Teen Pregnancy

Teens haven't always been helpless victims of their hormones and sexual impulses. I graduated from Central High School in Memphis in 1964, back before sex ed in schools, before the pill, before legalized abortion, before the "sexual revolution" of the mid to late sixties.

I don't recall a single girl getting pregnant in my class. Possibly, in our school of over 1,000 students,(10th thru 12th graders) there were rare exceptions, but I never knew about it. It was never talked about, and believe me, there would have been PLENTY of talk!

I think the difference then was cultural, and the fact that most of us regularly went to church or synagogue, (as my class was about 1/3 Jewish). Having sex before marriage (or at least in high school) was shameful in those days. Central also set the bar pretty high for excellence in terms of academic and athletic achievement and every other category.

We also were not bombarded in the mainstream media by sexual images and messages that seem to encourage teenage sex, as today's teens are. So many factors came into play in those days that seem to be largely absent now, most importantly, more parental supervision.

Unfortunately, in some schools now, girls' pregnancies and "single motherhood" are seen as a badge of honor and proof of a boy's masculinity.

Inheritance Fraud

Unfortunately, I have first hand knowledge of how sometimes, honesty, integrity and common sense has gone out the window with some in the legal profession.

Case in Point:

Eleven years ago, my step mother-in-law, along with help from her lawyer son and her personal attorney in a small town in Arkansas, succeeded in bilking my husband and his two sisters out of a million dollar inheritance, as well as the family home, from their 88 year old father, a well respected former surgeon in Memphis.

That was my first (and I hope, my last) encounter with the legal profession. After a year of our spending thousands of dollars on attorney fees just to recover family memorabalia that was still in my father-in-law's Memphis home, we were advised, because the legal system was so corrupt, at the time, in Arkansas (where my father-in-law had been moved to,the last couple of years of his life) we might as well just forget about it and move on with our lives.

Filing a civil suit would have been too costly for all of us and we had children in college at the time to support.

I never thought I'd personally encounter such greed or persons without a moral compass, in my lifetime. The worst thing was that my poor father-in-law, an extremely honorable man who dearly loved his children and grandchildren, was horribly deceived and an unwitting partner to what went on, beginning with being talked into marrying the woman only 2 weeks after they met!

Amazingly, his new wife, and her partners in crime, were perceived as fine upstanding community members and devout Christians! In this case, common sense was usurped, as my father-in-law had a will, but because of a simple x on a Charles Schwab account that put all of his holdings (millions in stocks) in joint tenancy with her, three years before his death, his will was essentially null and void and everything done was deemed "legal". BTW, he had been declared legally blind and deaf at the time and was extremely ill. None of his children found out about this change until after his death, and by then it was too late to do anything about it.

Sadly, I've learned that the word "moral" does not exist in some lawyers' vocabulary. It is all about winning now, not doing what is right and good. While it is certainly not my intention to paint all attorneys with the same broad brush, as I am personal friends with some who are wonderful people, unfortunately there are enough bad apples to sully what used to be a noble profession.

I wanted to share this story as a warning to others with elderly parents, especially if those parents are wealthy and live out of state. Unfortunately, these types of predators abound, just waiting to pounce on unsuspecting victims. Sadly, sometimes they come as "wolves in sheeps' clothing".

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Rick Warren and Obama's Inauguration

Rick Warren is the new Billy Graham, so we will be seeing him a lot at White House events and called on for council by Obama and perhaps future presidents, as was Dr. Graham.

It seems many people opposing his role in the inauguration have not taken the time to really learn much about Rev. Warren, other than his scriptural attitude toward homosexuality.

Aside from being the author of several books including one of the best sellers of all time, "The Purpose Driven Life" which has been translated into over 30 languages, Warren and his Saddleback Church and the over 2,000 church affiliates across the country have pledged to take on the enormous task of addressing the AIDS epidemic in Africa and the devastation it has caused in that country.

Did you also know that Saddleback is one of the largest churches in America, with over 20,000 members and Pastor Warren has never taken a salary from them!

This man is a true Christian, hence the attacks on him from the far left, who absolutely hate Christians and whose mission it is to remove any mention of God from the public arena. Christian bashing, in fact, seems to be the last acceptable form of bigotry among this group.

God Bless Obama for standing up to those who would marginalize this man for taking a stand for what he believes, all the while ignoring all of the other good he has done and continues to do for people in desperate circumstances in this world.

The fact is, the Gay Gestapo, a relatively small group of homosexuals, I believe, need to understand that everything isn't just about them and their "cause". Millions of people in the country revere Rev. Warren and think his choice to be a part of the inauguration ceremony is a brilliant choice.

I was not an Obama supporter, but am changing my opinion of him, so far, based upon most of his cabinet picks and his ability not to buckle under pressure from radical far left organizations.