Over the last few weeks our nation has had a couple of wake up calls. How we react to them will tell us a lot about our character and future.

The first wake up call was the Columbine killings. Two teenagers, maybe more, put together a plan to destroy a high school and all those within. This extensive plot was done "under the radar" of parental monitoring, school monitoring or society oversight... or by the complete lack of all three.

The second wake up call was the treason of a Los Alomos engineer at our nuclear lab. Over a period of years he essentially downloaded our nuclear secrets to China. Sounds like something we should be exercised about. As more is learned about this it may come to light that the most treasonous act was by the President and his highest officials of the administration by their lack of response to what was happening. Their complete lack of diligence in their most sacred duty, to preserve and protect our nation against enemies.

Why do such things explode on us? I would suggest that both events had their roots in money. Over the years families have decided that they needed both parents working to "provide" for their families. With this we can now afford things that we could never 30 years ago. Cars, two cars, cars that cost $40,000. Vacations to exotic places, homes that have all the bells and whistles. But at what price?

Teens are left "home alone" for too long. Too little modeling, too little mentoring…. Too little time spent with kids. And don't give me this "quality time" sham… "I don't spend a lot of time with my kids, but when I do its "quality time". We are just too busy. An example:, a teacher I know said that she was hesitant to give homework to her third grade class because I know how busy I am when I get home to my family of 4. "I'm just too busy". It is not because we don't have time, we have made a decision that this is not at the top of the "to do list". Homework has taken second or third place to other more important things. But you say…. "I went to junior soccer game last night!" That is not spending time with you kids. That is peer pressure to do the currently accepted "thing".

Parents are too tired to parent when they come home. They are two busy to do the "homework" thing. But they have the nice homes, the two cars in the garage, the designer sneakers….

And we have kids that kill.

Now, to our treason case. Why wasn't something done when the administration was warned? Why was a wire tap request denied? Why wasn't someone arrested? Why wasn't the guy fired? Why wasn't someone at the lab fired… or someone in the administration? Why do we get the tepid reaction… "Well I guess someone at the lab dropped the ball."

I would suggest that money was involved. Our trade with China would be hampered, our relationship with China might deteriorate… Or the campaign money that was so important to the President might dry up. Maybe, it was just pay the piper for the money received.

But even more shocking is the response of the people. Almost total apathy. Life has been too good. The wars are elsewhere, and we can deal with that with a few laser guided missiles. Perhaps we need to have the bejebbers scared out of us… maybe will come back to reality. We live in a very dangerous world. We need leaders that lead with courage … we need an informed people who understand the consequences and will hold them to their obligations.

Perhaps the killings at Columbine will be that "bejebbers" event for parents… we'll see.

In both cases, Columbine and the Los Alamos, the courageous action, the "right thing" was compromised for the almighty dollar. And we will pay a very dear price, indeed.

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