Whatever Happened To Respect?

One of my first cousins, a female who lives in New Jersey, recently posted the following on her Facebook page:

"OK, I'm going to sound like my mother.. but what happened to respect!!"

The sentence was obviously directed towards the behavior of one of her children -- or step-children. It wasn't made totally clear.

My response was: "It stopped right around the time that parental discipline was deemed 'politically incorrect.' There's a direct correlation."

Her response was: "Actually Tom, my Mom always said the Beatles ruined this country. But there is a lack of respect for parents, teachers, police and forget about appreciation. Whats' that??!!! It's terrible."

Do you agree with any of the above? Is respect from your children a thing of the past? And if it is, why do you think that's happened? It is from a permissive society? Is from what they see on MTV or whatever else they watch on TV? Or is it directly correlated to a lack of discipline?

For what it's worth, one of my other first cousins weighed in with this response:

"I believe if the kids today saw how we were raised by our parents they'd have a newfound respect for us."

What are your thoughts? Tell us in the comments.

You can also follow the discussion on the Upper Macungie Patch Facebook page.