Destruction of American Morals

To the Editor: 
I commend a letter writer for taking a public stand on morality in the Feb. 3 Herald (A New Breed of Feminist). Speaking out for morality in today’s world takes courage. Taking issue with the women’s movement requires more. While I have never attacked the movement in its entirety because they had legitimate grievances, they tolerate no commentary other than lavish praise.
I don’t know the author’s age, nor is it my business, but I’d like to know where she fits into the continuum of the last 80 years? I’m 81 and I watched this destruction of American morals and how it happened over my lifetime. During the years of the “Great Depression” and into WWII, Americans were much better people; much better and happier.
I’m not so naive as to believe there was a time or times when there were no bad people, no crime, no criminals. But the average American family had, and passed on, higher moral standards. There was a now archaic quality called reverence. Reverence for family, and especially parents, prevailed.
All of this was weakened in the 1950s and practically destroyed in the 1960s, within a 10-year period, especially the key year of 1962. The year Helen Gurley Brown published her book “Sex and the Single Girl” and Betty Friedan came out with “The Feminine Mystique” was the same year the birth control pill became widely available. These were immediately followed by no-fault sex (“your place or mine:” no commitment, no regrets).
The pandemic of drug sales and use immediately following these events seems inevitable considering how unprepared people, and especially young people, were for this convergence. This tragic explosion of drug use and the death and destruction it caused only got worse over the last 50 years. At the moment it seems to be hopeless. The people assigned to control it are in over their heads.
The tragic, often lethal, effects of the proselytizing and indoctrination of the 1960s have yet to peak and the entire story is far too long for a letter to the editor.
Letter writer, I salute you. You might have made a chink in the wall of destruction which has imprisoned the youth of this country for the last 50 years. Keep talking.