Dear Editor,
I want to share with anyone who will take a moment and read this message, which to some will make them very angry and others, who may take it to heart.
It’s not uncommon to glance at the Facebook posts of some of the children, teens, tweens and young adults and hear the same old adage, “Life sucks. There’s nothing to do. @#%!, I’m bored.”
There is an epidemic this summer that is building and growing out of dissatisfaction, with lives that desire idleness.
There are those who feel like it is their right to curse at the world in their Facebook posts, who’s farthest ambition in life is to go out and get a steady job or even to do housework.
Acting like that is the cruelest thing in the world, to be expected to do something instead of being allowed to go out and party with friends or get high and drunk, to forget that there are things in life that lead to greater rewards.
While some of the young people may seem confused that I would say work leads to greater rewards.
Let me explain.
Right now we are living in a time when we see unemployment at a greater level then ever before.
More people are depending on government just to get by. And while there are many who are not afraid to go out and work for a living.
There are those who feel that they deserve rewards for doing nothing.
They feel that unless they are occupied with leisure, that life is unfair and people owe them.
Even our own president is trying to embed in our heads that some millionaires are far too wealthy and aren’t paying near enough in taxes.
Excuse me, some of those millionaires own businesses that hire many people that are contributing to raising employment rates.
It’s not the government creating jobs.
Instead they want to punish some for being productive while taking away the money they earn by raising taxes to redistribute to those who don’t work in the form of food stamps and entitlements that continue to go to others in foreign aid.
All the while our country is growing into a radically different society than what I grew up in.
There was a time when people were never discontent with what they had, because they would go out, work for it and own it straight out. Almost everyone that I knew would grow a garden in their back yard and share with those who were not able to work because of illness or disabilities, not because they flat out didn’t want to work.
And as I learned over the years, you don’t get wealthy by wishing for things to go your way. Hard work and effort is required.
Nothing is going to come to you for doing nothing.
Don’t hate your parents just because they ask you to take out the trash, do the dishes, mow the lawn, pull weeds, or what other things that they may want you to do.
The fact is that when you get a job you will be asked to do those same jobs that you do at home.
There are youth homes that are full of kids who thought that their leisure time was far more important then to be expected to do housework, all in the name of rebelling and spewing out hatred on a massive scale because it’s not what many kids want, throwing out the commandment of “Honor your mother and father.”
It’s a crying shame that many feel that way, because some day this idle generation of youth will face the same crisis that parents face today.
Young people of Facebook, you can make a difference.
You can get rewards that you never thought possible.
Instead of cursing your parents, thank them. Instead of hating your parents, appreciate the life they are training you for.
Youth’s golden hour isn’t going to last forever; it will be gone before you know it.
Russell Hunter,
Great Bend