I was surprised to read yesterday that 41% of those under the age of 30 found it acceptable that an insurance CEO was shot in the back and murdered.

Only 8% of those in their 50's thought it was okay - which is still alarming, but two out of five young adults had no issue with this.

That dovetails with a 2023 survey about the acceptance of shoplifting. 40% of those who ranged from 18 to 29 thought shoplifting was either always acceptable or acceptable under certain circumstances. No one from 45 on up thought shoplifting was "always acceptable," and the older the person was, the fewer thought it was ever acceptable.

What kind of world is it where retail theft and killing people are okay?

My friends, Christin and Hillary, are fighting to keep sex toys from being displayed on shelves in big box stores where children can access them. Evidently, that's so controversial that the story of the bill they've worked on to keep sex toys out of Target and Walmart made it into the UK's Daily Mail across the pond.

What kind of world is it where it's deemed okay to sexualize children at a young age? No parent wants their child to be in the checkout line and see someone's dildo purchase bounce down the conveyor belt toward the cashier.

"Mom, what's that?"

We get the culture we allow. It might be that less foresight is applied to the future these days because fewer couples are having fewer children. But even in a culture that shuns children, do we want such a lack of morality that theft in stores and murder in the street are acceptable under certain circumstances? It gives a whole new meaning to "cost of living."

Respect for life, liberty, and property. Until we all push that - especially our politicians - into the culture, we will get an increasingly lawless and dangerous world. Children will pay the heaviest price for that, and their children a price heavier yet.

It's time we save children.