Maybe if you take it to an extreme you could make the case that because of the inherent danger in compacts and sub-compact cars, parents could be guilty of child neglect and child endangerment for putting their kids in one of those vehicles. I know you wont catch my kids in a Smart Car, heck after eyeballing it you could put a Smart Car in the rear of my Escalade and STILL have room for luggage.. You wont catch my family in a Mini Cooper, I will not drive what I consider the ugliest car ever made (Nissan Cube) and I like Nissan's. I will drive what I find comfortable and what I enjoy and if it costs me a little more to drive it because of poorer gas economy, so be it. At least I know my children will be safe and I will have a better chance of surviving an accident if I was unfortunate enough to be in one.
But I digress. I look back at my upbringing and in the times I grew up. I can remember walking home from school when i was in Kindergarten. (I remember this explicitly because my best friends at the time, Mark & Jeff were with me when we found a cat that became mine after Mark's dad told him he couldn't have her) . I can remember being out well past dark on the weekends as a young boy. But my friends and I never got into any trouble. It never crossed our minds. We were too busy having fun and going on adventures, exploring the Gallup New Mexico in the late 70's and early 80's. Our moms and dads didnt worry about us. We didnt have a cell phone (they werent even invented yet), but they raised us to be responsible and we didnt want to disappoint them and lose those freedoms. Our parents didnt have to regulate our lives into a mindless routine. Our parents understood that in order for us to learn, we HAD to explore. Today's world is a little different I'm afraid. For Halloween, parents used to get together with their kids and make goodies for the neighborhood kids for their bags such as homemade popcorn balls or fake chocolate covered ants (really just rice crispies) and give those out to the trick or treaters, Every home did things just a little bit different. Today, you just cant do that, people are too afraid that you're going to poison someone, and believe me there's someone out there just waiting to sue you because one of those Rice Crispies in the Mississippi mud candies looked suspiciously like a real ant.
Today we worry about whether or not our neighbor is a pedophile (registered or not). Some parts of our great land are in a debate now as whether we are going to honor an admitted pedophile with his own day. My opinion of that is that he's already had his 15 minutes of fame and had a movie where he was played by Mr. Jeff Spicoli himself. We are too busy worrying about what everyone else is doing and less about what we are doing as an individual. Our children are taught about the collective and our leaders and there wives are busy telling us it's about the collective and what we can do for our neighbor and how it takes a village to raise a child. I'd like to disagree; It takes two people to raise a child and on rare occasions, one can do it. Lord knows I wouldnt want the village of Drunk Town USA raising my child.
I'd like to propose a different way of looking at our society. If instead of teaching our children collectivism, if we taught them teamwork and (I'll use my favorite term...) personal responsibility they will be successful. And when one individual succeeds, another is inspired to do as well if not better than the previous and so on. But one person can drag a team down. If one person on that team fails to perform, or works for the opposition then the team suffers. Look at the pro golf tour, we celebrate Tiger Woods as a phenomenal player. Not because he's white, or black, or brown. We celebrate and applaud Tiger because he's a hell of a player that has inspired thousands of young men and women to try and do better.
I'd like to address a little hypocrisy. I find it disturbing that we live in a society that places a professional athlete or media/radio personality on a higher pedestal than others. I find it interesting that we believe that it's okay for Tiger Woods to have an estimated net worth of almost $750 million dollars and has made billions of dollars for Nike and his other sponsors.. It's okay for Michael Jordan to be work $525 million dollars and made billions for his sponsors. It's okay for Bill Cosby to be work $450 million dollars. Oprah Winfrey is worth $2.4 billion, and Rush Limbaugh is worth at least $400 million (if you go by his latest contract alone). But if we have an executive that has worked his tail off from the ground floor, received and education and succeeded in business and made billions or millions of dollars for his employers (be it his direct employers or his/her stock holders) and we want to strip this individual who worked hard to get were they are of what they have. It's not about 'doing whats right' it's about those that have and those that have not. In a collective there is only one class of citizen and the successful provide for those that are not. But our country is not a collective (not yet at least).
We've been told that we must feed the poor, save the children, save the mysterious mouse that lives in some obscure field. We've been told to change the gas our cars run on, limit the amount of gasses that exit our vehicles. We've been told that trans-fats are bad, Omega-3 fatty acids are good. We've been told that ozone is bad, ozone is good, our ozone layer is disappearing, we have too much ozone. We've been told that our plants are dying because of too much ozone and not enough carbon dioxide. We've been told that carbon dioxide is bad for us and causes global warming, but as children we were taught that when the planet has more carbon dioxide our plants grow better and make more oxygen.
