Column: We’ve become a nation of hypocrites

The pendulum of social mores has swung too far in a bad direction.

The idea that you play to win games, that sticks and stones may break bones but words won’t hurt you, or that authority figures are to be respected has been replaced with participation medals for all, considering any harsh words at all to be bullying and debating teachers and police officers instead of trusting them. In our attempt to shield our children from the realities of life, we effectively put them in bubble wrap and blame anyone popping the air pockets surrounding them.

A baseball coach who puts the kid who picks daisies and maybe even his nose in right field gets yelled at by parents who want to see their rugrat in center. When the hapless tyke strikes out, we blame the umpire or we blame the rules of the game for ruining the kid’s self esteem. Maybe if we don’t keep score, everyone wins.

Nope. Life doesn’t work like that.

We’ve sanitized school behavior to the point that if somebody looks at a classmate the wrong way, they are suspended for bullying. We treat everyone like innocent cherubs, yet if a child has a plastic butter knife in his or her lunchbox, they are escorted away as if they’ve just scaled the White House fence.

When Little Johnny comes home with an “F” or he’s escorted home by the police for vandalizing a car, we blame the teacher for making the test too hard or we blame the police officer for mistaken identity. Teaching responsibility takes a backseat to learning lessons and then we act astonished when people ignore commands from authority figures and even fight with teachers or the police.

We have become a society of hypocrites. We go ballistic if schoolyard banter ends up hurting our kids’ feelings, but we’ll swear and accuse teachers of incompetence for giving a failing grade. When Donald Trump insults Rosie O’Donnell’s appearance, we scream that he’s a bully and direct comments at him that are as harsh and stupid as the ones he made. We beg forgiveness for certain people who have erred and develop a mob mentality to ruin the lives of those we don’t agree with. Just ask a certain dentist who went on a safari recently.

We’ve created a perfect storm where everyone else is wrong, yet nobody takes accountability. Storms aren’t good for people who expect sunshine all the time or haven’t been taught how to get out of the rain.

This story was originally published August 24, 2015 at 10:13 AM with the headline "Column: We’ve become a nation of hypocrites."