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A Society of Victims? After reading the newspaper every morning for most of my adult life, I figured it was time for me to insert my nickel's worth into the various summaries of thought process. I'm so sick and tired of reading all about how everyone is a victim of their circumstances that I believe maybe a vent is in order.
These are ALL real statements from people seeking money from the welfare assistance programs. OK, I'll agree there are some legitimate situations where some of the above scenarios. But darn few. Most of the above statements are made by people too lazy to do anything with their lives, and while I'm a fairly open-mouthed liberal, I also resent having to pay the taxes I pay for the use of people simply living off the dole. We are a society that screams VICTIM any time anything happens to us. So much so that true victims are left out in the cold in many instances. For example, we make it a law that a person can wear anything they wish. Recently a heterosexual man on a dare wore a plastic pair of see-thru pants to a gay event in New York. He was apparently wearing some sort of thong underwear. He was approached by several men. He was not assaulted in any way, but many sexual comments were made to him, making him feel "uncomfortable." By sexual harassment laws, this man is bringing a lawsuit against the organization of the event, because he felt 'uncomfortable' at the event. That's like a member of the KKK bringing a lawsuit against the NAACP because he felt "uncomfortable" wearing his mask at the Million Man March! In Sweden, it is illegal to show shooting and killing on television. Yet they show X-rated movies late at night on some stations. Nudity is part of their world. Sweden has very little violence, and very little sex crime in their country. In America, we 'arrest' 2 year old girls for not wearing a top in the public pool by way of citing their parents for 'indecent exposure.' Hmmm.....last I remember, until about the age of 8, boys and girls look the same above the navel. Do we need laws that allow parents to be given citations/court appearances for allowing their 3 year old daughter to run around topless? Am I crazy, or is this just a bit over the top? I'm not advocating showing nudity on television, or advocating that every parent of a 3 year old allow their child to run around topless, but in truth, aren't we losing sight of the end result here? Perhaps if we legislated a little more against violence and a little less against 3 year olds running around topless, we might decrease the amount of crime we see in America. We make our own stations in life. Life isn't meant to be 'comfortable.' Life is a series of tradeoffs that we make in order to be happy for ourselves, our families, and our social support system. Each one of us could be more financially wealthy if we chose to work harder, probably at the expense of family time and a loving relationship. Each of us could be more productive at the expense of personal relationships with others in the workplace. But where does it become too much? We are a society of people that have been becoming more and more lazy and 'fun-time' oriented with each passing day. The lazier we get, the more likely we are to be taken advantage of. We ask the government to pass laws preventing this and that and the other thing. Yet we scream VICTIM when our freedoms are removed. We set up rules and regulations to govern others, so long as they don't apply to us. Once they do, we scream "VICTIM." We want our cake and eat it too. A friend recently called me in tears. She'd left her child in the car while she ran into the local supermarket to get a couple of necessities. The baby was sleeping, so she left her 5 year old in charge of watching the baby, and told the 45 year old to 'come in the store and get Mommy" if the baby woke up. When 'Mommy' went out to the car, the police were waiting for her, and cited her for leaving the child in the car. She is a good mother, a hard working single mother. She keeps her baby at work with her in a work-provided day care, has as much time as work will permit her to have with the child, and does not date, spend time away from the children, or anything else that might mark her as less than a very excellent mother. Until this. I'm sorry, __________, you messed up. Because of kidnappings, car thefts, heat related deaths of children and pets, and other factors, society has made a law that says you can't leave a child in the car alone for even a moment if you can't see into the car for every second you aren't in it. Had you gone to a 7-11 where there are windows to see out of and see the car through, maybe things would be different. Don't scream VICTIM, just simply explain to the judge that you made an error in what you did, and realize how severe it was. What about the murderer who is merely reacting to his/her upbringing? The rapist who is simply echoing what happened to him/her in childhood? The child abuser who is mimicking his/her parents? Are they truly victims? Or are they products of their own character laziness? I submit they are victims of their own laziness and lack of desire to do something about their improper behavior and actions. There are many things that weren't perfect in my childhood that may be part of my reactions to various stimuli, but I've identified most of them, I hope, and addressed them as shortcomings in my personality, and I've attempted to correct them where possible. Sorry mom, since you wouldn't allow me to eat much chocolate, I now eat 4 Snickers a day, plus 4 bags of peanut M&M's. Of course, this daily exercise makes me fat. Am I a victim of my mother's denial of chocolate and therefore the results are that I'm fat? Or am I just merely defiantly lazy? (in truth, I've cut chocolate mostly out of my diet in the past 2 years) I submit that if people around the country would simply START to take a MINOR amount of responsibility for their actions, they'll find themselves happier in life with fewer problems, and find that their friends are more interested in hearing about their day. Granted, there are experiences beyond our control, but generally speaking, in some form or fashion, whatever happens to us happens because of some action we've taken at some point in our lives. A road chosen, a drug taken, a marriage broken, a child beaten, a yard left to run rampant, a finger at the wrong police officer, whatever. These are all things that lead to some sort of problem that is YOUR OWN FAULT! America, the country of the eagle, country of the free, the brave. Stand up and be American. Otherwise, we're going to continue down this path of ridiculous laws, stupid behaviors, lazy classes, and a general social malaise such as that which England endured under earlier times. Make something 'normal' illegal, and soon everyone is in jail for being normal. If we take responsibility, then we might be able to reclaim some of our freedoms. We lose freedoms when we can't act responsibly. Sound like the lecture you delivered to your teens when they started to drive? Or maybe like the lecture you gave your 8 year old about cleaning his/her room? Good. It's meant to. Now if I can just go out and live up to my words. I promise, I'll clean my room before going to the movies. Otherwise, I may have to ground myself. |