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From Sunday's paper, Steve Blow's column....

A worrisome sign on the state of society
12:00 AM CST on Sunday, February 7, 2010

I'm an optimist by nature. I believe the general march of humanity is toward progress.

And I pay little attention when others wring their hands about our being a nation in decline.

But once in a while, something comes along to give me pause.

And one instance was the recent search to find new deputies for the Dallas County Sheriff's Department.

Maybe we are in trouble.

Five new recruits will begin the training academy Monday. Congratulations to them. But woe the winnowing required to find them.

Those five began in a field of 206 applicants. That's how many men and women sat down to take the first test on the path to becoming a deputy.

Some already worked for the Sheriff's Department as jailers. Others were outsiders. But all knew what the screening process involved.

Anyone with obvious shortcomings wouldn't have bothered to apply. So by self-selection alone, those 206 should have been a quality group.

But not quality enough, apparently.

They began with the academic exam – a high- school-level test of memory, grammar, reading comprehension and analytical ability.

Of the 206, only 39 passed.

Next came a physical fitness test – 21 push-ups, 29 sit-ups, a vertical leap of 15.5 inches, a 1.5-mile run in less than 16 minutes, 28 seconds. Nothing too rigorous.

Of the 39, only 16 passed.

Then came the background investigation. Of the 16, only 10 made it through.

Next, a polygraph exam. Of the 10, nine passed.

Then the psychological evaluation. Of the nine, seven were deemed trustworthy to carry a badge and gun.

Along the way, two more withdrew voluntarily – probably expecting to fail one of the upcoming steps.

And that left a grand total of five people with the mental, physical and moral fitness to begin training as peace officers – less than 3 percent of the 206 who began.

Heaven help us. Could that be an accurate snapshot of our society today?

The results might not have disturbed me so, except for an earlier report. That one looked at our nation's young adults and their fitness for military enlistment.

The study eliminated those without a high school diploma. It eliminated those too fat or otherwise unhealthy to serve. It eliminated those with a criminal record or serious history of drug abuse.

Care to guess how many young adults (ages 17 to 24) were left as eligible to enlist?

Only 25 percent.

That ought to give anyone pause about our future – when three-fourths of your country's young adults don't have the smarts, strength or character to qualify for military service.

I suspect that you and I and most everyone reading this resides in the world of that other 25 percent – the fortunate sector where most young people thrive and succeed.

I'm certain that most of the decision makers in our nation live in that world.

Oh, we have glimpses of the problem. We know the kid who got mixed up in drugs or bailed on high school. We know the lard butt who excels only at video games and potato chips.

But maybe it's time for us to wake up to just how pervasive those problems are.

The military fitness report concluded that more early-childhood education is the key to turning things around.

I'm sure that's one step in the process.

But maybe the starting point is a little more alarm and a little less optimism.

end of column