed, be allowed to "choose" the schools that those little ones we "choose" to birth and nurture should attend. But that’s for another day and another column.

Most of us women have been busy taking care of our families, working in our communities and sometimes in our businesses, making the world go round, while these feminists have pretended to make a difference. They’ve made a difference all right, and it ain’t a pretty sight.

I suffer from what I call the Scarlet O’Hara syndrome, "I can’t think about that today, I’ll think about that tomorrow". Tomorrow is now today and I’m forced to look squarely at things that I’d rather not think about. Sort of like turning over rocks and trying not to notice what’s crawling underneath.

America is the greatest nation in the world. We are the most envied, the richest, the most powerful and, I believe, still the most respected of all nations. Our economy is booming, the stock market is soaring and all is right in America. Wrong!

America is the same nation that leads industrialized countries in murder rates, violent crime, imprisonment, abortion, sexually transmitted diseases, teen suicide, divorce, single parent households, drug use, pornography and failing schools. As Bill Bennett remarked, "We have become the kind of place to which civilized countries used to send missionaries."

We parents have done a wonderful job of providing the material things for our children that our parents and grandparents were unable to provide for us. But we’ve fallen far short in providing the essentials that our ancestors provided, honor, integrity, commitment, truthfulness, responsibility and many other virtues that were a part of our everyday lives.

We have become morally bankrupt and it is destroying our country. Our moral bar has been so lowered that any moral slime can slither underneath. We have lost our self respect and it is jeopardizing our future.

Our moral principles were always, in the past, a part of American culture. They were based on faith. The Golden Rule, The Ten Commandments, and the Bible served as moral guides. Now the country that was founded on the principle of religious freedom, finds itself battling to remove all thoughts and symbols of religion from our lives. Of all the wars America has fought, the current war on religion will prove to be, by far, the most destructive.

A culture in which "everything goes" and the only sin left is being judgmental is headed for a moral abyss. Without judgement, justice is impossible. Our legal system is based on judgements. Without it there will be no punishment for wrongdoing. But an even greater responsibility rests with us, as citizens to set the standards of judgement in our everyday lives. When we are confronted with wrongdoing and unethical behavior within our midst, we have a responsibility, as citizens of this great nation, to speak out and, God Forbid, be judgmental.

Our form of self government requires that people make reasonable judgements based on moral principles. If past generations had adhered to this non judgmental philosophy, we would still have slavery, child labor and emancipated women. Indeed, being judgmental is one of the few principles of a free society that establishes the boundaries of acceptable behavior.

Some of our elected leaders have been a tremendous disappointment. Some have even been a disgrace. They like to call themselves public servants. We can each, in our own way, be a public servant. By doing whatever we can, right where we are to make our country and our community a better place. I am convinced that public service can still be honorable as long as it’s not ordered by a judge.

Americans now place moral decline at the top of their lists of items in need of repair. This can be read as an indication that our moral problems are worsening. We seem to be saying, "Let’s put away these childish things, concepts of God, our human soul and moral responsibility."

Truth is sometimes as ugly as a worn out bar girl in the morning, but the truth is, it does not necessarily take a village to do everything. It is up to each of us to do our part.

The course on which we are headed is a disastrous one. When we are headed in the wrong direction, going ahead is not progress. The only sensible thing to do after taking a wrong turn is to turn around and go back.

The turn we have taken is definitely a wrong one. The road signs are enormous. They are like sand in the Sahara, how did we miss them? We can not maintain that which we are not willing to defend and we are losing the America that we love.