Chapter 13: Post-War Glimpses

(This is chapter 13 of "Up and Out," a book condensing my long experience about how to best help poor people.  I pledged earlier to get it up online as soon as possible, so it would be available for free to everyone trying to cope with helping the Katrina evacuees.)

(These are not things that need to be done during the first part of this emergency.  Rather, this is for the time after that, when Katrina evacuees will be moving from getting immediate emergency assistance to trying to normalize their lives.  That is when good programs to help them "up and out" of their situation need to kick in.  The following is for that time.)

(For other chapters, look under "Categories" at the left, and click on the chapter you want.)

"UP AND OUT: A GUIDE TO TRUE COMPASSION FOR THE POOR"

PART I: THE AMERICAN POVERTY TRAP

Chapter 13: Post-War Glimpses

A society that truly cares about its poor would look very different from ours.  This is one view of what it might look like, after our counter-cultural "War Against the Poor" is over. 

First, the number of fatherless children has dropped from 33% of all births down to a single-digit percentage.  Society is working hard now to keep it that way, paying close attention.  A national watch on rates of fatherlessness is maintained.  If any increase happens, alarms go off and action is taken.

Most of the few women who now have out-of-wedlock pregnancies let their babies be adopted by carefully-screened two-parent families.  That is as it was before the Sexual Revolution.  The main concern now is for the children, not the legal rights of biological parents or those who want to adopt.  Adoption is no longer considered a right, but a high privilege.

There are group homes now, as there used to be, where pregnant unmarried women can stay if they choose.  Their presence there is confidential, and most give up their babies for adoption.  No one need know they were pregnant, if they so choose.

With the great decline in fatherlessness, poverty has dropped to its lowest levels ever.  The small remaining population of poor people consists of two main groups: those who are temporarily poor because of misfortune, most of whom will become better off as soon as they can; and a small hard core, either addicted, mentally ill, career criminals or those able-bodied who are determined not to work.  Various charities continue to help all these groups, whittling away at their size.

Most of the formerly-poor are now working their way up in, or into, the middle class.  Most have moved up in business.  Most have cars and are in the process of owning their own homes.  Many of their children are in college or trade or professional schools.  Their children show few signs of reverting to a life of poverty.

As fatherlessness declined, so did crime.  Juvenile delinquency is a fraction of what it was.  Crime rates have dropped steadily.  Soon they will be down to 1960 rates.  It is expected that they will continue to drop after that.

Many of the formerly hard-core poor with prison records have successfully transformed their lives, due mostly to faith-based programs working inside prisons.  Most states now have whole prisons, like the Carol Vance Unit in Texas, where prisoners can elect to go to have faith-based rehabilitation.  Recidivism rates are down, and still falling.

Other charities, mostly faith-based, work with parolees and probationers outside prison.  Now many have jobs, families, and are building new credit records, new employment records and new lives. 

Many former addicts, mostly through the work of faith-based charities, have succeeded in getting off drugs or alcohol, turned their lives around, and are rebuilding normal lives.

The mentally-ill homeless are mostly off the streets and in small group homes especially designed for their needs (much like those for retarded adults.) 

The only homeless left are a few drug addicts and alcoholics, a few very lazy people, and some old-time hobos.  They are not seen in most parts of most cities.  Panhandling is no longer allowed in most cities.

Streets, homes and businesses are safe again.  Murder and rape are rare.  So is assault, robbery, burglary and car theft.  Many people no longer lock their doors.  They worry less about the safety of their children.  There has not been a school shooting in a good while.

Schools are not only safe, they are also orderly and disciplined.  Misbehavior is not tolerated.  Neither is disrespect for teachers or staff.  Civility and good manners are required.

The few remaining delinquents, after being suspended from any school, are remanded to schools designed especially for them.  They are not allowed to roam the streets during school hours.  Large resources are focused on turning them around and improving their situation.  Truancy laws are strictly enforced.  Children seen on the street during school hours are questioned and sometimes taken into protective custody.

American students are now scoring in the top two or three of all industrialized countries in all subjects.  As before the 1960s, they can read well by the second or third grade,  and proficiently by the fourth or fifth grade.  Their grammar, spelling and math skills are excellent by the sixth grade.  As before the 1960s, they are learning at least one other language and are well prepared for college upon graduation from high school.  Black and Hispanic grades have almost closed the gap with whites and Asians, and are still moving up steadily.

Sex education is no longer in schools, but abstinence training is.  Unmarried sex among teens is at its lowest rate since the 1960s. 

Most of the younger adult population is married.  People marry now by their very early twenties and have their children early.  In most couples, one parent stays home at least until the children are in school.  Couples budget carefully and sacrifice to make this happen.  They are given tax breaks for doing so.

Marriages normally are preceded by engagements of at least six months to a year.  During this time, couples have pre-marriage counseling, including instruction in parenting and budgeting.  Much of this is free counseling offered by churches and synagogues.

Most married couples go to marriage enrichment week-end seminars every few years.  They work hard at having a good marriage and being good parents.

Divorce has been greatly reduced.  The laws were changed.  Easy, no-fault divorce no longer exists.  The party at fault for the divorce is determined, and the injured party gets special legal protection and consideration.  As divorce rates dropped, teen suicide rates dropped with them.  Teen suicide is no longer a major cause of teen deaths.

