Is today's youth losing touch with American values? On "Stand with Kelly and Josiah Chewbacca," we tackle this pressing issue head-on with a thought-provoking panel discussion featuring Landon, Sarah, and Reagan. Sarah sheds light on the alarming gap in education about American history and constitutional rights, calling on society to take responsibility. Landon delves into the erosion of moral foundations within homes, emphasizing the critical role of parental guidance. Reagan critiques the educational system for introducing controversial topics too early and dissects the breakdown of traditional family structures, even drawing parallels to the ideological goals laid out in "The Naked Communist." Together, their insights highlight an urgent need for robust education and stronger family values to reverse the trend.
But it's not all about societal critiques. We also share a touching story about the transformative power of role models, featuring a mom's unwavering support that helped her child conquer shyness. This moving account of a fourth-grade speech event illustrates how encouragement and belief can lead to remarkable personal growth and newfound confidence. Following this heartwarming tale, Sarah offers her perspective on finding inner strength, promising valuable takeaways for our listeners. Don't miss out—subscribe to "Stand with Kelly and Josiah Chewbacca" to stay informed on these crucial topics and more.
Is today's youth losing touch with American values? On "Stand with Kelly and Josiah Chewbacca," we tackle this pressing issue head-on with a thought-provoking panel discussion featuring Landon, Sarah, and Reagan. Sarah sheds light on the alarming gap in education about American history and constitutional rights, calling on society to take responsibility. Landon delves into the erosion of moral foundations within homes, emphasizing the critical role of parental guidance. Reagan critiques the educational system for introducing controversial topics too early and dissects the breakdown of traditional family structures, even drawing parallels to the ideological goals laid out in "The Naked Communist." Together, their insights highlight an urgent need for robust education and stronger family values to reverse the trend.
But it's not all about societal critiques. We also share a touching story about the transformative power of role models, featuring a mom's unwavering support that helped her child conquer shyness. This moving account of a fourth-grade speech event illustrates how encouragement and belief can lead to remarkable personal growth and newfound confidence. Following this heartwarming tale, Sarah offers her perspective on finding inner strength, promising valuable takeaways for our listeners. Don't miss out—subscribe to "Stand with Kelly and Josiah Chewbacca" to stay informed on these crucial topics and more.
You're back on stand with Kelly and today Joe Sayach-Baka With us. Today we have Landon, sarah and Regan. We're interviewing a youth panel and we're going to talk a little bit about the decline of American values in our youth today. So, sarah, could you tell us where or how have you experienced a decline in American values in your peers?
Speaker 2:
Well, I think it really is important to outline the fact that a decline in American values in the youth is a reflection of society and through my time in local government and such, I found that most of it came down to a fact of not being educated, not knowing what our history is, not knowing what constitutional rights we are given, not knowing what your government is not allowed to do. So for me, I got a lot of questions from the youth when I was speaking out. They, first off, were like we're allowed to do that and then, second off, a lot of them were questioning the things I was saying. They're like well, that's not what my senator said, that's not what my assembly person said, that's not what the school board is saying. And then I explain the facts behind it, or how you do research, how you can even check yourself.
Speaker 2:
I explained the laws and our state constitution on what these governing officials are not allowed to do, and it was just the fact that a lot of youth didn't even understand that these were principles that our society is led by, because they've been put to the wayside quite a bit. So it's not really the youth's fault that we're not being adequately educated on American history on how government is supposed to work on our individual rights. But it is our responsibility now, in a society that doesn't educate us as much as they should on these issues, it's our responsibility to get out there to research these things and spread it when we can. It's those discussions and it's an increase in civil discourse that I think is going to be able to help our next generation.
Speaker 3:
That's a good point, Like one of the solutions is just simply education for younger generations. I remember you and your sister telling me that you went all the way through your educational history, your academic career, and never learned about World War II in school right.
Speaker 1:
Not in depth, no.
Speaker 3:
Yeah, and then all that education really came from home because we had grandparents who fought in World War II, so it was important for us to pass on. It's a really good point, sarah.
Speaker 1:
Landon, I want to pivot over to you. What's your take on the decline in American values in our youth?
Speaker 4:
we have to realize why there is a decline. Simply put, it starts in our homes, and this is not something that just happened like that. It's something that's happened over generations and generations. A huge part of the decline is parents not taking responsibility for installing a strong foundation in their children. American values start in our homes and it's the parents' responsibilities to install a strong foundation in their children, and it seems that we've lost a sense of black and white thought process saying oh, this is right unless it makes you feel bad. What was once wrong is now considered right and vice versa. That's why we have men now going out in public and wearing dresses, or little Susie going to school saying she's a cat and how dare you? If you give her a weird look or if you don't accommodate her. It seems now that we have like no basis of anything tangible. The solution is we need to empower reality instead of empowering fantasies.
Speaker 1:
I like that Empower the reality of the American dream, you know.
Speaker 3:
Yeah, that's good, that's a really good line.
Speaker 1:
Reagan, what's your take?
Speaker 5:
Yeah. So education, I really think, is where I see the biggest decline, especially with my experience through college. Having you know professors talk about how masculinity is toxic and you know kind of saying that we need to bring sex education into kindergarten and first grade. I really think that's a very big breakdown of what society is and as well as as I believe what Sarah was talking or what Landon was talking about the breakdown of the family. You know, having so many single parent households, it's very difficult to instill, you know discipline into our youth today. And I'd also really like to read an excerpt from the 1958 Naked Communists, if that's okay. There's just a couple points talking about how the current communist goals in the Cold War and how that kind of translates to today.
