It has taken me well over a week to muster up the courage to write this Blog. I say muster up the courage because I was a huge fan of Tiger Woods primarily due to his perceived stand as a father and husband coupled with the fact that he was a great athlete. In the line of work I am in, character, integrity, honesty and loyalty mean a lot. There are so few athletes and entertainers that exhibit these traits that I get real excited when I see one that does. Let me start off by saying how truly disappointed I am in the decision made by arguably the most talented athlete of the century. He had a beautiful wife, a beautiful family, and this was not enough. We often talk about kids having an entitlement mentality but we hardly ever speak of adults having the same. He must have felt that he was entitled to do whatever he wanted to do because he was so wealthy and had so much influence. Unfortunately for him and his family, it backfired. For his young kids and current wife, they will live with this stigma forever. They will always be known as the kids of the man who decided to cheat on their mom with all kinds of women from all kinds of backgrounds (most not to good.)
Tiger’s situation is directly connected to a bigger problem in our country, the problem of overexposure to valueless behavior. Reality shows pay big money for people who can stir up chaos, people are doing anything they can to get negative exposure so that they can write a book or get a talk show and the concept of family as we know it is being destroyed by people who do not believe in it. Who would have ever thought in the 60’ and 70’s that we would need parent blocks on television sets? Who could have imagined that youth would use social networking and texting to communicate vial and deplorable messages to one another? If a parent shows up while they are communicating to their peers they type in “POS” (Parent Over Shoulder.) Ladies and gentleman we are heading down a path that one day we will all pay for if we do not wake up and do something about it. Yes, parents play a big role and are extremely important; however, I know of many good parents who have lost their children due to overexposure to crude behavior. Their diversion from family values is often derived from the expectations of their peers at school and in the community to “conform or be rejected.” This is a secondary problem that is emerging; many negative youth are driving societal behaviors and expectations. Excuse my terrible example but the “animals” are running the “farm.”
We need for as many people as possible to step up and become accountable. We rational, logical thinking adults can no longer stick our heads in the sand and say “it is somebody else’s responsibility.” I say this because the kid that is ignored today may be the same one who is robbing our homes tomorrow. We need for schools, communities, churches and organizations to collaborate around mentoring and inspiring our youth to greater heights. It is easy to look at them as a problem but it takes a strong person to see them for them for their potential, despite the problem. If we do not chose to go the path of optimism and work diligently towards collaborating around impacting our youth in a positive way, what Tiger, The Governor of South Carolina, The Governor of New York, The Pastor in Colorado and many others have done to destroy their families, will become the new norm. We are well on our way to this becoming a reality, but as a wise man once said “One person with courage is a majority.” Choose in 2010 to be that one person in your home, in your school and in your community. The world will be better off as a result of your efforts.
Please feel free to forward this Blog to any person or organization you feel would benefit from it. I encourage you to provide your thoughts and comments as well. It is my hope that this will be an on-going conversation that leads to positive outcomes.