Since most abortions were previously utilized by unmarried women, the pressure for abortion faded when the Sexual Revolution did.  Even though abortion is still legal, there are very few abortions.

Since the number of childless couples hoping to adopt had continually been roughly equal to the number of abortions, that meant there were adoptive couples available as parents for every child born but not wanted.  So every unwanted child has been adopted soon after birth.

The decline in abortions from around 1.5 million annually to very low, has changed the demographic profile of the country.  Now Social Security is on its way to regaining financial health.  Now the number of younger workers is expected to be adequate to support payments for retirees in about 20 more years.   

Due primarily to large-scale abortions, the parent generation had stopped replacing itself by about 1980, with birth rates of only about 1.8 per woman.  So there were fewer and fewer workers to support retirees, which was steadily destroying the ability of Social Security to remain solvent.  Now birthrates are back up to the replacement rate of 2.3 per woman.  So now Social Security is steadily gaining viability. 

The incidence of STDs (Sexually-Transmitted Diseases), which had soared explosively between 1960 and 2000, has dropped steadily since the decline of the Sexual Revolution.  Couples made sterile by STDs were 25% of all sterile couples by 1990.  Now that percentage is declining, along with deaths from cervical cancer caused by the Human Papilloma Virus.  Illness and death from other STDs, including AIDS, are also in decline.

The public square looks different.  Pornography has not been made illegal to possess, but most of it has disappeared from view.  It is illegal, however, to produce, sell, rent, transmit, exchange or send it by any means.  It has mostly gone back underground.

The movies are different.  There is no more nudity or explicit sex.  When unmarried sex is part of the story, the range of severe problems it can bring is also portrayed.  The same is true for portrayals of adultery or divorce.

Violence in movies is limited, and does not include grossly bloody scenes.  When crime is portrayed, the reasons for not committing it are also shown.  Criminals are not shown as gaining, in the end, by their crimes.  In the movies now, crime does not pay.

When the movies show people doing something wrong now, they are also shown paying for it.  They are seen losing, not winning, from what they did.  Movies have reverted to pre-1960 standards for values.

Clothing styles are more modest.  Short skirts and shorts are out of style, except for sports like tennis.  Necklines are not very low.  Clothing is attractive and flattering, but not sexually provocative except in understated ways.

Music has changed.  Love songs are more common.  Sexually explicit music has disappeared, along with sexually abusive music.  Music glorifying criminal behavior or violence or abuse or disrespect has disappeared.  MTV has changed a lot.  Entertainers seldom move their bodies in a way that suggest they are having sex at the moment.  They seldom sing that way either.  "Dirty dancing" is no longer cool.

People still want to have sex appeal.  They definitely respond to it in others.  But it seems more restrained, less blatant; more subtle, less open; a tense undercurrent rather than a blast from a trumpet.  People dance around it.  They flirt, but more lightly.  They are less likely to cross over the line.

Dating couples take care not to be alone together in any place where sex could possibly take place.  They double-date, stay in public places, and stick to kissing and hugging only.  If they live with parents, they visit each other only when family is present.  If they live alone, they do not visit each other.  When a man sees a woman home, he says goodbye at the door and does not come in.  Couples take care not to stay out late, and not to spend too much time totally alone together.

It either becomes certain they do not want to marry the other, they break off the relationship in order to treat the other fairly and not to continue wasting their time.  If they see they are getting too close to sexual intimacy, they make it a point to touch less, to see each other less, and then only in public surroundings.

Attendance at churches and synagogues has increased.  Attendance at sporting events is high, with well-behaved crowds.  Attendance at Little League and other children's sports and events is high.  Prisons are getting emptier.

Families have at least dinner together, and often breakfast as well.  They have conversations.  They sing together.  They read more and watch TV less.  Computer games are not very violent and not gory at all.  The characters are not dressed in provocative ways.  They do not show men and women attacking each other.

Grandparents often choose to live near their married children.  Three and four-generation families who live near each other are becoming more common.  Family reunions are increasing.  Family visits to relatives elsewhere are more common.  Children know their aunts and uncles and cousins.

Children love and obey their parents, and parents love them and discipline them and take good care of them.  Their parents love each other, as a rule.  If they get to where they do not, they usually stay together anyhow and are kind to each other.  There are special marriage week-end seminars for couples at that stage.  Then, after awhile, they often come to love each other again, in a different way or in the same way all over again.

The children expect that someday they will take care of their parents and look after them.

Most people give generously to carefully chosen charities and volunteer too.  By now, they have learned how to do it right when they help the poor, and other afflicted people. 

It all happened because people took the responsibility they should, doing what was right, taking care of themselves and their families, their communities and their country.

It seems like almost a new country in many ways.  But the old-timers say it reminds them some of how it used to be.  When they think about it, most people like it this way.  Especially when they think about what it was like several years ago.  Then they really like it.

A few newspapers and publications keep saying that the new changes were bad, and that we need the Sexual Revolution back again.  But nobody much reads them anymore.  A few TV journalists criticized the changes a lot for awhile.  But they haven't as much recently.  The Europeans are as condescending as usual about how pitiably unsophisticated we Americans are.  That seems to make about as much difference as it always did. 

Maybe, like some people keep saying, it is really dull now.  But is doesn't seem like it.  It seems like a good way to live.  In fact, most people look like they are having a pretty good time.