CHANGES IN PROGRESS Perhaps too often a favorite a subject which comes to the top when good folks get together, or are forced by circumstances beyond their control is: how much better “things” and “times”used to be than they are now.
Recent floods in the United States have caused countless numbers of people to be transported into locations with other people not of their own choosing. They feel they have been“stranded”in a modern sense - without electricity, without their cars, truck and other means of travel, without oil, gas, grease, goop and goo preparations and a withdrawal phase on being set apart from free-will purchases of food we call “fast”and a possible threat of no food at all. A mixed bunch of humans suddenly found themselves to be in a strange world. Many, no doubt, felt themselves to be alone.
It may be that this will have a long range affect on American styles of living. When things dry out a bit more, maybe those people who write books about what makes people do what we do under stress of any kind will be concocted and we will know why we acted back in 2005.
And, I purposely say “we” because all of us have, are or will be changed because of events which have marked this year as a turning point marking changes in our personalities which will affect how we grow as citizens in a nation grown to a new level of maturity.
Some simple principles need to be re-studied and fitted to the way we live our daily lives - now. We, for instance, have come very close to being unable to speak with each other as equal citizens pledging loyalty and understanding one to the other.
I know that sounds harsh, but think back over you own, personal statements and unsaid judgments made concerning individuals who as elected, chosen, or simply named to be ”leaders” in circumstances which redefine the real nature of such terms. Have your critical views been justified? Only the future can tell us if we have been right or wrong in our decisions.
A.L.M. September 25, 2005 [c366wds]
