QUIZ TIME
We should, from time to time, ask ourselves some questions.
Many such inquiries, honestly asked and honestly answered, can help us find out what might be causing troublesome family relationships, social affairs and even our good health and well-being.
Right now, perhaps, we should be be doing just that as a nation. No nation made up of such varied groups as ours is, can ever be totally at one in most things. There are sure to be differences. Some may seem to be serious and some will appear to be silly, but they do, and will, exist. Questions put to the right people at the right time can be calming as oil can be on troubled waters.
We watch TV shows which present a host of questions which lead to what we might call a worthy goal - such as prizes up to, and including a million dollars or more.
Among the many questions we might well be asking ourselves, would be one which asks if we truly understand and appreciate the form of government under which we live. So many – far too many – people, it seems, are unaware of the values of our form of government. Unfortunately they often openly deride it . We need to remind ourselves, through questions about our national history concerning how it all came to be what it is ... a fantastic mechanism which has brought together, sustained and caused to prosper and to unify in many way one of the most polyglot collections of varied peoples the world has ever known.
We should remind ourselves of the need for personal and corporate integrity. We must question the standards by which live and realize that some our larger problems may not be as dangerous as some other, smaller evils; of ways and means to show how compassion and understanding might best be expressed. We might ask some questions about the proper ways an means of earning a good living in the real world. We might ask about how we can help resolve social, health and economic problems - not only ours, but of others as well.
Often, when you are with someone watching contestants answer Alex Trebec's reversed questions and answers on “Jeopardy” you may feel inadequate; you may judge your abilities too severely. You may be smarter than you think. You judge yourself on all of the proper replies, but , in order to win, you would need to know only one-third of the answers.
It can be the a quiz about our nation. You don't have to know all the answers, just one-third of them. The worth of it all depends on which ones you know rather than on how many.
A.L.M. November 21, 2003 [c457wds]
