It has been a privilege to live in a wonderful country like ours. We have struggled for our way of life, from our pioneering forefathers to today’s technological wonders. Our pioneers built their world by hard work, dedication, helping each other and struggling to survive. They were a people who were proud of what they had done.
As the country grew and prospered we seemed to forget some of their ideals. The more prosperous we became the more our aims changed from “survival” to “how can I get more for me?” With this philosophy we forgot the basics of survival and our striving became directed toward looking out for ourselves. And that is how we are now raising our children.
Have we lost our way?
It is an honest question because we see more and more of politics without principles, wealth without working for it (greed and law-breaking), business without morality and pleasure seeking without seeing the consequences of our actions.
As an example, a long time ago industry was abusing its workers, so unions were formed. They successfully helped the workers. Then they began looking for more – how could they get more money from their employer?
Politicians found that their power was based on how many civil service workers they controlled, so they added to their payroll, passed more laws to justify the increase, and built a bureaucracy that ultimately hinders the ability to accomplish anything because of the multiplicity of rules they developed. Today, our inability to deal with our own problems is largely the result of a gigantic bureaucracy.
This problem extends to our legal system. There are millions of laws that are impossible to administer. How can any judge or official know which one of the many laws should be enforced? And yet, our legislatures continue to pass hundreds of laws that require hundreds of people to administer in a legal atmosphere that is already strangling our country.
There are areas of poverty because children are born without fathers and grow up in gangs without necessary morals. Fatherless children are a major problem for our safety and law enforcement. We have also rewarded our business leaders with fantastic salaries and sports idols are given so much money that they can’t even spend it.
As a result, we as a nation are aggressive, less polite in our actions, less forgiving, continually striving for divisiveness rather than working together, and our news media strive to look for any “wrong” and overlooks the “right” in their reporting.
Have we lost our way? We still have within us the necessary qualifications for proper living. We have simply forgotten some of the basic rules of life: raise your children (and adults) to understand that they must earn money, not just ask for it. Don’t ask for help with a task until you are absolutely sure that you cannot do it by yourself.
Each of us must do what he must do to solve our own problems. If you see a problem and do nothing to help fix it, you then are a part of the problem. You are here for a reason – it is up to you to work hard to justify the reason for your existence. Everyone is a castle and he stands or falls based on his own actions. Produce and be proud of what you have done!
Paul Minneman, 79, is a retired engineer and lives in Everett.
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