We've been told a lot of things in our life. But whats stuck with me is this:
Listen to what you are told. Believe what you may, verify what you must. And decide for yourself what course you want to take in your life. Take the responsibility upon your own shoulders. If you choose to be a leader, then lead. If you choose to express yourself, express yourself. Moderation does not just apply to alcohol. Sometimes when you moderate your own mouth and let your brain process a thought before blurting it out is the key. It sure helps to prevent a sad case of cranial rectal inversion. Don't think that I want you to believe what I say with blinders on. If you're reading this you obviously made a choice to continue to this point. I'm not a writer, I did poorly at best at English in school. But what I have is what I believe to be a connection with many people and few at the same time. More than likely you don't know me, or know of me. But I'd like to believe that i can touch at least one or more of you with a though that spawns another.
People, we are too happy to allow too many decisions to be made for us. Not by those that care. Not by those that even know our circumstances. But people who assume that because you live in a certain area you have certain needs. Some of us choose to live below our means. Some of us choose to live above our means. Everyone has their reason. Some better than others. But mine is as simple as this.
Every decision I've made over the past six years has been considering first one, then another child and how I can make their lives better NEXT year. I pray to God that one day I can be independant and be my own boss. But until we get out of a mode that punishes and taxes success and encourages sloth and fraud, we will never again be the Nation that my daddy was so proud of and his daddy was so proud of. I had a glimpse of it once, we had a shining star in the 1980's that brought and end to a cold war. But now, dont be fooled, Our country is much like a patient. Our country is having an identity crisis. And no matter what if ONE side or the other wins, we all are going to lose something.
I'd like to propose a different way of looking at our society. If instead of teaching our children collectivism, if we taught them teamwork and (I'll use my favorite term...) personal responsibility they will be successful. And when one individual succeeds, another is inspired to do as well if not better than the previous and so on. But one person can drag a team down. If one person on that team fails to perform, or works for the opposition then the team suffers. Look at the pro golf tour, we celebrate Tiger Woods as a phenomenal player. Not because he's white, or black, or brown. We celebrate and applaud Tiger because he's a hell of a player that has inspired thousands of young men and women to try and do better.
I'd like to address a little hypocrisy. I find it disturbing that we live in a society that places a professional athlete or media/radio personality on a higher pedestal than others. I find it interesting that we believe that it's okay for Tiger Woods to have an estimated net worth of almost $750 million dollars and has made billions of dollars for Nike and his other sponsors.. It's okay for Michael Jordan to be work $525 million dollars and made billions for his sponsors. It's okay for Bill Cosby to be work $450 million dollars. Oprah Winfrey is worth $2.4 billion, and Rush Limbaugh is worth at least $400 million (if you go by his latest contract alone). But if we have an executive that has worked his tail off from the ground floor, received and education and succeeded in business and made billions or millions of dollars for his employers (be it his direct employers or his/her stock holders) and we want to strip this individual who worked hard to get were they are of what they have. It's not about 'doing whats right' it's about those that have and those that have not. In a collective there is only one class of citizen and the successful provide for those that are not. But our country is not a collective (not yet at least).
We've been told that we must feed the poor, save the children, save the mysterious mouse that lives in some obscure field. We've been told to change the gas our cars run on, limit the amount of gasses that exit our vehicles. We've been told that trans-fats are bad, Omega-3 fatty acids are good. We've been told that ozone is bad, ozone is good, our ozone layer is disappearing, we have too much ozone. We've been told that our plants are dying because of too much ozone and not enough carbon dioxide. We've been told that carbon dioxide is bad for us and causes global warming, but as children we were taught that when the planet has more carbon dioxide our plants grow better and make more oxygen.
We've been told a lot of things in our life. But whats stuck with me is this:
Listen to what you are told. Believe what you may, verify what you must. And decide for yourself what course you want to take in your life. Take the responsibility upon your own shoulders. If you choose to be a leader, then lead. If you choose to express yourself, express yourself. Moderation does not just apply to alcohol. Sometimes when you moderate your own mouth and let your brain process a thought before blurting it out is the key. It sure helps to prevent a sad case of cranial rectal inversion. Don't think that I want you to believe what I say with blinders on. If you're reading this you obviously made a choice to continue to this point. I'm not a writer, I did poorly at best at English in school. But what I have is what I believe to be a connection with many people and few at the same time. More than likely you don't know me, or know of me. But I'd like to believe that i can touch at least one or more of you with a though that spawns another.
People, we are too happy to allow too many decisions to be made for us. Not by those that care. Not by those that even know our circumstances. But people who assume that because you live in a certain area you have certain needs. Some of us choose to live below our means. Some of us choose to live above our means. Everyone has their reason. Some better than others. But mine is as simple as this.
Every decision I've made over the past six years has been considering first one, then another child and how I can make their lives better NEXT year. I pray to God that one day I can be independant and be my own boss. But until we get out of a mode that punishes and taxes success and encourages sloth and fraud, we will never again be the Nation that my daddy was so proud of and his daddy was so proud of. I had a glimpse of it once, we had a shining star in the 1980's that brought and end to a cold war. But now, dont be fooled, Our country is much like a patient. Our country is having an identity crisis. And no matter what if ONE side or the other wins, we all are going to lose something.
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