Jackson Advocate

I'm Old-Fashioned
BY RUTH TAYLOR

I have come to the reluctant conclusion that I am out-of-date -- definitely old-fashioned. I must be. Or else the modernists have changed the meaning of the words in the dictionary.

For instance-

"These are uncertain and perilous times." Too often that sounds to me like a whining alibi for not working and planning ahead, like an excuse for quitting before you start. Now the spell-binding orators back in the early days of the Revolutionary War said just those same words -- but those who heard and nodded in agreement, went home when they could and planted their crops for the next season.

"The children of today are unmanageable." Now how in the world can we expect to face whatever Communist dictator of Russia today, if we let a pint-sized child tell us where to get off? The only unmanageable children are those whose parents won't take the time and the thought and the trouble to manage them!

Then there are the professional do-gooders whose hearts are always bleeding for somebody. Funny, but they always make me think of the Walrus weeping for the poor oysters, and holding his handkerchief to his streaming eyes as a cover to his swallowing more than his share of oysters. And I always seem to hear a cash register clicking in the background.

And the others who won't cast their bread upon the waters unless they are sure it will come back well buttered and with strawberry jam to boot! (Whatever the organization to which you belong, you know just the kind of a person I mean!)

And the people who never pick up the check, who are always called away just at that particular moment. Who sponge on other people and who coast on their work. They are the same ones who do a slipshod job that the conscientious worker has to correct, who take time off for every little thing - and let someone else carry their load. They are the ones who lower wages - and then howl about it as unfair.

But to go back to words. It seems to me that today "privileges" are being spelled "rights." Now I'm all for people wanting better things - the more, the better. But I think there is too much taking things for granted and claiming privileges--which, in my lexicon, means something to be worked for and earned-as a divine right. After all, remember what happened to the man who proclaimed the divine right of kings?

And last I can't get used to responsibility always being the job of someone else. When I went to school, I learned that you could delegate authority, but not responsibility. That was something that was yours. You accepted it-and carried it out-or failed.

I MUST be old-fashioned. I have an idea that if we, each of us, fulfilled his or her personal responsibility, the world as a whole would be a lot better off. What do you think?