Our children today are being taught that there is nothing wrong with sexual relations outside of marriage. They are also being taught that there is nothing wrong with desecrating our bodies and our minds. Most of all, they are being taught that there is no God thus what they do in this life will have no barring on what happens in the next.

You may not believe that God exists, I say he does. When we are told that there are no consequences for our actions, we begin to demoralize ourselves and those around us. When you wake up everyday and decide that that no matter what you do in your life, when you die it is all over. Let me break it down to simpler terms. You woke up this morning and you decided not to go to work, what are the repercussions of this action?

As of right now, you lose that days pay at the least, your job at the worst. There are people in our government today that beg the differ. These leaders believe that those who work hard for their money should give it to you because you decided to stay home from work today. Thus you have no punishment for your actions.

Likewise, teens today are being led to believe the same in regards to their sexual relationships. These young people are being told, “Have fun as long as you are protected.” Is it fun if you are ill prepared to have children? My wife was seventeen when she became pregnant with her first, eighteen by two days when he was born. What a birthday gift. Not to say that he isn’t a blessing in our lives now, but responsibility of this magnitude is rarely considered a blessing to a flourishing senior in high school. Cheerleading came to a screeching halt. Social activities became a thing of the past. Auburn University became a dream that was at her fingertips and is now as far away as the universe is wide. She is well on her way to achieving her Bachelors in Nursing with two years left and that blessing is now five years old. You do the math. What does society say she should have done in this situation? Abortion is the answer. Granted, abortion may have made her life easier, but she would have denied our little ray of light his right to life because of a mistake she made. I digress, that is for another discussion. Once again, abortion is a way for society to tell our young people that they can do no wrong and their actions have no repercussions.

To the executive officers of the companies that we have come to know and trust, they have been able to pull the rip cord to their golden parachutes. This has left thousands of people unemployed, scraping for food. Children are hungry. These CEOs believe that their pockets need to be fed more than the families of those who worked with blood, sweat and tears to allow the CEOs to be able to enjoy their luxuries.

Where has our Country gone? What made the United States what it was in its birth? God. Our founding fathers knew what it meant to have a loving fear of God and uphold the fundamental morals that God represents. The more we remove God from our society, I believe, the more we will see moral right and wrong become social tolerance of the idea that these values are in the past. I feel as if we will continue to see financial breakdowns, crime and demoralization of ourselves and communities until we realize that we can not prosper as a nation unless we have morals and can detect the fine line between right and wrong.

In the last couple of days, I have noticed something that has sparked my interest. I work for a prominent communications company in the New Orleans area as an outside technician. This being said, I spend great deal of time behind the wheel of my company vehicle. In my driving I have happened across several city buses with an interesting advertisement. It read, “Now 80% of Louisiana residents can afford to own their own home.”

This ad may seem insignificant to the usual passer by but I thought to myself, isn’t America in the middle of a credit crunch? Are we not in a economic struggle due to an unbelievable number of sub-prime loans that were issued in the last ten years? Because of this I decided to do a little bit of research on the economic background of the Louisiana population as individuals, families and house holds. Here is what I found.

According to the United States Census Bureau, between the years of 2004 and 2006, Louisiana had the fourth lowest Median Income at $37,943. Also, 18% of individual Louisianans, according to the Washington Post, earn less than $10,400 per year. The same source reports that 14.6% of families generate a household income of between $14,000 and $35,600 (the high end taking into account that the household includes eight members). This means that on average, 16.6% of Louisiana live below the poverty level. One last bit of data to present. In April of 2006, this is in the range of the data previously stated; HousingTracker.net reports the 25th percentile of home sale prices were on average $152,500.

With a $152,500 loan at 5.99% interest would mean that the monthly payment on this house would be around $915 in just principle and interest. I would think that this would be extremely hard for these people to afford. Also, you may be asking why I am only talking about 16.6% of Louisianans; by these numbers it is possible for 80% to own a home. The poverty level is just a number. I would suspect that about ten percent live just above these numbers.

How is it that our financial companies can do this? I believe its greed, especially now. If, these new homeowners can pay their mortgage, then that’s great for these institutions. If not, no loss, the government will come and bail the banks out. It’s a win, win situation, while in turn causing the financial meltdown in our economy, both local and nationally. Not to mention the adverse affects on the homeowners future credit abilities.

My question is how do we fix this situation? What can we do to place checks and balances in our financial industry without having to involve the government? These are questions that must be answered in a swift manner.