by Kevin Carneglia

Created on: May 29, 2009

When considering modern morality, it is hard to leave out the affects of the Sexual Revolution. This was a major social movement in history that changed the way people thought and acted from then on. Women, Homosexuals, and African-Americans gained more rights and acceptance. As a result, the Constitution and the Bill of Rights came to be interpreted far more literally and the basic freeedoms were applied to more and more situations.

The constitution guarantees us freedoms of speech, press, religion, and so on. One of the problems this has created is a debate over free speech and where it stops. There have been many incidents in which students have gotten thrown out of school for saying hateful or intolerant things about others. Yet they have appealed to the school and fought for their right to say anything they want. This creates an cinteresting paradox: Do we allow the freedom to say anything even if it hurts others, or do we censor their speech and violate the constituition?

Recently, there has been a trend in the music market of writing songs that contain explicit lyrics. Those behind the songs have realize they can make money off of it, and are sellng it to the youth of today. This stems from the Sexual Revolution as well, when people decided they had the right to say and do whatever they wanted. If the government were to interfere, people would immediately attack them for censoring the press. I recently took a Newswriting course, and we learned how some newspapers have allowed advertisers to tell them what to write in exchange for added revenue. This is another example of what happens when the press is left to its own devices. Today's morals have strengthened the power of the constitution, perhaps to a point the original founders never intended.

As stated above, the Sexual Revolution changed our thinking about Homosexuals and African-Americans. We now have amendments and laws that promote equality, guaranteeing the rights of these people. Since the constitution can be and is amended for changing times, people could add amendments that allow for Gay Marriage or Civil Union. There has also been talk of a law that would lower the drinking age to 18 because children who are underage tend to drink anyway simply because they want to. In my home state, there is a debate about legalizing marijuana so the state can tax it for added income during these hard times. These sort of ideas would have been outrageous forty or fifty years ago, but times have changed. We are now more open to the ideas of freedom than we have been previously.

Modern morals have had a tremendous impact on the constitution. They have allowed for the tightening of some laws such as punishments for sex offenders and also for loosening other laws like the drinking age. Everday, people are pushing for legislation to change things, fighting for things like increased protection for children and animals, gun control, and more. Morality will continue to be a factor in laws as the country heads down a drastically different path than what we have seen in the past.

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