Standing Up For Our Values

      This past week I wrote a short note to some neighbors requesting that they consider removing their front yard Halloween display that has a witch lowering a little girl headfirst into a boiling cauldron of water.  The thrust of the note was that some things simply are not funny or cute, and should not be shown to children as if they were. 

      So that led me to thinking about couple of “popular” songs which, for many years, I have shunned for the same reason.  One is “Stagger Lee,” sung by Lloyd Price, which is about an actual event in which a man by that name was playing dice with Billy and “threw a 7 but swore that he threw 8.”  When Billy called him on it, he went home, got his gun and came back and shot and killed Billy, even though he had “three little children and a very sickly wife.”  And we are supposed to enjoy this song?  Another song is “Do You Love Me (Now That I Can Dance),” sung by The Contours.  I have shunned this song because love simply MUST be about something more than learning to dance!

      So what difference does any of this make?  Am I being a prude?  I know that stories laden with socially harmful results permeate our world, like “The Three Little Pigs,” and even “Hamlet.”  But I actually believe that we all should strive to make our daily lives reflect our values and that this should carry over into the way we mentor our young people.  And objecting to these (maybe minor) issues is one way we can show our impressionable young people what we (try to) stand for and against.  So that is what I try to do.  What are your thoughts?

Quote from a witch on Halloween: “Yes, I can drive a stick . . . .”