Fall of the Roman Empire

Found a list of reasons for the fall of the Roman Empire, just wondering if any of this sounds familiar.

1. Decline in Morals/Values
2. Public Health
3. Political Corruption
4. Unemployment
5. Inflation
6. Urban Decay
7. Inferior Technology
8. Military Spending

I read something once comparing American society to the Roman Empire. I just can't help but wonder if maybe our society is on a down swing (if not a full out fall).

What a day!

It seems like more and more often lately I find myself making this statement at the end of my day. I am getting very perturbed by the fact that I am surrounded by students who don't care about their grades, or learning anything for that fact. I have been yelled at by students no less than four times today. Four times. Things are out of control. When I send them to administration they come back 5 minutes later with a grin on their face and a verbal warning. If all they needed was a verbal warning, I think I could have handled that on my own. I call parent after parent only to be met with repeated wrong numbers, disconnected numbers, busy signals, full voice mails, and so on. I am frustrated beyond belief with some of this crap.
The students in my school are SO unmotivated. We have a couple of long term subs working here who are certified, but retired, so they sub for extra money. They are shocked by the conditions here.
I also feel like I am struggling with them respecting me. I look like a 12 year old myself, so they feel like they can treat me like one of themselves. I get a little more respect from them than one of their fellow students, but not nearly as much as older teachers. This is getting insane.

Updates

Hi, I apologize to any of you who actually read my blog for not updating you on anything in the past two weeks. It's the end of our quarter, and I've been busy preparing grades and final exams for the quarter.
I am plain worn out, and the tension down this end of the hallway has been getting pretty thick. Even the administration has said that the tension level in the cafeteria doubles when we walk into the room. I can really feel the tension during the day, and I have been trying my best to eliminate as much of it as possible. But it doesn't really work
I have sort of formed my own support system of veteran teachers, and we kind of congregate in the classroom across the hall after school. We have a good time telling funny stories about our students. Sort of reminds me of some of the blogs I've read, lol. I feel so worn out though. You can probably feel it in my writing. I'm too tired to even complain about anything . . .

So I'll sign off on that, and I'll let you know how finals go. Of course, right now one of the kids wants to kill me because he claims I lowered his grade down to a 52. Now why would I fail someone with that low a grade? If I was going to change it I'd have made it something easier to prove like a 68 (sarcasm!!).