FAMILY VALUES DEBATE BEST HELD IN THE HOME

One of the catchphrases of the 1992 campaign season is "family values," and the concern with this is not misplaced. Many of society's problems are rooted in the declining influence of traditional beliefs. In too many cases, personal responsibility seems to have become an optional, rather than obligatory, aspect of American behavior. Nowhere is that more apparent than in alarming statistics showing the amount of child support going unpaid. While the numbers are shameful, the shame is properly directed not at government or the politicians that captain it, but at the distressing attitude that children don't deserve the most fundamental type of caring.

Life grows increasingly complicated. Some facts, however, never change: Parents bring children into this world, for whatever reason, and those children can't support themselves. While circumstances vary widely, depending on the individual involved, there can be no question about where the responsibility for that support lies the parents. Too often, one parent abdicates this duty.

Our wish is that these transgressors would be an aberrant few. In fact, Missouri finds that, of the people obliged by the courts to pay child support, as many don't as do. Cape Girardeau County, where there are more than 2,100 cases in which a judge has ordered a parent to pay child support, is near the state average, with only about 49 percent making good on the payments. Surrounding counties have equally dismal numbers; in Bollinger County, only 39 percent owing child support are current on their payments.

What does this say about us as a society? Without doubt, the reasons for these non-pay~ments range from pride to destitution; excuses aren't difficult to find. There is a bottom line that suffers, though, and it has nothing to do with money: What happens to the children involved?

If parents won't take financial responsibility for their children, if their own needs take precedence over those of their offspring, then young people and ultimately the nation that must intercede are the losers. America can't collectively call for its politicians to foster family values if individually the system is breaking down. The idea that one generation wants something better for the succeeding one fails unless there is personal accountability. Enforcement efforts can help, but this is one societal failure that only people, not the government, can remedy.

People who point a finger at government and demand a solution to problems affecting families would do better to look in a mirror. Washington has no answers. Individuals must do this tough work themselves.