An old duffer speaks

I feel so fortunate to have been born in 1941.  I know you may consider me an old duffer beyond my prime but let me tell you what I really am;  For one thing I was raised to be a patriot and grew up in a time when the people ran the country, not an elite bunch professional buffoons.  I was raised to understand that no one owed me anything, that I would have to earn my own way in life.  I was never in a position to go on to a higher education, a fact that probably allowed me to develop my own philosophy and not that of some elitist professor.   I got married at 18 to a girl that I pledged to spend my life with and enlisted in the military, we are still together 54 happy years later.  Marriage wasn’t on a trial basis back then it was a commitment to your spouse and made before God.  I can’t say I missed much by not going to college as I have had a very successful career mostly because of the values ingrained in me from childhood.  I have always felt that you can be anything you want to be as long as you have the right attitude and work ethic. I’ve noticed today that many people are more interested in what’s in it for them when looking for work rather than the attitude of old, where we actually tried to bring something of value to the company.  You can see the same thing in how people live their lives, many put in just enough to get by and take advantage of every entitlement offered often cheating to do so.  Others build their lives around personal pride and do everything in their power to find new and innovative ways to bring honor to their position. 

I have lived long enough to see God removed from almost every aspect of our lives and strangely as his absence increased so have the values of this society and the strength of our union diminished.  The Utopian promise of the leftist progressive movement of everything from never suffering anguish or having to understand what losing feels like has left this country weaker and susceptible to a population of takers rather than the doers I grew up with.  Sporting events for children where they are taught that no one loses if you don’t keep score and the lack of family unity that comes from the failure to discipline because it may cause later trauma in the child.  Ask yourself who are the children of today’s heroes, who do they look up to and who do they want to emulate?    

Political correctness is just another way to gloss over life’s challenges so we don’t have to face the agony of normal life experiences.  A person advocates the destruction of America and I can’t call him a terrorist as it might hurt his feelings.  The fact that the terror wrought on the world by radical Muslims is growing right here inside our country, being preached in Mosques all across the land and protected by the political correctness that says we cannot profile those who would do us harm.  This in my mind has turned us into a nation of spoiled, entitled weaklings who could never have survive things like the Great Depression or even World War I or II.  America’s best days may have died with many of the last generation.  Our fervent hope is that out of the mess that is to come, leaders of the caliber of our forefathers will emerge and be charismatic enough to lead our children and grand children to build a new and stronger nation, one that understands and teaches personal responsibility and a respect for our gloried history.  Our forefathers mortared the bricks of this nation with their belief in God and just as quickly we have allowed a just a few to destroy its very foundation. 

Whether you believe in the hereafter or you are an agnostic you must admit that removing the fear of God and the basic rules of life taught by his teachings has diminished the moral fiber of the nation and left a void that is being filled by drugs, violence and lack of hope.