Who's minding the home front?

The Washington Times recently published a four-part series examining the changing views of marriage and what institutions -- such as religious groups, government and businesses -- are doing to preserve it. Click here to read part 1, part 2, part 3, part 4 as reprinted in World Peace Herald.

More and more people are understanding that building peace is a bottom-up process that begins with each individual and then expands to the family. There cannot be peace in the world unless there is peace in the families that make up the world.

Yet, as the series points out, U.S. society today is often not supportive of those who put priority on building strong families. Some businesses are changing, as Gregory Lopes found in Part 3 of the series, but in the main businesses reward those who work long hours at the office at the expense of investing time in their family relationships.

Recently, I was watching Jim Cramer on CNBC's investment advice program "Mad Money." Asked by a viewer to name a stock analyst he respected, Mr. Cramer named someone. He then proceeded to explain his choice by saying that this analyst worked harder than anyone else. He illustrated this statement by saying that this analyst was in her office at 5 a.m. and that at 10 p.m. she was still in her office.

These are the people who make America's economy by far the strongest in the world. But who are the people who are going to train and educate the next generation so that they can build on this success? The best way is for children to receive their training in interpersonal relations in the family. If parents are busy working from 5 a.m. to 10 p.m., who is going to provide that training? The nannies?

Perhaps what will happen is that the nannies will train their own children to succeed, and they will be the ones to take over where today's generation leaves off.