Mean minded: evil, narcissistic, me first mentality. I used this term, mean mindedness, to describe what I felt was an epidemic of thinking in our country that is denying what is best about us and pushing us in a strange direction that I find dangerous. I feel compelled to share this, not to justify myself, but to simply say that I am the child of parents who lived through the great Depression, and I am the grandchild of immigrants who came to America to escape a combination of poverty, hatred, bigotry, pogroms, and a world that was closing down against them just because of who their ancestors were and who they were. They worked hard but never once do I remember them ever condemning anyone else for having been helped. I was raised to believe that giving to others was what a person did without asking for thanks or obeisance from the recipient. I was raised to pay the taxes due because that is what you and I were supposed to do in return for all that the country gave us (as a Democracy with public schools, public libraries, opportunities to learn and grow and some modicum of peace and safety although there was plenty of bigotry still to be encountered). Working in the public sector was a way of giving back although none of my immediate family did so. I still do think working in the public sector is a way of giving back to the country. There is a question that is sometimes asked: if you were in a lifeboat and there was only room for two people, who would you save, your mother or your wife. I would like to believe both and I would get in the water. I did my best to save my wife and her mother when the time came. This does not make me better or worse than anyone else. No comparisons are necessary or desired. I just am concerned about where America is going. E Pluribus Unum.............................Peace
Posted on: Wed, 09 Apr 2014 21:34:01 +0000
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