I look at my kids and I look the communities we are building, and I worry. A lot. There is no leadership, the leaders are afraid, the principals, rebbeim, teachers and Roshie Yeshivah don't take a stand, they don't tell the kids no, they don't teach what they need to teach.
Oh, they are very good at the macro-band wagon jumping that everyone else is doing...don't text, don't go online, don't have a plan or marry a guy with a plan. That's locked up tight.
It's the individual issues that come up, whether in schools, or yeshivos, or shuls that there seem to be no "there-there." They fear that if they say something maybe people won't listen, but isn't that the role of a leader, to fight the prevailing attitudes, to teach, to guide, to LEAD???
I don't need to give examples, you all have at least three of your own you can probably come up with, and until leaders/teachers/Rabbis are willing to take a stand, and not worry so much about whether or not people like them, we will stay in the morass we have created for ourselves. The true leaders are not afraid, and that doesn't mean fire and brimstone, it means that when something is right you stand up for it, and when something is wrong you say so. Enough of this kumbaya everyone is right, everyone's view is valid. Not always and not when you are protecting a society. If you are an institution you have an obligation to rise above, be better, be more, teach, guide and lead.
Really it's likely that the parents of today need a slap in the head, and quit being so darn afraid of their kids, but they have no guidance because the leaders don't lead. So we can look forward to more of the same, or hopefully Mashiach, when the true leaders will shine.
