I have on my desk a small picture of my parents taken about
fifty years ago. I can’t help but think how much I loved them, even though they
had nothing to offer me but their love and support. Maybe there was an
advantage to being poor because you knew up front they had nothing to give you
but love, so from the moment you first went out into the world, you knew its
was up to you and you alone to make something out of yourself. Hopefully that
would be something they would be proud of. They did give me one thing to take
with me though and it was probably more important than anything else they could
have given me and that was a good example of how to conduct my life.
The other day on my face book page there was a rant from
some college student, that I don’t know, which said. “We just have to wait for
these stubborn old baby boomers to die off so we can make things right.” Now to
be fair, things the last fifty years have not gone well. Our countries
financial condition and failed wars have left us in precarious shape. If that
was what he was referring too I would have concurred. But to tell the rest of
the story, his tirade was about us trying to impose our moral values on him.
Our country is on a slippery slope when we talk about moral values. Somewhere,
someplace, someone took the words freedom to mean, “Whatever pleases you” and
that is why we are, where we are, today.
If there was a place left on this earth that was livable and
as uninhabited as this country was the day the pilgrims came here, I am sure I
could fill a boat up in a hurry with people who would want to go there and get
back to the values this country was founded on. I think often of the word
polluted. We think of it most often in the context of our water or the air or
the oceans and land. Intentional or not we have succeeded in polluting our
world and to some degree it may not have been avoidable. It’s hard to avoid
waste. But when it comes to our values and our character it is avoidable and
they too have been polluted.
The French have a saying “Laissez faire.” It means to allow
to do so, without interference. There are some things where to much
interference is not good and government interference comes to mind. But as
highly evolved as we are, to allow everyone to just run amok, would be a
disaster. Hence we have a constitution and a bill of rights. What has happened
however is their original intent has been watered down and misinterpreted and
litigated to pieces and they no longer even resemble what they were meant to be
and we call that freedoms. Were they perfect to start with? No. But when
freedom of the press is construed to mean immoral pictures and writings with no
redeeming social value what so ever. When freedom to bear arms means everyone
can have assault rifles. When freedom of speech means you can incense people
around the world with your views. That’s not freedoms we should have. They only
satisfy people who are out to make trouble for someone else. To that college
student who wants us to die and get out of the way so he can change the world.
Be careful what you wish for my friend. We weren’t and look what it got us.
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