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During the 1960s, we started creating our dream
family that we believed would carry on our fine
tradition and be the pride of our lives. We had many
children. Maybe too many. We even adopted children
from all backgrounds, ethnicities, and races.
We
wanted to be good to our children so we rarely said
no when they wanted a toy, some unusual food, to
hang out with other kids of questionable character,
or to go somewhere -- actually anywhere -- when they
felt like it.
At some point during our
children's early and teenage years, they stopped
asking for our permission and started demanding.
They demanded everything. And we overlooked their
rude demanding attitude and simply gave them
everything that they demanded. It mattered little
what they demanded. We gave in to their demands
which included a good education -- or so we thought,
an easy life with vacations, their own cars, and we
paid for their college tuitions. |
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When they finished college, we made arrangements for
each of our children to live in their own homes. And
we furnished their homes. And we bought each of them
new cars... that they selected. |
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We
gave them America. We handed them the America that
had been built and made safe and secure by millions
of Americans who struggled, fought, and died to make
America the greatest place ever. We set our kids up
in the most peaceful, productive, comfortable, and
safe nation that ever existed in the history of
mankind. |
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Our America was not perfect. How could it be? It was
a product of people, one of the more imperfect
species on earth. But the America we handed to our
children was the best place ever anywhere on earth. |
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Today our children are 20-something to 40-something,
and have grown physically. Some are tall, some
short, some fat, some thin. Some have married and
created their own little monsters. |
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Our children have come to look very different from
each other and from the way that we looked when we
were their ages. Our children have every color of
skin, every sort of face, every imaginable body
shape, and speak varieties of languages. |
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Our children appear to have no regard for how clean
and well groomed they are. More accurately, they
appear to go out of their way to look dirty and
unkempt, wearing ripped clothes and usually not
wearing shoes, but instead, thongs. But they call
them flip-flops. (We cannot figure out why our kids
don't appreciate the comfort and luxury of fine
leather shoes. But to wear plastic shoes must carry
some honor these days among their peers.) |
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We
and our neighbors, who also have raised (too many)
children, wonder about something. We cannot
understand why it is that our children are demanding
grander entitlements nowadays. |
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They have so much more than we had when we were
their ages. They have big homes, multiple cars,
plenty of food, toys galore, and, due to
technological innovations, they have had high
salaries and relatively easy jobs. But most
importantly, our kids are free to be whatever they
can be. |
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Yet our children are demanding more stuff, such as
higher wages, more equality, more free food, more
free healthcare. We and our neighbors know that
those things may be earned, but are not the stuff
that our children are entitled to just for having
demanded. |
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Today our children have become expert at doing what
they learned to do decades ago. They demand. They do
not ask politely expecting to not receive, and
knowing they must be grateful if they do receive. |
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And they are demanding the darnedest, most exotic
stuff. For example, they demand world peace. They
demand
higher paying jobs. They demand less work. They
demand global warming be stopped... or global
cooling be started, yet they demand that their
electricity continue flowing at our amazingly low
rates. They demand no oil drilling here or there,
yet they want their oil products and by products. They
demand more and more. |
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We
and our neighbors have observed one thing about most
of our kids. That is that the more they receive,
the more they demand. The more they receive, the
more greedy they become. They are never satisfied
with what they have been given. Is it because most
of what they have been given was received as if they
were entitled to it? |
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We
and our neighbors know a few things about most of
our kids. They are going to have to fail before they
understand that they have already been given more
social status, more comforts, and higher wages than
they deserve. Our children are going to have to
suffer some pain and discomfort before they realize
that they must work, prove themselves worthy through
competitive successes, and persevere before they are
elevated any further. |
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The funny thing that we and our neighbors have
noticed is that many of our children and their
friends are actually older than we are. Yes, our
children, who have remained juveniles well into
their 30s, 40s, and 50s, have actually converted
many older people who were reasonably satisfied into
believing that they too are entitled to much more
without working for it. |
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We
wonder what sort of calamity, catastrophe, tragedy,
or unexpected horrific event will be needed to
awaken all of these perpetual juveniles to the
realization that stuff is not free and they are not
entitled to anything other than their individual
rights. |
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Whatever it is, it is sure to be a painful surprise
for our children... our perpetual juveniles, when
they finally realize that we have no more to give
and America has no more to give no matter how
entitled our perpetual juveniles consider
themselves. |
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