Cosby addresses universal problem.

Bill Cosby has been excoriated by many for his criticism of certain aspects of African-American culture he believes have been shown to be destructive. He doesn't back off with this op-ed piece he wrote for The Detroit Free Press.

After you've read his piece and my comments, ask yourself a question. Ignoring the Civil Rights angle, aren't Mr. Cosby's questions ones all parents should be asking? My parents certainly did.

My Mom and Dad knew where I was 99% of the time. Not much room for meaness in that 1% left over. And they checked up on me. I wasn't a bad kid, they just took parenting seriously. Most of the time I was at home doing chores. There was very little running around the neighborhood and no ranging further afield.

My parents knew what was going on at school because they took the time to find out. Sometimes they found out things before I got home. They met with or called teachers. They checked my homework. They looked at my report cards and held me accountable for the grades.

Mom and Dad knew my friends and their families. We couldn't afford expensive sneakers, but they wouldn't have bought them if we could. My mom bought all my clothes until I was well into High School. They were never "cool", but they were always decent and tasteful. My folks taught and insisted on manners, respect for morals and property, both ours and others, respect for law-enforcement personnel, teachers, members of the armed forces, veterans, my elders, and much more.

I was always amazed when I saw what many of my friends and acquaintances got away with. Mom and Dad would (and did!) stop "that nonsense" in a New York Minute. We always knew the exact location of the boundaries and exactly what would happen when we crossed them. My grandparents, aunts and uncles were in on it, too.

My Wonderful Wife and I are not blessed with children of our own. We have tried to do our small part to support the parents of our nieces, nephews, younger cousins, and the children we were privileged to teach in a Christian School, Sunday school, and youth group. But we have also had the experience of sitting across the desk from parents saying, "I can't do nothin' with him." Their son was seven years old.

I have seen the same problems Mr. Cosby describes in the small mountain communities of my childhood, but the population most affected there is white. A boom-and-bust economic cycle based on coal mining and generations of handouts from the failed experiments of the War on Poverty and The Great Society have created a culture of dependency and victimism (is that a word?), that is startlingly like that which he decries in the inner cities and Louisville's own West End.

I find I must agree with Mr. Cosby because the things he recommends are how I was reared. I think it worked out well.
GBW