It's not my father's world anymore (standard:humor, 913 words)
Author: Godspenman	Added: Jun 11 2012	Views/Reads: 2527/1716	Story vote: 0.00 (0 votes)
Celebrating another Father's Day without my father I cannot help thinking how much has changed since he died. If he were to return today, he would find things quite different.

Celebrating another Father's Day without my father I cannot help
thinking how much has changed since he died. If he were to return 
today, he would find things quite different. 

In all reality, this is not my father's world anymore. 

I might just as well say it. This is not my father's country anymore,
either. 

The country my father loves seems to have all but disappeared. During
his time, a deep-seated patriotic pride permeated throughout our 
country. We were proud of what our forefathers had accomplished and we 
were willing to die to preserve that heritage. 

Today, it seems the past is simply the past and has no bearing
whatsoever on the present. This may be why history books are being 
rewritten today. This, however, is a fallacy encouraged by those who do 
not know the right hand from their left hand. In our country today, you 
are either far right or far left and nothing in between. Whatever 
happened to people with common sense? 

Perhaps that ancient anonymous philosopher was right when he said the
problem with common sense was that it really was not that common 
anymore. Perhaps the demise of the common man explains this phenomenon. 
Or it could be that most people today have been educated be on their 
common sensibilities. 

There was a time in my father's country when people were proud of what
they did. A few tried to get money without working for it. In my 
father's country, there was a great deal of pride in working for what 
you had and not depending upon somebody with a handout. In my father's 
country, there was a deep sense of accomplishment in earning what you 
had by the sweat of your brow. 

The only people sweating these days are politicians up for reelection. 

In my father's country, there was no such thing as arbitrary handouts
but plenty of hands out. It was considered our patriotic duty to help 
our neighbor when they were in trouble. Nobody looked to Uncle Sam to 
solve his or her problems. It was a community affair not a government 
mandate. In fact, if the truth were known, and an evidently it is not, 
they stayed as far away from Uncle Sam as possible only communicating 
with him once a year on April 15. 

In those days, they saluted the flag, recited the Pledge of Allegiance
and were right proud to do so. Not one of them could imagine anybody 
ashamed of doing that in public. 

Today a lot is being said about the separation of church and state. My
father would not understand the way some people are interpreting it. 
According to what is going on today they are trying to keep the church 
out of the state but make good and sure, the state runs the church. 
Isn't that why we had a revolution in the first place? 

In my father's country, there was a separation between government
control and people pursuing life, liberty and happiness. Oh, for those 
good old days. 

Also, in my father's country baseball was a national sport not a
business. I am not quite sure when it became a business but my father 
never thought it was. He often took me to the ball field on a Saturday 
afternoon to have fun, enjoy the game and eat the world's most 
delicious hotdog. At least he said they were the world's most delicious 
hotdogs. 

Our purpose in going was just to have fun. He did his share of making
fun and harassing the other team's fans but it never crossed his mind 
to physically beat one of them nearly to death. If I remember 
correctly, wedgies were the order of the day. 

When our team won we celebrated and high-fived everybody around us. When
our team lost, we determined with everything within us to slaughter 
them the next week on the field. When we said "slaughter," we were 
talking figuratively. 



Click here to read the rest of this story (26 more lines)