This shameful AGE OF ENTITLEMENT

Webster’s Unabridged Dictionary defines ENTITLE as …”to give a right, to demand or receive...as in ‘his labor entitles him to his wages’ .” That makes sense to me ...you work for a living and you get paid accordingly.

But that’s not what I’m hearing today. More often than not it means that someone has the belief that he/she is deserving of some particular reward or gift...regardless of the fact that they have done nothing to deserve it. This philosophy seems to be running rampant through the thread of our society in the United States and I’m afraid that it will be our undoing.

How many of you remember the thrill that it gave to our generation when President Kennedy asked us to “think not what your country can give to you; but, what you can give to your country.”? Granted, it was idealistic, but it was also uplifting and it brought our nation together.

Compare that feeling to what we have today. We have a mind set that seems to be “the world owes me a living and I want it now and I want it big.” Where, in all this, is the humility to realize that our lives are a gift? Where is the gratitude?

I can only speak from the American viewpoint; but, I’ll bet that the rest of the world is disgusted with our concentration on affluence and consumerism. And, while I’m at it, what gives us the colossal gall to tell anyone else how to live?

I can’t help but wonder where we would be today if we had taken the trillions of dollars that have been wasted in Iraq and offered even a small percentage of it for peaceful means instead? In 2001 we were still a nation with international friends. Today we are held in contempt by a large majority.

I am ashamed that we allowed ourselves to get here and I fear that if we don’t change as a nation we will bear the consequences. I pray that it’s not too late.