Back in Time…

Hi Jon, Isn't it ironic that all that seems to  make life better are material things and not the  love of family and friends. Quality of life is measured differently today, sadly. Perhaps that is what has gone wrong.

Dear Jon,

When the people begin to lead, the so-called leaders will follow. When all of us all over the world decide that ENOUGH IS ENOUGH, things will change.

More media coverage about the violence is one reason we are so aware. It is not easy to learn about awful things happening now but they were happening in the 40's, 50's and 60's as well. In the US:  40's? "War Relocation Camps" where Japanese American Citizens from the West Coast from Washinton to Californa were forcably resettled. 50's? Rise of teenage gangs in US urban centers. 60's? Racial violence after segregation was out-lawed.

That doesn't even take into account the situation in Cambodia, Pakistan, Russia, Rwanda or China during those decades.

Thanks Jon, for dealing with serious subjects. I count on your posts having a thought-provoking content!

Your Atlanta AR friend,
Lynn

Jon I was born in the 50's and my childhood was broken when I heard the most powerful person in the world could get assassinated The President of The United States...I was nine years old...today I feel bad for the nine year old's that saw the World Trade Center get destroyed....Endre

I( remember all too well the sounds of the sirens going off as a test of the civil preparedness and having to hide under our desks. As if that was going to save anyone if a nuclear war head was launched.

In my childhood, Jon, no one locked their house doors and they could go away for long periods; did not lock their car doors,either. There just was not a thing as a murder case in the paper because people did not kill one another. The only guns talked about and then again, not even mentioned or talked about, were the hunter's.guns And these guns never entered a conversation because people never saw them as dangerous, only used to hunt. In comparing my childhood of  Chinese Jump Rope, Jacks, and winter toboggan runs, life was in that  respect, much simpler and nicer. 

Jon - Often your wisdom comes with a healthy dose of "old world" charm, but under the charm is a message worth the weight of gold!  In the old yesterdays it seems like life was simpler, easier and far less dangerous - With all the advances humankind has made in the last 6 decades, I wonder why we have such dazzling technology and so much of it still seems to be designed to blow each other off the planet?

We share the same sentiment Jon.  Playing war was almost a daily routine.  Summer was filled with bike rides to neighboring towns and swimming in "the lake".  We could be gone from sun-up to sun-down and no one worried we wouldn't return for supper that evening.  Many of us caught a glimpse of what could be only to let it slip through our fingers one freedom at a time.    

Evil has always dictated from what it is that people need to protect themselves and evil, like everything, morphs with the passing of time which also increases with the population of humans. A certain level of happiness has always been connected with feeling safe whether from rocks, arrows, spears, knives, bullets or bombs. Ultimately it is feeling safe from people because it is in people where evil resides - all other creatures live by instinct which is without conscience - people have reason.  

Jon

Thanks for a thoughtful step back in time. I, too, grew up in the 50s and so much has changed. And not all for the better it seems. No doubt my parents worried far less about us kids, what we were doing, and where, than parents have in today's world. And technology, while creating some wondrous things, also makes it easier for mass destruction. One has to wonder where we will be in 10 years, or 20?

Jeff