LETTERS: SIGNS ARE CLEAR, BUT WHO'S READING THEM?

To the editor:

From the 1980s "American Gigolo" to 1999's "Deuce Bigalow-Male Gigolo," we seem to feed on the same putrid road kill, only each bite becomes more and more foul. You would think we would learn from the last bite. But, like a fish, we are suckered into yet another, and the bait continues to become even more rank.

Like a dog returning to its vomit, so do we turn from the good bread of life to return to Satan's vile banquet of sin.

The menu: Punk rock to Woodstock II. Alice Cooper to Marilyn Manson. Unrated music to parental warning labels. Shock jocks to immoral rap. Slasher flicks to natural-born killers. R rating to NC-17. "Dallas" to "Married With Children." "Simpsons" to "South Park." HBO nudity to prime-time nudity. Phil Donahue to Jerry Springer. X-rated videos to the Porn Channel. Playboy and Penthouse to strip bars. Personal computer to porn net. Pac-Man video game to Doom. Marriage to just living together. Adult sexual freedom to child sexual freedom. Your, mine and ours to anything makes a family. Bisexuality to any sexuality. Adult suicide to adult multiple murder-suicide. No prayer in school to no Ten Commandments and no prayer at graduation and football games. Drugs in school to school massacres. Crack cocaine to methamphetamine. Decline in the Christian church to New Age religion. Choosing sin to nothing is a sin. Youth groups to youth gangs. Crucifix in urine to Madonna and Child with elephant poop. Homosexuality condemned by the church to ordination of homosexual pastors. Abortion to gender selection. Test-tube babies to cloning. AIDS to multiple antibiotic-resistant diseases. Savings-and-loan stealing to unlimited stock-exchange greed. State lotteries to riverboat casinos. Term limits to the buying of politicians. President Reagan to Bill Clinton. President Carter's Playboy interview to Bill Clinton's playboy affair. Iron Curtain to China's nuclear donation.

The only question remaining is: Can we as a nation read the signs? Are they insanely funny or insanely sad?

BRUCE COLLER

Cape Girardeau