Other Columns by Kevin Fobbs
Kevin Fobbs Bio

Printer-Friendly Version

Somehow I have to believe that comedian and actor Chris Rock the host of the upcoming 74th Academy Awards has gotten it at least half right when he said recently that America really should not take these awards too seriously.

Of course the pundits of Hollywood struck back and tried to dethrone him before he could even ascend to the throne as host. The part Chris Rock did not cover is probably even more important to Heartland Americans than his rather obvious comments about the award's importance. What Chris Rock did not speak to was the obvious under current the Academy Awards represent in Hollywood as it strives to showcase a culture framed in a shop of horrors complete with torturous anti-traditional Heartland values. The red carpet will somehow miss that.

We can't afford for America to miss that message. We have to do more. It seems that every 20 years; almost a complete generation has to pass, when the family values are again assaulted by liberals who seem to be trying much harder at destabilizing our values system. But a national effort launched twenty years ago does bring some clarification to the save our values movement of today and the battle that Heartland families must wage against another entertainment industry giant.

The multi billion-dollar record industry was being influenced in a big time way by Gangsta Rap and hard Rock's usage of vile language, violence and blatant sexually suggestive lyrics.

A group of parents fueled by the heightened concerns of several wives of congressional representatives and one Reagan Administration official formed the Parents Music Resource Center (PMRC). The originators of PMRC were Tipper Gore, wife of then Senator Al Gore, Susan Baker, wife of Treasury Secretary James Baker; and Nancy Thurmond, wife of Senator Strom Thurmond.

These women saw the daunting problems plaguing the homes of parents all across America. Do you remember what parents were up against at that time? It was incredibly similar to the same challenges you hear parents discuss today. We were worried about the decay of the family; i.e. the nuclear family. Now more families are headed up by single heads of households.

We were concerned that our children would be influenced by outside influences, which would sabotage all the work and effort we were putting in to raise our children to be respectful of their parents, supportive of our religious values, and mindful or our nation's greatness. These poisonous lyrics and Gangsta Rap, Hard Rock music with not so hidden meanings were slowly seeping into our culture. Each artist tried to out-do the other with even more highly suggestive sexually explicit and degrading lyrics and content. The emphasis was not on entertainment but on selling more records.

I was a Michigan coordinator of PMRC, and like millions of parents all across America was worried about the recording industry's seemingly unabashed effort at repeatedly targeting minors like my child.

>> Continued -- Page 1 2 3