There is plenty to be disturbed about in our nation, even on a daily basis, but this latest story struck me as a milestone to be noted. Yesterday, the State Department announced that it was “improving” passport applications to ask for information about “Parent One” and “Parent Two” rather than the traditional “Father” and “Mother”.

The gays rights people in particular, and the politically correct “progressive” crowd in general, applauded the change, while conservative Christian groups predictably denounced it.

I’m not going to belabor the issue; others are going to do that better than I can, and in far more detail than I care to. I will only make one basic point.

Those are children we are raising in this environment. There is no societal unit that can care for the well-being of the child like the family. And by family I mean traditional family. The love and commitment that the husband and wife have for each other forms the basis for the security that a child needs to mature correctly. There is no other basis that is adequate.

True enough, that traditional family has been doing a lousy job in protecting its children of late. But it is the same dominant culture that has been assaulting the family, and that is inflicting this latest degradation upon us, that is the prime source of the problem.

This does not work out well. No nation can toy with the structure of the family to this extent and get away unscathed. We are watching the demise of our society, and as our moral backbone disintegrates, we can expect two things to happen.

First, those who represent moral sanity will be persecuted. Just our presence, no matter how benign, will be an irritant to those who with increasing irrationality demand a destructive degree of personal freedom. And they will attempt to silence us.

Second, as the society careens toward chaos, with no answers to be found, intrusive government will step in to restore order. Anarchy is the seedbed of totalitarianism.

I have never witnessed such foundational upheaval as I have seen in the past two years, and the rate of change is only increasing. If this nation does not come to its senses, it is in danger of losing everything.