Vanishing Values

Growing up in a small town in rural Iowa in the 50s was a time when standards and values of society were clear, consistent and honored. I imagine that this article may also reflect how many Iowans feel. There seems to be constantly changing values and these changes often reflect the quality of the places where we live and work. It seems as though we are moving from clarity where issues were either black or white to areas of grey.
The change in various values often reflects the appearance of the places where we live and work—homes, neighborhoods and communities. The appearance of the places we live in often impact our attitudes. You feel positive in places that tend to be clean and attractive—churches, businesses, golf courses and parks. You have a reverse feeling when you see areas filled with litter, public nuisances and run down properties. Sometimes it is obvious to us but at other times it can be subtle and we don’t even consciously know it, however, it negatively impacts us.
This situation is often referred to as the “Broken Windows” theory. Simply defined, it means that when a building in the community ends up with a broken window – if it isn’t fixed rather quickly it literally sends the message that ‘the rest of my windows are free to break.’ It generally becomes the sign of a start of the decline in an area.
Regardless of how you feel about it, let me share a listing of some values that I think are changing. These changes can impact our lives and society. The words are identified and you can fill in your own examples of how you see them changing. The following list is not meant to be exclusive but to give you an idea of the values that are being impacted. In some cases they may even be vanishing from society:
• Pride
• Respect
• Courtesy
• Patience
• Tolerance and understanding
• Contributing to benefit society
• Virtue
• Honesty
• Dependability
• Integrity
• Silence
• Spiritual Values
• Long term perspective and not short term gain
• Pursuit of quality of life and not simply financial success.
The list continues to grow and you get the idea. Vanishing values can mean a harsh and often cruel/selfish society resulting in neighborhoods and communities that are not clean, filled with public nuisances and unappealing. That is certainly what we don’t want to happen. I hope that you share in that concern. We can all help bring back the basic values that not only built this country, our State and our communities but that provide the basis for sustainability of our nation.