Welcome to this Sunday’s Third Degree: Tough, Brief, Weekly Interrogations on matters public and private that force thinking and response. Today we target: Worry
“What, me worry” ?
- Does that famous question, attributed to Mad Magazine’s equally famous Alfred E. Neuman represent a dangerous insouciance in America today?
- Is that condition a favorite province of the young (25 and under) with inattention, or worse, that iniquitous indifference creating an ignorance more extreme than mere stupidity because it’s a matter of choice?
- Do those three “i’s” affect other age groups? Where do they live?
- Have the problems facing America, euphemistically called “circumstances” or the consultant and political favorite— “challenges”, grown so large and intractable (a government specialty) that cherished freedoms are at risk?
- Why should the American experiment that has provided so much for so many be such a mess of internally generated stress?
- Is it because size really does matter and it should not make you happy or feel good? Should size make you worry?
- Are big cities really the engines of civilization or spanners in the works? Throw in a monkey wrench too? Who done it? Who’s doin’ it?
- Should we worry about, or welcome, ever grasping and growing government?
- When complexity and preoccupation with process accompanies super sized government, is there focus on doing things (or promising to do things) but the why and the wisdom of such doing, other than to buy political favor, is missing along with palpable and beneficial result?
- Does the “E” in Alfred’s name stand for explanation or enigma?
- When avarice and ambition (Franklin’s two basic passions of mankind) migrate to political and media processes and people who, espousing God-like righteousness, create tribal, racial, energy and economic carnage to gain power, money and always more control, what recourse for we the people?
- Worry?
- Is Alfred close to the mark saying: “Nothing is impossible but some (maybe many) do it every day”?
- If nothing is not an option, then what difficult and worrisome path leads to renewal, the endless chore of championing American freedoms and exceptionalism?
- Does citizen demand for small town ethos and accountability point the way?
- Is there a ‘walk away from’ option and therefore a ‘walk toward option’ building new and manageable community with independence of citizens, not threatened, rather bolstered by, mutual respect and interdependence?
- Do we worry, as Neuman cautions, that it’s elected (and appointed) yo-yos that keep yanking us up and down?
Socrates reminds: “The unexamined life is not worth living”. The answers and actions are yours.