Breaking News Law Journal  Debt Clock  Investments  MSA Reports  Dismal Science  Fresno Weather  Bulldog News  Recent Fresno News Recent National News Archive Search  Fresno E-Mail  Discuss City Hall Stadium Fresno Readership  About the DR  Resource Links National DR Subscribe Bookstore Federalist Papers Constitution Calvin-Hobbes Reagan Library Republican Yahoo!   Fresno Republican News Archive - Page A2 Saturday November 28, 1998 Governing Responsibly By Andrew Ping, Staff Columnist Every business man knows that decisions are not made in a vacuum. Parents try to teach that simple truth to their children. The real world reinforces the consequences of not learning this moral force. BERKELEY - The criminal justice system is a strong example. Despite newer and better prisons, and longer prison terms for some crimes, breaking the law is still increasingly popular. Along with some harsher penalties for the convicted, there are more laws to protect the suspected. With the hands of our police tied, those who consider committing crimes know that they are not likely to be caught, nor convicted. Surely not punished severly for their crimes. Crime without certain punishment simply promotes more of the same behavior. In California, we've recently elected a pro-abortion local government and Congress. Electing liberal social planners sends the wrong message to youth. We should be sending the message that there are moral consequences for immoral actions. Sex really is not a teenage toy. We should also not arrange it so as to punish babies with irresponsible mothers who were not given a solid moral model for living a responsible life. If our society keeps getting mixed messages from the government, it will only lead to greater confusion, pain and difficulty. Our representatives should emulate those same principles children ideally catch on to at home, or all our efforts will only end in failure, and all our politicians will be able to do is scratch their heads in disbelief. [Editor's Note. Andrew Ping writes the 'View from the terrace' Column for the Fresno Republican Newspaper every Friday.] © Copyright 1998 HTML Graphics By The Daily Republican Newspaper. All rights reserved. Comment Archive Search: Breaking News Law Journal  Debt Clock  Investments  MSA Reports  Dismal Science  Fresno Weather  Bulldog News  Recent Fresno News Recent National News Archive Search  Fresno E-Mail  Discuss City Hall Stadium Fresno Readership  About the DR  Resource Links National DR Subscribe Bookstore Federalist Papers Constitution Calvin-Hobbes Reagan Library Republican Yahoo!