9/5/09

Paranoid? I think not!

As a parent/grandparent, I watch with wonder at what is going on in our country and think to myself, who can survive? Yet, I am at peace with the knowledge of Who is in charge.
It wasn't so long ago that our generation (for the purpose of this article "their" means Grandpa Mike/Grandma Alice, "our" means Mike and Vicki and "your" means our children) looked at our parents and thought they were crazy in many ways; they didn't "get" our music, they didn't like our hair, they paid cash, they nosed into our business at school, etc. With age comes wisdom and as we grew older, what we perceived as crazy, turned into admiration, for we saw in our parents a moral compass that helped us eventually figure out who we were and what we wanted.
I know many of your generation think that your parents are sheep who blindly follow. Let me assure you, for most of us, nothing could be further from the truth. We do have our concerns, however, about where this generation is being led and by whom. So your perceptions of "conservative" miss the mark. We are terribly vigilant! We have seen, with our old eyes, what is happening and want to shake your generation and shout, till we are hoarse, "Where does this path lead? Do you see what you are giving up? Who will defend your rights when we of this generation are gone?
The word paranoia now creeps into conversations being held nationwide and young adults are again shaking their heads with the claim that we are paranoid. Again the mark is missed. We are vigilant! And we are sad, so sad, at what we watch unfold because we aren't vigilant enough.
I wish that words like liberal and conservative were gone from politics. I wish that we had elected officials who didn't think their job was more than a temporary position. I wish that we didn't have a nation so indebted to foreign nations that even our great-grandchildren will be dealing with it. I wish that we didn't have poor or hungry. I wish we didn't have homeless. I wish that our education was the best in the world. I wish the sick could be taken care of. That isn't liberal thinking! It's Christlike thinking. The problem is that Christlike people aren't in charge. We are in the latter days as foretold in the BoM.
I love to read, and I love to keep track of politics both world and domestic. I feel I have the intelligence to discern for myself what is praiseworthy and of good report. So, I was especially fascinated by the article I recently read in an LDS based magazine. I thought it important enough to share. Again, it is vigilance that motivates me to share this, not whacko paranoia!

http://www.ldsmag.com/ideas/090903disease.html