Why did Rome fall?  Did they overreach?  Were they self delusional?  Did they think they were invincible?    Did they lose their drive or were there stronger more capable military forces?  Did they become complacent?  Did they crumble under their social committments and poor economic policies?  Did they outsource their security?  Was it the invasion of Islam?

I don't think anyone knows the correct answer.  Maybe its all of the above or none of the above?   Are we committing these same mistakes in our society?  Have we become complacent?  Are we self-indulgent and delusional?

I ask myself this question.  Tonight I attended a club volleyball meeting at a large sports facility and listened about  a program for my daughter.  I couldn't help to look around the facility and notice kids playing basketall.  There were school teams and travel teams.  I kept looking and what else did I see, but kids practicing baseball.  Wasn't Halloween yesterday?  I didn't think baseball games were played in Indiana until April.  There were kids playing soccer and girls honing their softball skills.  How many times a week will these kids practice?  One, two, three, seven?  What are we doing to our kids?  What are we teaching them?  I wonder how many hours a week the kids practice or how many hours parents are driving their kids from one event to another.  These thoughts are disturbing.  Couple this time with television ogling for most and what do you get.  An uninformed, disconnected, malcontent populace.  We're too busy to get involved with anything or any cause.     How can we?  We would rather complain and expect someone else to take care of our problems or the less fortunate.  There will always be poor, but who is responsible for them?   It can't be me.  I am too busy taking my kids to volleyball, baseball, kickball, basketball, and football activities.  I would rather complain and let someone else handle it.  How blind have we become.

Who is attending the school board meetings, the city council meetings, the kiwanis clubs, the soup kitchens, the church socials, the sertoma meetings, the pta meetings.  I will tell you.  Very few people and we are paying for it as a nation!  We have become silent and inactive.  We have let all of the our decisions be influenced and directed by a small minority.  Are you kidding me?  I guess it's easier to assemble an enduring, incompetent Congress than go to a school board meeting. 

Go to a civic meeting.  Find out what is happening in your community.  You may be shocked at a world that is being created under your nose.  If we don't become active in our communities again, we may share the same fate as the Roman Empire.  Have we become such a lost civilization that we can't govern ourselves.  Politics and communities are local.  GET ACTIVE!