The road of life
To the editor:
The road of life is one we all must travel and as we travel this road through the years, now and then there’s a toll gate where we buy our way through with pain and tears.
As we start out our lives things are quite simple, others make the decisions which concern our life, some are good and some not so good. Some will affect us during our lifetime. As the years pass on we reach the age where we start making decisions for ourselves. What clothes we wear, how we wear our hair, who will be our friends, etc. We start dreaming of what our future will be and what we are going to do with our lives. Some dreams come true while others fall by the wayside.
Then come the years when we begin to feel the fear, pain and frustration of life and start to realize that life is real and not just a dream. This is the time of our life when we begin paying for life with pain and tears.
Pain and tears are created in many ways and forms. A sweetheart or loved one can break your heart, the loss of a loved one or friend or the loss of an animal. The loss of a job, a home, or car. However, tears wash our eyes that we might see more clearly the future and time heals the pain.
Time passes and soon it’s graduating time and we enter into the world of wonders called the labor force. Then comes the time when we start thinking of marriage and having a family and pain and tears comes with them.
As we continue on this road of life, we find ourselves caught up in the world of politics. Do we become a Democrat or Republican or an Independent? Once the decision is made, we start the process of who shall I vote for.
There are millions of Americans today facing that problem, who shall they vote for in the coming elections. At this moment in time with the past history of our politicians’ moral and ethical conduct plus having to cope with the economic and financial crises it becomes even harder to make the decision who is most qualified to represent the people. Most Americans are experiencing fear, pain and hardships and with it comes the shedding of tears.
When the elections are over and the elected ones take their positions in government in 2013, they will begin the chore of finding ways and methods to correct the problems America now faces. Winston Churchill made the following statement, “Courage is the first of human qualities because it is the quality which guarantees all the others.” John F. Kennedy made the following statement, “only in winter can you tell which trees are truly green. Only when the winds of adversity blow can you tell whether an individual or a country has courage or steadfastness.”
The wind of adversity has certainly been blowing across America in the past few years and the next four years will determine if America has the courage and steadfastness to make the changes necessary to return the country to its former place in the world. Will the people accept the changes and will the people elected in November 2012 to run our government have the human qualities required to bring the spirit of democracy and prosperity back to what was once the greatest nation on earth; and take away some of the pain, anger and frustration from the lives of the people and reduce the number of tears that have been shed in the past.
America cannot dwell on what might have been or what almost was, we must go forward and work together if we are to win this economic and financial war. When we reach the end of the road of life and we can say we did our best to make the world a better place to live and work, there should be no regrets.
Howard E. Worthington
MSGT USAF Retired
Mapleton
