In heartbreaking news, the Associated Press recently reported that one out of five teenagers employ sex-texting. If true, this is an absolute tragedy that illustrates failure in child training.

This is a dangerous intersection where technology meets immorality.

Many such dangerous intersections exist in our society. One is where violence and heartlessness intersect, resulting in up to 4,000 developing but unborn babies aborted each day.

Another dangerous intersection is created when cinema and lust intersect. The American Family Association reports that there are up to 10 million pornographic Web sites on the Internet. This is staggering.

If such a thirst persists for this ongoing degradation, it is likely our nation cannot survive for long.

A disgraceful juncture was created when comedian David Letterman "jokingly" referenced baseball player A-Rod abusing a daughter of Sarah Palin. This was vulgarity intersecting with insensitivity, and a cruel stench was created.

A new America is rising, and it is abandoning the values that made the old America great - Bible reading, church-going and love for country. Self-denial and a regard for the welfare of others - along with decency and a sense of right and wrong - were its foundations.

In the emerging new America, aimlessness, trashiness and rootlessness are wanting to destroy all that we once held dear. Even patriotism and democracy seem threatened. Socialism and reliance on Big Brother want to emerge.

The social roads we travel are replete with depravity. May we find the high roads and preserve the value-based patterns of the past!

Perry A. Klopfenstein

Gridley