54 lines
2.6 KiB
Plaintext
54 lines
2.6 KiB
Plaintext
|
|
|
|
-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=
|
|
AWAKENINGS: Past Imperfect
|
|
by Dave Bealer
|
|
=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-
|
|
|
|
|
|
Americans have become a bunch of damned whiners. Worse yet, a
|
|
bunch of damned whiners living in the past. Everyone is too busy
|
|
reminiscing about the "good old days," or gnashing their teeth over
|
|
injustices committed against relatives a few dozen times removed, to
|
|
actually do anything about today or plan for tomorrow.
|
|
|
|
It's getting as bad as the Middle East or Northern Ireland.
|
|
Many Americans refuse to live in the present or live for the future.
|
|
They're too busy trying to reclaim something from their past,
|
|
something they miss. They go to any expense or any length, up to and
|
|
including throwing a temper tantrum (the American adult version of
|
|
which usually involves mass murder), to get what they want . . . what
|
|
they can never again have.
|
|
|
|
Although Americans have taken to wearing their inner children
|
|
on their sleeves, they have found something that will console them
|
|
-- money. A woman who spilled a cup of McDonald's coffee on herself
|
|
recently won a judgment of over $2 million from an American jury to
|
|
compensate her for the "pain and suffering" caused by the self-
|
|
inflicted burns. Why would twelve people reward such a ludicrous
|
|
claim? One clue is that eight of them spilled various high-temperature
|
|
liquids on themselves the next day and are now suing the major
|
|
corporations that produced the liquids (liquids like coffee and hot
|
|
chocolate that nobody will buy unless they're hot).
|
|
|
|
Nowhere is it written, except in some Dream World, that life
|
|
has to be fair. The Bible doesn't say that, neither does the U.S.
|
|
Constitution. Both these documents contain important, powerful ideas
|
|
-- that are misquoted and misinterpreted constantly by those who wish
|
|
to impose their will on other people. Getting rid of all the guns,
|
|
nuclear power plants, abortions, drugs, alcohol, bad language and
|
|
tobacco won't make life fair either; boring, but not fair. The
|
|
Eagles may have said it best in their recent song "Get Over It":
|
|
"The Big Bad World doesn't owe you a thing."
|
|
|
|
The worst "Fair"ey Tale of all is that enough big government
|
|
will allow everyone to "live happily ever after." Government has
|
|
never been able to do that, and never will. The happiness of people
|
|
comes from people, not from government. If each of us tries to
|
|
improve our little piece of the world, we just might wake up one day
|
|
to find the world really is a worthwhile place to live.
|
|
|
|
{DREAM}
|
|
{FIN}
|
|
|