Awesome post Danny! Regarding the shine on the shoes, and personal appearance, isn't it as much about personal pride and integrity as anything else? Unfortunately, there are far too many folks out there who let the likes of Marilyn Manson, Axl Rose, and Shirley Manson raise their children. Further, these parents have the fervent belief that the school system is responsable for teaching the kids ethics, and morals which are as incomprehensable to them as Chinese math, yet the schools are the ones who are free sitters for the parents from 8:30 till 3:30, and somehow the kids are supposed to get taught these things.
When the kids grow up, and do EXACTLY as, or worse than the parents, the kid winds up in juvenile hall, it's always the "system" that has faild them. Generally there is some jerk lawyer who is willing to represent them to bargain the crimes down, so they can join the folks on the porch, and bitch over a cold case of Bohemia, about how the cops are just out to get them!
We have to face it, the scum always rises to the surface, and unfortunate for the rest of us, our only power seems to look on with distain, as their court-appointed lawyer would indeed love to sink his teeth into a good old discrimination case.
I've remarked for years on what type of a society it is that demands we have a license to drive a car, but anyone can have a child. We have, as a society, allowed some really crappy parenting to happen. Now they piss on the men's room floors.