Our Responsibility and Government Intrusion

When did we, as a nation, become dependant on some expert to tell us how to cope with problems, how to raise children, how to date, how to shop, how to deal with relationships or how to dress? It used to be that there were acceptable standards for dress in certain situations. You wore your Sunday best to church, not jeans. If you had jury duty you would dress comfortably but appropriately, not tank tops or raggedy jeans. Although the competition was fierce you still dressed well for school. No one ever wore their pants six inches below their waist or t-shirts with inappropriate writing or dragged their feet when they walked or skirts that left nothing to the imagination or shorts. Everyone obeyed the rules or almost everyone and those that did not were punished or expelled. No one can be punished these days. We all knew if we caused trouble in school we received worst punishments at home than the school metered out.
If someone in one of our classes was in an accident or died, we did not have grief counselors; we had parents. Our parents were involved in our school and our lives to the point of being intrusive but most of us learned to appreciate their meddling. If we misbehaved in public our parents knew before we got home and we were disciplined appropriately. Not today. DFACS gets involved if children are spanked today. Granted some discipline went too far but we grew up better for having had it.
We never had Dr. Phil or Dr. Laura or Oprah to tell us how to live. We never had What Not to Wear to tell us how to dress. We never had match.com to help us find a mate or relationship experts to tell us how to keep our marriages together. We never had those things, yet somehow we managed to become responsible adults unlike the younger generations of today. We had family and friends and neighbors that kept us on the straight and narrow or made us own up to our mistakes or misdeeds. The trend today is to blame someone or something else. The trend today is to never accept responsibility for wrong doings. I wonder, is it lack of discipline, lack of family connections or both?
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Aiken County is considering a ban on all public smoking. While I agree that watching people smoke or being in smoke is not at all pleasant, I do not agree that some government has the right to tell people who smoke where they can smoke in public. Public is the key word here. If a bar or restaurant or place of business does not want smokers it is their right to post signs to that effect but for government to impinge on yet another freedom is against the Constitution and the founding fathers. I am sure the founding fathers never imagined cell phones yet we are subjected to people on their cell phones on a daily basis and no one tells those rude individuals that they can not use them in public. Cell phone use causes auto accidents; smoking does not. People can not even shop without being on a cell phone. Some people can’t even get off the phone long enough to be waited on in a restaurant or check out in a store. It is annoying to be in a public place while someone carries on a conversation right next to you. Most of us are not interested in anyone else’s phone conversations but that doesn’t stop them. If government can ban us from smoking in public why not cell phones and if they do both, other freedoms can not be far behind.