The erosion of our topsoil

Ask any farmer what the three most important attributes of valuable land and you'll more than likely get the following response: the amount and condition of topsoil, the proximity of water and the type of vegetation growing on the land (e.g. prairie grass).

Now ask any real estate developer the same question and you'll get an entirely different response: the proximity of resources (schools, roads, sewer lines, police, etc.), the current state of the land (debris, current housing, etc) and the location (low-crime, taxes, etc.).

I have always been perplexed why real estate developers will take a piece of virgin (undeveloped) land that might be filled with oak trees, remove all the oak trees and replace with houses, and then name the new subdivision something like "Oak Tree Estates." And it really jerks my chain to think about how real estate developers will remove all the natural beauty from the land (streams, trees, topsoil, etc.) and replace with cardboard cookie-cutter homes, roll-out sod and man-made waterfalls.

So, as you may have already guessed, this blog post is about the real estate development community and a comparison of their practices to the current moral state of our American society.

There seems to be a correlation between the habits of the real estate development community and the moral state of our country. I'll explain:

• Developers strip virgin land of everything that is seen as pure, natural and beautiful. Our current society (which I am generalizing to be the collective of what is presented in the media, current politics, and in the entertainment industry) strips the pure, natural and beauty from our youth.
• Developers then cover the hardened, rocky and abused land with deceptive housing, false landscaping and temporary eye-candy. In the same, our society attempts to cover problems arising from the removal of what was pure and moral by distracting our eyes and minds with deceptive marketing, superficial fluff and artificial beauty.

Some may say I am being harsh here or that I am completely off base but let's evaluate the mound of evidence. In our current society:

• Current stats show church attendance is declining (and by church I am referring to that place where people go for community, guidance and moral instruction), all while we continue to build larger stadiums to hold the crowds attending sporting events (and by sporting events I mean those useless, mind-numbing events where people gather to worship millionaires).
• Current popular television shows glorify adultery (e.g. Desperate Housewives) and immorality (e.g. The L Word). The average sitcom is so offensive and NOT funny that they add their own canned laughter (have you ever watched your favorite comedy on mute or truly listened to what they think is funny?)
• Trends among youth today include school violence (Columbine, etc.), demands for offensive music and violent video games, and promiscuity, not to mention drug use.

Maybe I'm crazy here but isn't it a big sign something is wrong in our society when underwear for 7-year-old girls is made with lettering on the back that says things like "sexy" or "hottie?"

Will we continue to erode the land as well as our morals? We look to so-called celebrities as role models who are nothing more than hollow shells of their formal selves who have traded everything, including their moral values, to be famous and rich. They are nothing more than deceptive cookie-cutter homes built on barren land (without topsoil). They are posers.

We need to once again see the value of having rich topsoil. We need to return to the value system this country was founded upon. We need to stop stripping all the goodness in the world and pretending that it is being replaced with something better, more appealing.