Lost In America

In modern day America, there seems to be a convenient excuse for just about everything. If you're not where you want to be in life, it's easy to simply blame society for not giving you a fair shot. We've seemed to reach a point where most people want everything handed to them. But the fact of the matter is that most people are not born with a silver spoon in their mouth. Therefore, the only way for most of us to succeed is through hard work, dedication and at least some degree of sacrifice. Making excuses is easy. Finding a solution takes effort.

We're living in a world of the scapegoat. If Ted shoots someone, we can't possibly hold Ted responsible  It's much easier to blame the brainless gun. If a child fails a test at school, it couldn't possibly be because the child didn't study. It would be cruel and inhumane to ever suggest such a thing.We need to blame the teacher, textbook, President Bush, etc.

We're often told that failure is not an option. This is simply not true. Failure is always an option. The alternative is success. But it often requires much more work. Unfortunately, for many people, work has become one of those derogatory four-letter words. Ok, so maybe you did put for the effort and still failed. There's nothing necessarily wrong with that. As long as you've learned from the experience, you'll be better prepared next time. It's not how many times you get knocked down, it's how many times you get back up.

We have all heard of the youth sporting events where they no longer keep score. Keeping score would mean that a "winner" would eventually be determined. We can't have that because the losing team might have their feelings hurt. So, we just give each kid a trophy and pretend that everyone is a winner. It sure sounds nice but in reality, we're doing our children a huge disservice.

And something that really amazes me is that we are living in a time where information and knowledge are literally at our fingertips. We should be smarter than ever. But ironically, our overall society seems to be regressing in the knowledge department. Are the kids being born with less mental capacity than they were fifty years ago? I don't think so. But they're certainly more lazy. A-ha......

Also, our priorities seem to have taken a wrong turn somewhere along the way. We have been conditioned to worship the superstar quarterback while ignoring the guy who makes breakthroughs in cancer research. The millionaire who shoots a twenty-foot jump shot at Madison Square Garden is considered more of a hero than the Army private who defends our freedom halfway across the world.

Like other once dominant societies, America appears to be destroying itself from within. We can no longer have open discussions on hot-button topics for fear of being labeled a racist or a bigot. How can we expect to come together as a nation if we can't even have an honest discussion with one another? It used to be "us against the world" but nowadays it's more like "us against each other". Of course, we're not going to agree on everything, but we should at least be able to find a compromise that's mutually acceptable.

Politicians, on both sides of the aisle, are a huge part of the problem. They continuously fan the flames of political dissension  By keeping us at each other's throat, they secure their own positions of power and greed. The more I follow politics, the more that I believe that we are nothing but pawns in the never-ending pissing contests between are so-called leaders. Although many politicians are smart, they really don't care about the people whom they represent. And there lies the problem. I have often wondered if after a fiery debate on Capital Hill, our Congressmen all head over the local watering hole and knock back shots while laughing at all of us.

I used to listen to a lot of the political talk shows. But I have moved away from it for fear of my head exploding. I have recently revisited my CD collection to give my mind a much need vacation. from all of the bullshit. Maybe I won't learn as much, but now that I think about it, perhaps that's not such a bad thing......

kw