Corporate America has been shaken recently by lawsuits and criminal charges of fraud by Enron, Martha Stewart and Tyco. Huge companies who lied to stockholders, the SEC and the government. They all took stockholders’ money and then violated their trust by mishandling it for the profit of top officers. Good old common greed at work at its best. But isn’t that what’s becoming of America? It’s all about the money.

For instance, the movie classic Gone With The Wind almost didn’t make it to theaters because of the last line spoken by Rhett Butler. In answer to Scarlet’s question, “What will I do?” Rhett’s answer of, “ Frankly, My Dear, I don’t give a damn” almost got it axed by the movie censors. How far have we come from that? How much garbage has our kids and their kids heard and seen since Gone With the Wind? But garbage sells.

The F-word is everywhere. Some folks cannot utter a complete sentence without it containing the F-word. Sex, violence, filthy language, bombards each of us daily. In entertainment, in advertising, in schools, in sports and on the street, the degradation of morality and goodness is commonplace.

The government is no better. A president having sex with a young page and then lying about it stays in office. A Congress that begins each session with prayer while the Supreme Court is working furiously to band God from everything. The Ten Commandments treated with less respect than the Communist Manifesto. A virus that kills people by the thousands spread by the practice of homosexuality while such a lifestyle is being celebrated in television shows, movies, on the streets and even in Congress and state legislatures.

The very institutions that are supposed to uphold and protect the integrity and dignity of our society are waging vicious attacks on the moral fiber of this country. John F. Kennedy’s famous statement, “Don’t ask what your country can do for you, but what you can do for your country” has been perverted into the direct opposite philosophy. We are teaching everyone that it is just and right to take from those who work for it and give it to those who refuse to work.

Bill Cherry has been a college prep school athletics director for 30 years. He has issues with the state of prep and college athletics. His website is http://www.collegecharlie.com