Humpday Happenings...

Welcome to Wednesday, where here in Fort Wayne, you never know WHICH Walgreen's that schizophrenic 6-foot tall black guy will show up out front of, and want to talk to you loudly as he waves his hands around.
I kid you not, I heard a call describing such a person on the radio for JUST THAT before 0800 hrs. Some DO start early in this city.
Weather today will consist of rain...don't know when it's supposed to start, how long it will last, or how much we'll get...
Right now, it's cloudy with temps in the 60s...and that's where they'll remain.
In other words, it's one of THOSE mornings where you have to seriously consider is it even worth getting UP?
Whatever the case, time waits for no one, so let's get busy...
*** First out the door today is our Motto of the Week aka WHO SAID THAT?
"If we could sell our experience for what they cost us, we'd all be millionaires."
Now, if THAT isn't the truth, I don't know WHAT is.
The answer will be at the top of tomorrow's post.
Meanwhile, back in the doldrums...
*** Like I said at the start today, this is one of THOSE mornings.

I'm feeling a tad on the philosophical side, so hang in there.
-- It's like life is smacking you on the back of the head wanting you to take some time off, but you know you can't.
There are too many and so many things that need attention, and you just KNOW if you turn away, something will occur because of your INattention.
My parents impressed upon me the fact that life wasn't going to be "easy", unless you find a way to make it that way (which is damn near impossible).
They told me life would be full of ups, downs, yays, nays, successes and failures...and lots of other things that would challenge me and teach me...if I paid attention.
And boy, were they RIGHT there.
Now, I don't measure any success by sheer monetary gain...that would be stupid. You could have millions of dollars laid at your feet, but if you don't have a freaking clue as to how BEST to spend it, or, to put it in better context, how to USE it properly (like any tool in the workshop), it will wind up HURTING you.
And perhaps that's why God has seen fit to not allow me the chance to "hurt myself" in that regard.
I'm not bitter over that, nor should I be...although I will always argue that riches COULD make any misery a lot more easy to take...LOL.
So, you do the best you can with what God gives you and move on...
That seems reasonable enough...for most people, and it's proven itself over time to be the best way to evolve as a species.

But there are those that have become "at ease" with not having to participate in much of life, rather taking what they can from who they can and wasting whatever opportunity they may be given.
Such people are never expected to work (or participate) for much, and thereby never come to APPRECIATE what they both have and can acquire as a result of such endeavors. That's a far cry from a few decades ago, when so many MORE of us were a lot more self-reliant, and apparently a lot more WILLING to undertake life's challenges to further ourselves.
There does come a time when, if people are GIVEN things instead of expecting them to work for it, they will come to EXPECT more things, challenging (read demanding) others to do FOR them, rather than doing for themselves.
That's a nasty habit to consider, let alone embrace.

Life is meant to be a "give and take" proposition...in MANY regards.
It's NOT meant to be a "take what you can and put nothing back" scenario.
We can debate the specifics and circumstances of such things until the cows come home, and we might begin to scratch the surface of why this happens with some people and not with others.
Sooner or later, those that only TAKE from others in life will run of other people's money and stuff TO take...and that's because those that have given (or have been taken from) will soon need help making their OWN ends meet, creating a greater mass of folks without the resources to survive, let alone succeed.
If this all sounds vaguely familiar, it's the modern welfare and entitlement system.

This is a far cry from the initial concepts and implementations.

Nearly 50% of ALL Americans are receiving SOME form of government assistance,and that's just plain WRONG.

When did we start looking to an ever-growing government to take care of us, when we used to be SO much more self-sufficient and self-reliant?

We've given over the job WE used to do for ourselves to a bunch of legislators, who have NO idea how to perform the tasks we're suggesting they perform.
The job of the government is to protect the nation AND her people, and that sure doesn't sound like handing out free stuff for people who don't feel the need to participate in self actualizing or shoulder a bit of hard work to get those same things.

The only aspect of "self" many of these freeloaders WILL take on is self-indulgence...and usually at a cost to other people in money, time, resources, or even life itself.
Now, I really don't mean to get to preaching here, but all of you HAVE to see the same things I've been noticing, and are wondering WTH is going on in the world's most prosperous nation..and to that, we are not at the top of that heap any longer, because of the way things have been going here.

I wish I had the answer as to how best to resolve this trend, and reverse it back to when we called upon our OWN inner strength and knowledge and wisdom to do what was right...and to also seek out knowledge and wisdom in order to take advantage of opportunity, rather than shy away from it.
The easy way out of this is to blame the economy...or something similar, but I pose to you that Americans pulled through in worse times than this, and came out better for it. But we had ONE thing in our favor then...a much better attitude.
Moral and civil decline is growing in this nation, and I believe (as do many others) that THIS is at the root of the problems we're facing.

*** Bill O'Reilly spoke to this last evening, and I couldn't agree more.
He compared the 50s and 60s with TODAY, and asked "Are we better NOW...or then?"
We had LOWER unemployment rates in those days, higher school dropout rates (but more graduating), a higher poverty rate back then, per capita income was $17.6K (adj for inflation) while today it's $43K and change. Only FIVE PERCENT of births were out of wedlock in 1959 - today it's a whopping 41 PERCENT!
Drug use was rare, but the alcoholism rate is about the SAME as today.
And, in the 50s and 60s, we had a much greater respect for cops, teachers, clerics and yes...even parents and for one another.

The BEHAVIOR was the key issue...we had much BETTER behavior and standards we followed.

O'Reilly says today's mantra is: "Where's mine?"

On the whole, we did a much better job of "policing" ourselves back THEN, than we do today.
Granted, blacks had it rough in those days, but we've made profound ADVANCES in civil rights....thing is, what have many of the blacks DONE with it?
Well, those who motivated themselves to do something...DID, and succeeded brilliantly, while many others...you guessed it...just put their hands OUT, and the government answered that call, so now we have not TRUE equality, but some people becoming more "equal" than others.
Class warfare, chided along by progressive agendas and liberal rhetoric...it's like trading one form of slavery for another.
That also is very wrong.
We need to really wake up, take a look around us and see what's being done to America and her people.
Yeah, it might be one of "those" mornings, but to an ever-growing number of us, EVERY morning is starting to look like this.
That's one rut NONE of us need to be in.

Be well, make a difference to someone, and...
Stay SAFE out there, America