Yearend Rant

America’s reputation for tough individualism is undergoing an evolution that’s becoming terribly worrisome if we are to survive as a nation. We are becoming spineless, soft and whiny to a degree I would never have predicted.

Every time there is a tragedy of some kind, the first thing you see is a perfectly coifed television reporter on the scene asking how the family, friends, or survivors “feel” about what happened. Instead of telling the idiot what he can do with the microphone, they sob and whine about how they are victims, and somebody in government should do something about it so they can find “closure”. Before the days of television, those people would have cried in private, dug in their heels and with the help of close friends, they would have worked around the tragedy.

Recently, a high school football star in a neighboring town was killed in a car accident. The next day the entire school shut down, a team of counselors rushed to the scene, and prayer and candle light vigils became the order of the day. Pictures of students hanging on each other and bawling, graced the front page of the local newspapers. Stacks of flowers, ribbons, cards, and teddy bears, littered the accident site. Yes, the loss of a young life is terribly sad, but really, what did such a display accomplish? All it did was condone and reward displays of weakness.

When I was a senior in high school, a sophomore was killed in a car accident and a freshman was crippled for life. This was in a high school with a total population of less than 150. Call our parents and teachers brutal and uncaring, but not a single class was delayed or cancelled, and only those involved in the funeral received unexcused absences on that day. There was no such thing as a counselor and we all dealt with the tragedy in our own way, as we were expected to do.

Ho Chi Minh said that America was a paper tiger, that we didn’t have the stomach to fight a protracted war, and that we would eventually tire and run. He was right. Vietnam is now a communist country, and over 50,000 of our finest died in vain.

Osama Bin Laden also said that our will is weak and that we can’t stand up to worldwide jihad. The election of Obama as a peace candidate was a sign sent to the world that Bin Laden will also be proven correct.

Americans need a serious helping of spinal stiffening...and that's especially true of our politicians.