Don't Blame Them for the Millions of Lost Children: Blame You

 

          The Census Bureau release figures that almost six million elderly grandparents had to raise grandchildren, many on limited income. Conservative groups blamed this on the culture and said we need more religious values, respect for marriage, and clerical intervention. Rabbi David Eidensohn, director of the National Non-Sectarian Council of Pro-Family Activists, criticized conservative family experts for this. "More religion and more preaching about family values are not going to turn the tide," he said. "We've got to wake up and stop blaming 'them,' and start blaming ourselves. We raise children to watch television. We raise children to go to public school. We raise children and send them to college. We let them go here and there and everywhere, and then, duh, there are problems." Rabbi Eidensohn noted that the Bible Belt has a huge divorce rate, and that when people are exposed in college and high school to sex, they are going to have sex, and this means out-of-wedlock births, serious emotional problems, and risky marriages.

          "We have to make up our minds. The facts are clear. If you don't get your children out of the world, away from the public schools, colleges, movies, videos, magazines and entertainment, away from the bums, then expect the grandchildren to arrive when you have almost no strength or money left."

 

 

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