Speaker 5:
So 13 was do away with all loyalty oaths. 17 was get control of the schools. Use them as transmission belts for socialism and current communist propaganda. Soften the curriculum. Get control of teachers associations. Put the party line in textbooks. Use student riots to format public protest against programs or organizations which are under communist attack. Infiltrate the press. Get control of book review assignments, editorial writing and policymaking positions, as well as eliminate all laws governing obscenity by calling them censorship and a violation of free speech and free press. By calling them censorship and a violation of free speech and free press, break down cultural standards of morality by promoting pornography and obscenity in books, magazines, motion pictures and radio TV, as well as presenting homosexuality, degeneracy and promiscuity as normal, natural and healthy. So this was written in 1958. And we can see know 60, 70 or, yeah, 60 years later how much of that is true today yeah, they've been successful.
Speaker 1:
That's. That's just. That's crazy to hear. Thank you for reading that, reagan, because I've I've heard things like that before, but I really feel like this message just needs to be way more widespread. That this, this whole. A lot of I feel a lot of people today are saying things like oh, we've discovered, or oh, we've realized like I was watching youtube short and this liberal person advocating for lgbtq was like oh, we've realized that there's a distinction between sex and gender, as if the human race has grown in its knowledge and become more enlightened about the truth of the universe and the fact is no, there's an agenda.
Speaker 1:
There is an agenda. There are people who are deliberately trying to do this. If we realize this, we realized this 60 years ago because people were attempting to do this and instill this in main culture society 60 years ago.
Speaker 3:
Right For the purpose of destroying the foundation and the fabric of America and everything that we stand for. It's a completely different system of worldview and system of doing government, of empowering people versus making people essentially slaves and captives to the centralized government, the people who are in charge and the people who have power. And you're right that it comes at the degrading and the disintegration of the family unit, of education, of critical thinking. It actually reminds me of a story. I attended your school, so my alma mater is Texas A&M and I had an incredible yeah, whoop, gig'em.
Speaker 3:
An incredible experience at Texas A&M. Huge fan. One of my favorite professors just retired from A&M, and he told me that the system has completely changed since the time that I was there, and he was in the political science department too. He said, you know, when I was there and he was really challenging me to think and become the critical thinker that he helped me to be that there was an emphasis on teaching the students to think, he said, but now there's hardly any teaching happening at all. It's just the professors come in and they talk at the kids. There's very little engagement with the students, very little effort to actually have students talk with each other or interact, which is why it works just fine during COVID for everybody to learn online, because there isn't any real engagement with the professor or real engagement with each other. They're just essentially indoctrinating students.
Speaker 3:
There's this is what you think, this is how you think. This is how you think. This is what I want you to think. Now spit it back out to me at a test.
Speaker 3:
And he said, though, what he has seen over the last couple years because it's only been a couple years is that the students have just really dropped in their ability to analyze, to critically think, to process information and to contribute then to a marketplace of ideas, to contribute academia into critical thought and thinking. And it really concerns him as you look to the future of America. Where are all the intellects, where are all the people who are going to think critically about things? And I see that in what you read as well, that in order to totally destroy the values of America, the social structure of America, the decline of America, it really is going to take knocking out the ability for people to think independently on their own. So I guess that brings up my next question In the face of all this social pressure, where do you find the strength to stand for what's right? So let's start with you, reagan.
Speaker 5:
Yeah, so I mean really, as I was saying before, is being a Christ follower, really, you know, working through what the Lord has given me as a gift and stewarding that, you know, for him and for his will. I mean Proverbs 16, 3 says his will. I mean Proverbs 16, three says let your thoughts be aligned according to my will. So I'm submitting myself to him and letting him align my thoughts to his will and that's really where I get my strength from. And, as well as you know, my family, my father and my mother, so importantly, they have, you know, guided me through every step of the way. I mean, I was homeschooled my entire life, so I really owe all of my knowledge to them. I owe, you know, coming to Texas A&M, you know, to, of course, to the Lord, but to them as well. So it's really being mentored by my family and following what you know, what Jesus says to follow is what is right is where I get my strength from.
Speaker 3:
That's awesome. How about you, Landon? How would you answer that question? Where do you find your strength?
Speaker 4:
So I find my strength to stand in Jesus. So the Bible is a compass of how to live our life, and it doesn't promise that everything will be easy. No, to the contrary. It says that we will face hardships in our lives. The Bible tells us that we should stand up and fight for what we believe in. So I never want to be a person that sits on the sidelines whenever an injustice is happening. Ephesians 6, 13 through 14 says Therefore, put on every piece of God's armor so you will be able to resist the enemy in the time of evil. Then, after the battle, you'll be standing firm. Stand your ground, putting on the belt of truth and the body armor of God's righteousness. In addition, my mom is a fantastic role model. Whenever I was a younger kid, I was very shy. I wouldn't even consider doing anything like this. But in the fourth grade my mom made me sign up for a speech before age and there was plenty of tears through that, but I found that it was well worth the time and effort that I put into it.
Speaker 3:
That's awesome. We're up upon a break. We'll come back and hear Sarah's answer to where she finds her strength. You're on Stand with Kelly and Josiah Chewbacca today. Hit subscribe at standshoworg While we're on break. We'd love to have you, as one of our standouts, stand by.