No pictures this time

This morning I got into a discussion with a coworker of mine. He wants to make changes to the sex offenders registry so that it not only includes those persons with crimes of a sexual nature but of all persons committing any crime. We talked about that for a little while and he mentioned that there were teenagers that were on the registry because they had committed that specific sort of crime to another minor to get on the list. He said he would rather know if there was a drug dealer in his neighborhood then he would some teenager that is just exploring things. Well, I was somewhat troubled by this because obviously the registry that exists exists, in my opinion, because the most sacred relationship that a person could potentially have with another is eternally violated. I brought up the possible argument of requiring any criminal to be known to his neighbors may be invasion of privacy, but by this point in the conversation my coworker had taken a turn. He mentioned that there were so many teenagers (under 18) these days being prosecuted as adults because they are committing "adult crimes" that he thinks in ten years the age of adulthood will be lowered to 16. I mentioned that at the age of 16 a person does not have the maturity to be tried as an adult. When I was sixteen I was far from figuring life out, and even now at 24 am only a little closer. He then mentioned that at ages 12 and below children are sexually active and that only a few hundred years ago children were given in marriage at 12 and there must have been a reason that they did that. I quickly pointed out that those ages were dark and that today if a 12 or 13 year old has a child the child has a much greater likelihood to have disabilities, and that the reproductive system is hardly beginning to develop at such an age. He mentioned that the LDS church says that the age of accountability is 8 years of age and that is to mean that they know right from wrong. I told him that I fear for the day that at 8 years old a person is tried as an adult and is sentenced to federal prison. He continued that today's elementary children are learning what he learned in high school subjects, adding that when he was in high school only juniors and seniors may have had a problem with smoking and that this terrible habit is now in elementary schools and prevalent in the later grades. His point was that there is so much that has changed over the years and only seems to be getting worse. I reassured him that this was true. He mentioned television and how the influence of it changed people noting a theory a long time ago that whatever happened on TV would happen in reality just a few weeks later. He named some court show and that judges had come up with the theory as they noticed that what happened on the show they would see only a little later in their own courtroom. Then he mentioned the internet and the terrible things that are brought into our very homes. I commented that of course as technology and good ideas progress so would the opposition. The marvelous things that come from the internet and every other good thing is nearly matched by the adversary in crudeness and degrading things. For the number two things searched on the internet are pornography and genealogy. Since the discussion stemmed from his desire to add all criminals onto a registry I told him that he had good intentions to do so and make changes in society, I told him that all of this can be solved in the home. The greatest that he and I can do is raise our children in truth and righteousness then they can be examples to their friends and in faith this can continue on through the generations. He mentioned that people are pushing to regulate the position of a computer in the home, that parents must have the computer in the open to monitor the children's internet surfing. In my opinion, I told him, this is obviously a great suggestion but for the government to regulate such a thing as little as that would induce an uprising in the people that the government might be in danger. He pessimistically continued that things were only going to get worse and if we did not do something about such societal problems then we would be in for it. Of course things are going to get worse, that is only since, however, that the power of good will only become stronger and the spreading of the gospel will only increase. I responded by saying that the prophets have said that the family is the basic unit of society and without the strength of the family society is pretty much going to fail. We ought to place our emphasis upon loving and teaching our families as we have been taught, forsaking the things of the world and being Christlike to all around us. I left the discussion with a knowledge of the ability and potential of the family to become something great, and also a feeling of urgency to make my own family great by doing what is right and then standing for it. I have always felt a need to explain to others why I do certain things, but I left with a feeling of "if it is true, then do it, what is the big deal?" and "truth does not need an explanation, it is true." This happened this morning and it is only 7:30am, hahaha!