THOUGHTS KEEP RUNNING THROUGH MY HEAD

There are still many of us around who remember the “olden days”, when few thought much about how many children a family should have. For one thing, it has only been a little over a century since Man abandoned the Ages of manual and animal labor, and dove headlong into the debauchery of living lives made easy by technology.

The worst part is that this age of physical ease has also led to varying degrees of personal greed, best expressed through the lives of some of the Very Rich, but also added to the Wish Lists of those farther down the financial hill.

And—if you can wander down the wandering mental path of an old shut-in—I must explain that what I am about to write came to my mind several days ahead of what I just wrote above.

First, Americans keep bragging to the rest of the world that this is the Land of the Free. Just exactly which Americans are free? Let’s accept the notion that we live in a white nation. (I wonder just what percentage of the Indians—many of whom still live on reservations—think of this as an apt description.)

Next, the black population: Almost without exception, the blacks who live here now are descended from blacks who came here in chains. I’ll bet they have a different view of what “freedom” means—even now!

And let’s not forget the latest problem most annoying to white Americans right now—the Hispanics. To review our national history a bit, our white forebears had to sail—do you get that—actually SAIL all the way across the Atlantic Ocean, and then fight off and kill a lot of the people who already lived here in order to bring OUR children here to the land which (probably someone decided) God had said should be OURS. And now—can you believe it?!—we have Mexicans, albeit many friendly, coming across a different border to Our Country looking for jobs and homes and futures for their children as well?!

Which leads us, in turn, to the caste system this country presently enjoys. We like to think of ourselves as living in a land of freedom for everyone to climb a number of—but not all—ladders of choice. The most popular are those which require Wealth, Family Name, Connections, and Just-Plain-Luck. They don’t require too much work. In almost all cases, if you got it, you get it; if you don’t, you won’t.

The most valuable and meaningful ladders are those which require a great deal of time and effort in any available education and/or opportunity which can be seen as goals of service (large or small) to others.

Why is it that, by the luck of birth, some of us are entitled to lives of comfort—and even wealth, while many others are condemned to lives spent in meaningless, often difficult jobs, unrewarded by salaries that make them worth doing; and even worse, jobs which do not even reward them with self-respect? And to make matters worse, that is the only inheritance many have to pass on down to their children. (Improvements in their lives are beginning to take place now, but they are a long way off.)

Listening to discussions right now on the matter of unemployment, the anwer which both sides seem to agree upon, apparently rests on increased jobs. BUT, how can you solve it when we have increased population completely ignored on one hand, and reduced jobs on the other, due to enormous advances in humanless technology on the other?!

As a hardrock Atheist, it amazes me that so few Christians living in what they like to proclaim as a Christian Nation, apparently have given any serious thought to the moral and eithical sins of our national way of life.

And I close with the conundrum to beat all concundrums: How can you add another drop of water to a one-cup measuring cup which is already full? The answer is, You Can’t.

Neither Man, nor any other organism can spread itself beyond the spatial or nurturing bounds of the Earth without very possibly precipitating the End for All. And I would go beyond this to realize that, MORALLY, this probably should apply to Outer Space as well.

ARW
12/12/10