by Liz McGuire

Created on: March 07, 2007   Last Updated: April 30, 2007

Is it right to own a person? Is it right to deny women the right to own property? How about beating one with no legal ramifications? Is it right to hang a man who has had no trial? Is it correct to throw people who cannot pay their debts into prison indefinitely?
Should we offer medical assistance, financial aid, shelter and food to the unfortunates who need it? None of these activities are new. All of them can be judged morally.

Dictionary definitions of the word indicate that "morals" are our perceptions of what's right and wrong.
Is Bill Clinton a moral person? That depends on your own definition of morals and your own place in society. Having sex with an intern, who is not your wife, and then lying about it are all immoral actions in my book. But past polls show that a large constituency considered him a man of high morality because of his record of assisting the poor and sick and promoting human rights. That's a moral stance to me.
Is President Bush a moral person? He's faithful to his wife, as far as I know. He attends church and gave up drinking. That seems to fit into the "right" category. But he's cut funds for the poor and sick, possibly gotten us into a war under false pretenses and has often been caught making untrue statements in public speeches.
So it all depends on what your definition of "morals" is. If you're more focused on sex, as your moral thermometer, Clinton is bad, Bush is good. If your compass is fixated on the human condition, Clinton's the good guy and Bush needs improvement.
But either way you look at it, if you think morals are declining, when did it start? When we took prayer out of the public schools? When we allowed Woodstock to happen? When we start letting our children play video games? Hardly. Thomas Jefferson co-authored one of the most moral documents in history. Yet he fathered his slave's child. Ben Franklin? A real ladies' man. Mark Twain, and a great deal of his contemporaries, used opium for kicks. It used to be considered a man's right to abuse his wife and children. And no one will convince me that clergy just started abusing youngsters this century.
Let's face it. Morals are not declining. Our modern culture's perception of what "morals" are is changing, helped by the media, businesses and social, political and religious organizations. Sex, drugs, corruption, criminal activity, enslavement, out-of wedlock unions and homosexuality (for those of you who still think this is a moral issue) have been occurring for eons. And we hear about immoral acts more now because we have access to more information and society has matured to where morality has been incorporated into our laws.

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