A Blend of the Old and the New
Thoughts from January 20th:
Today was Inauguration Day, when President Obama was sworn in as the 44th President of the United States. The first president of African-American descent, of this country.
His speech was amazing. He is such an eloquent speaker. He spoke of the concept of service, and sacrifice, and enduring hardships as our ancestors did. How we in the modern world have become complacent. That well enough is not good enough. It’s time to get back to respect and integrity. Living by a creed and not just by happenstance. Working hard. Nothing wrong with working hard and meeting our responsibilities. Doing what needs to be done. Happily! No complaining. No giving in to laziness. Let’s give up our extended adolescence, at long last. It’s time to grow up and be worthy of our ancestors’ respect. The President said how our ancestors, in the Revolutionary War, the Civil War, fighting for civil rights, enduring the Depression, and every other period in history, went through unimaginable hardships, and came through stronger than they were. They were heroes, role models, mentors for us, their descendants, their namesakes. They lived through winters and summers without temperature control at the flick of a switch, through all degrees of poverty, through inhumane work conditions, through deprivation of rights, through wars, through disease, growing their own food, making their own clothes, fixing things that broke down. And we have hissy fits over the fact that we don’t have the latest iPod or Blackberry, or if we have to wait longer than five minutes for ANYTHING. How spoiled and ridiculous are we? Such diaper babies we have been...
It’s time to grow up and take care of others. Take stock of what is significant in the big picture. Make this world a better place. Be self-disciplined. Take only what we need, save the rest for the others. Be of service and volunteer, using our natural talents. Teach others to read, to balance their checkbooks, to budget their money and not spend beyond their means, to shop frugally, to build a resume, to write in a grammatically-correct way, to communicate effectively, to play an instrument, to build others up. Be lifts to the community, not weights dragging it down. Be true human beings.
This is what we teach our young ’uns, so they grow up thinking of others and not only of just themselves.
We are MORE than just the “Me Generation”. Oh yes, we CAN overcome.
Today was Inauguration Day, when President Obama was sworn in as the 44th President of the United States. The first president of African-American descent, of this country.
His speech was amazing. He is such an eloquent speaker. He spoke of the concept of service, and sacrifice, and enduring hardships as our ancestors did. How we in the modern world have become complacent. That well enough is not good enough. It’s time to get back to respect and integrity. Living by a creed and not just by happenstance. Working hard. Nothing wrong with working hard and meeting our responsibilities. Doing what needs to be done. Happily! No complaining. No giving in to laziness. Let’s give up our extended adolescence, at long last. It’s time to grow up and be worthy of our ancestors’ respect. The President said how our ancestors, in the Revolutionary War, the Civil War, fighting for civil rights, enduring the Depression, and every other period in history, went through unimaginable hardships, and came through stronger than they were. They were heroes, role models, mentors for us, their descendants, their namesakes. They lived through winters and summers without temperature control at the flick of a switch, through all degrees of poverty, through inhumane work conditions, through deprivation of rights, through wars, through disease, growing their own food, making their own clothes, fixing things that broke down. And we have hissy fits over the fact that we don’t have the latest iPod or Blackberry, or if we have to wait longer than five minutes for ANYTHING. How spoiled and ridiculous are we? Such diaper babies we have been...
It’s time to grow up and take care of others. Take stock of what is significant in the big picture. Make this world a better place. Be self-disciplined. Take only what we need, save the rest for the others. Be of service and volunteer, using our natural talents. Teach others to read, to balance their checkbooks, to budget their money and not spend beyond their means, to shop frugally, to build a resume, to write in a grammatically-correct way, to communicate effectively, to play an instrument, to build others up. Be lifts to the community, not weights dragging it down. Be true human beings.
This is what we teach our young ’uns, so they grow up thinking of others and not only of just themselves.
We are MORE than just the “Me Generation”. Oh yes, we CAN overcome.
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