This letter is addressed to all you open-minded, liberal-leaning types who refuse to recognize problems for what they are.

I have grown weary of listening to and/or reading constant grumblings about and postulating over the sorry state of our education system as well as increasing violence across our nation. Everybody has a solution, and most involve having all of us “come together,” or having a meeting, or joining hands and singing “Kumbaya” or (here’s my favorite) throwing money at it — especially someone else’s money. Liberals are quick to blame someone else for whatever you may see as lacking instead of tracing the problems to their sources or laying the blame in the laps of the people who are actually causing them.

For example, all we have to do to properly educate our children is to provide them with enough technology. How’s that working for you? Last I heard, Rowan-Salisbury schools weren’t doing very well when it came to actually educating students. However, we are leading the charge in the number of dropouts. Also, according to you people, we can magically get rid of all the violence simply by hiring more police officers, or having a summit.

There s a great quote by Cal Thomas that everyone should remember. “There is one central characteristic to liberalism and it goes like this: No matter how many times an idea has been proved incorrect, or a program has failed to produce promised results, liberals still continue to believe in the rightness, even righteousness, of their cause.”

What I have to say needs to be said, and from everyone I’ve talked with over the years, they feel as I do, too.

A lot of today’s behavioral problems relating to education and escalating violence are connected. Until we, as a nation, stop cranking out generation after generation of children who have no morals, no discipline, no sense of worth, no guidance, no sense of purpose, no rules to live by, no sense of pride in community or country, no respect or sense of caring for or kindness towards others, no manners, no sense of responsibility  and, most importantly, no basic grounding in faith, we will continue to see ever-increasing behavioral problems involving education and violence until hell freezes over.

As long as we keep ignoring this simple fact, things are only going to get worse, and no amount of education technology, police or meetings will solve a damn thing.

Until you get back to inspiring children to want to become contributing members of society — instead of self-absorbed, hedonistic, little miscreants — nothing is ever going to get better.

All our social ills are connected to this root cause — the total breakdown of the American family as a functioning, nurturing unit. We are all caught up in a seemingly mad, headlong rush back into barbarism because parents are refusing to properly rear the children they are bringing into this world. Children shouldn’t be having children until they themselves have become responsible, self-supporting adults. Rearing children is not the responsibility of teachers or law enforcement. And, most assuredly, rearing children is not the responsibility of government.

Teachers should be allowed to do what they’re supposed to do in the first place — teach, not spend most of their time handling problem students. The job of law enforcement is to protect and serve, not to be mired in social engineering. Instead of having another meeting, try focusing your time, energies and efforts on solving the tremendous number of social problems that are directly linked to the breakdown of the families in all our neighborhoods.

Teach parents how to be proper parents. Responsible child-rearing begins with a responsible father and/or a responsible mother (preferably both), or at least one responsible person willing to go the extra mile to make sure the child grows up with the desire to leave this old rock in better shape than they found it instead of wanting to smash it to pieces.

If they don’t or won’t do it, then nothing we say or do will ever make a change for the better. We’ll all wind up right back here wringing our hands, running around like “Chicken Little,” pointing fingers and blaming anything and everybody instead of recognizing and focusing upon the real problems we are facing as a failing society.

Sam Morgan lives in Spencer.