Who Am I to Judge?

On this day in 1992 Vice President Dan Quayle cited Murphy Brown (Candice Bergen on the TV show) as a 'poor example of family values."  19 years have passed and it seems little has changed.  People still think they have the right to pass judgement on others for their life choices.  Sure, maybe they are not ideal, but what is in life?  Things happen and it could have been worse...much worse.

Forgive me a little rant here.  I just think it is nobody's role to proscribe what family values are.  If there were a universally acceptable set of family values, wouldn't the world be a hunky dory place?  Yes, we have the right to make known what we feel are values we hold to be true....for us and ours.  But we have no right to force those values on others.  None.  And we certainly have no right to legislate them.

Now, that said, what happens to society if we do not hold forth some spectrum of values that life not only ourselves up, but those of humanity in general.  But where shoudl these values come from?  My question here would be: What ever happened to personal responsibility?  Is it not the job of parents and guardians to teach their children right from wrong?  Should we not lead by example by living those values we hold to be self-evident?

Now back to Murphy Brown.  19 years have indeed passed.  She was not the first woman on TV to have a child out of wedlock.  (Haven't heard that phrase "out of wedlock" in a while?)  She had no intention of having a baby, but when she found herself pregnant (there was a time when they didn't use that word on TV?) she decided to KEEP the baby.  And in 1992 there were options.  How come she wasn't lauded for the act of keeping the baby and raising up?  She was a woman who could afford help, etc., and it did create a whole new comedic arc on the show (remember Eldin the painter/nanny?).

VP Quayle further criticized the character and show for "ignoring the importance of fathers by birthing a child alone".  I don't remembe that being the case.  And how would it benefit the child to be raised by parents who were not committed to each other?

Oh, I don't usually rant like this and I apologize for departing from my usual light musings and thoughts.  But for some reason when I saw a list of events that happened on this day in history, it set me off.  No, I don't believe single-parenthood is the best situation for raising a child.  I suppose Murphy could have given her, (what's that term they used to call children born out of wedlock?), up for adoption.  But she didn't.  What she did was cause people to think about family values and what that term really means.

And the point of this little rant is: how far have we really come?  Maybe the terminology is not the same, but don't we still spend too much time passing judgement on others while letting our own moral code and personal values go unexamined?
But then, who am I to judge?