In 2022, research found that almost 1 in 5 Gen Z-ers were willing to quit their job to be an "influencer" on social media. 12% would quit college. So, whatever an influencer is, it sure seems important to this generation. Is that for good or for ill? While there are rarely clear answers to questions like these, here are some thoughts that might offer a sound perspective on the newfangled industry of "influencing."

Stories of children reported to be victims of sexual exploitation are so familiar these days that they have become little more than background noise in the daily news feed. Even our legislators don’t give this exploitation a second thought. At least, that’s the impression I get from a review of HB 5239.

Last time, we discussed several moral issues that arise when man decides to "play God" in the area of human reproduction. In vitro fertilization always takes innocent life. Embryonic genetic editing tends towards the sad assumption that the mother is the only patient involved, because the embryo is not considered a patient. And efforts to alter a baby's genetics don't have an easy line between "health-related concerns" and flat-out "child enhancement."

Online games and videos are popular in today’s day and age, and many of these games are marketed towards children. YouTube Kids, Xbox, Nintendo Switch, and the PlayStation 5 are common platforms that children use to access online games and entertainment.

What we think is true can have the same effect on us as what is true. We have known this forever. But today, in our post-truth culture, we are becoming less concerned with discovering what is true and more focused on what we feel is true. Public opinion today is shaped more by emotion and personal beliefs than facts. The impact of this post-truth era is profound.

Whenever a legislator proposes a new law, supposedly, that new law is intended to solve some problem. But what problem does the law proposed by Anne Stava-Murray seek to solve in HB 4876? Her bill would expand the definition of child abuse to include a parent or other member of the household who...

This September, Edwardsville H.S. will begin construction on its building to include multi-stall, unisex bathrooms... Doing so will force girls to share bathrooms with boys and vice versa – all in an effort to be more “inclusive” to transgender students. School Board officials decided to move forward with a bathroom remodel after HB 1286 was signed into law by Gov. Pritzker last year.

Our ability to protect children from sexual exploitation is declining every day.  The environment has become sexually saturated.  Prime-time programs on broadcast television promote casual sex, even for teens.  Pornography is impossible to avoid short of disconnecting all electronics.  Standards of dress and conduct have become eroticized.  Societal taboos about sexual experimentation have severely eroded, and internal inhibitions have steeply declined.

There are 341,000 students in the Chicago Public Schools, divided among 638 schools—476 elementary schools and 162 high schools. According to the recent report by the Chicago Public Schools Office of Inspector General (OIG), there were 446 sexual misconduct allegations reported to the OIG during the calendar year 2023.

Why are local elections so uninteresting to voters? Local elections in Illinois generally draw about 16% of registered voters. This is compared to the average turnout over the last 20 years for presidential elections in Illinois of 63% and the average turnout in the off-year elections of 44%.

As of January 1, a new Illinois state law is in effect that removes grant funding from public libraries that ban books “because of partisan or doctrinal disapproval.” House Bill 2789 was signed by Governor J.B. Pritzker last summer and is just the latest in a string of policies advanced by this administration and motivated by its apparent obsession with indoctrinating kids into sexual orientation and gender identity ideology.

Recently, I noticed an online post of a local church that read: “Everyone is welcome! No exceptions. Period.” Really? Everyone?

In part one of this article,, we looked at a brief recently filed by 21 attorneys general from around the country. The attorneys general are urging the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals to strike down a commonsense Idaho law that would keep boys out of girls' bathrooms, and among the brief’s signatories is Illinois' own Kwame Raoul. One sentence in the brief stood out in particular, as it compared "transgender" youth to their "cisgender counterparts."

Stories are powerful and incredibly influential. Almost everyone can point to at least one story, if not more, that have deeply changed the way they think, act, or live. Even without meaning to, we tend to base our perception of reality around the stories we know, love, and tell.

How we spend our time and money reveals what we care about. That principle applies not only to individuals, but to groups, to corporations, to governments. What people say means very little. It’s what they do that counts.