If You are to Change a Nation, You Must Appeal to its Families

  If you are to change a nation, you must appeal to its families, for it is the families who hold the power to change the attitudes and beliefs of the people.
   If you have crime, it will, to some extent, be because there are those not getting the memo that crime is not okay. They are not being taught by their parents. Get the parents to send the memo and the message is more likely to take. You might suggest their parents are no better than the children, so why would they even think to teach against crime?
   First, before answering that question, let me tell you why the family is the place where these values need to be instilled. Wherever they are instilled -- at school,  the YMCA, church, or wherever -- is good, but let us take note as to why the family perhaps is the best place.
   When a child is born, it becomes "flesh of my flesh." A bond is made. The parent has affinity for and unity with the child, and likewise the child for the parent. Love, I think they call it; A strong bond of love is created. And, this same love is possible when children are adopted, or raised by extended family or by others.
  A fierce loyalty is created and exists among family members. Parents are protective of their children, siblings are protective of each other, and children -- at least and especially young ones -- tend to almost worship their parents.
   That is a natural. If you rely on someone so deeply as children do their parents -- if you need them for your food and sustenance and everything else -- then the inclination is to honor them. The sense of needing the parent creates a sense of yielding to the parent. Plus, the parent is bigger, and that adds more to the sense of doing whatever the parent says.
   So, enter instruction into this venue. In what other venue does a person have more incentive to do what he or she is told than in the venue we call family?
   Now, as to whether a criminal will teach a child to not be a criminal, it is true the criminal will likely train the child to be like him (or her). But, not always. There can be a natural tendency to want the child to do good. "Don't do as I do, do as I say," is the phrase. The parent sometimes feels an obligation to raise the child right, even if he or she is not doing all that is right.
   The nuclear family, then: the best place to start if you want to better your nation. If you want to persuade people not to be criminals, start with the family. If you have any social malady -- prejudices, police violence or whatever -- if you can get your families to teach against those social maladies, you will probably do more to solve the problem than you will by addressing the issue any other way.