In reading I discovered that an heirloom is anything of value that you would like to pass on to the next generation. Now that got me thinking. What better could there be than to pass on good values? In this world of "situational ethics" is there such a thing as moral values? Or is it merely fluid. Do the ends truly justify the means? Or are their moral standards and values?
Awhile back I took a journalism class with your average 18-20 year old students while I was the age of their parents and the course professor. The topic came up as to what the students would consider "ethical" behavior in getting and reporting a story. Whereas I considered doing research and interviews as the important aspects, a number of my fellow students took it further as to what to do to get a story. They had no qualms about breaking into buildings if necessary to steal or at least to copy whatever info they needed to justify their point. Yet they would protest those actions as deplorable if the people whom they were investigating acted in similar fashion. They concluded the ends they wanted did justify whatever means they took to make their point.
Those were just college students. However that has seeped in the national news media. In this current election the "news" reporters have done speech clips that have been reworked by leaving out words and connecting them to later paragraphs to deliberately misrepresent a candidate. When they are caught in a fact check, it's merely explained as a simple editing error. And we once thought the news media was there to discover the truth? "What is truth?" was a phrase Pilate said.That echoes the beliefs of many today.
Still I believe there are moral absolutes and those are the heirlooms of value I would like to see passed on to the next generation so they continue to be honored.
