House and Home

Political Action Committees devote themselves to "evaluating impact" of impending legislation on their constituencies.

While there are "Family oriented" lobbies, I'm not really sure there is a lobby asking the question, "Does this legislation tend toward strengthening the family as an INDEPENDENT community, or toward undermining it? Does it tend to build strong inter-family networks, or make us more dependent on impersonal institutions?"

Not long ago, I made a determination to ask myself that question about every activity I did, every penny I spend, how I use my time, and so on.

The results were revealing.

I realized that while some family killers are well-known and widely discussed (schools and television come to mind) others are less obvious, but equally destructive.

Convenience stores and fast food restaurants tend to make us spend our time and money "on the way" rather than in the home. Electronic music eliminates live music venues, and families don't sit around with the fiddle or piano singing anymore. Automobiles make it too easy to be ugly and unsociable to your fellow travelers, as well as to spend more time as a family in a metal monster than in one's actual home.

I can remember as a child, that the need for an egg to bake a cake or a bit of salt to tide us over until payday was a natural way to get to know your neighbors. Now, when I try to reach out to my neighbors they seem to think it is just as likely that I'm casing the joint to rob them, or planning to sell them an overpriced candy bar than that I am actually interested in knowing them as people.

That sucking sound you hear is the end of civilization as we know it. As family, neighbor, friend all become an unnecessary appendage, replaced by McDonalds, 7-11 and Dr. Spock, there is not enough momentum in any other direction to keep the end at bay.