Thursday, November 04, 2004

Once Upon A Time

Once upon a time there was a little boy named George. He attended a small one room school house and had grown to be one of the four boys everyone looked up to. They were all in the 7th and 8th grades. The boys all seemed to behave about the same until one rainy day, they had to spend recess inside. They got out a deck of cards and started playing hearts with the little kids. Before long George noticed the other three were cheating. He told them he wanted nothing to do with that and refused to play cards with them anymore.
The next day, nearly the same thing happened. Only this time they were playing their usual game of softball during the noon hour. One of the 8th graders decided that instead of simply catching the ball at 1st base and touching the base with his foot, he would 'tag' the little runners as they came by first. He tagged them hard. Some went rolling, some cried. The other boys thought that looked like fun, except George. So while more little boys and girls were hurt both physically and some had their feelings hurt, the game continued. George quit the game.
Soon George fell out of favor with his older friends. He refused to lower his standards, and morals, and participate in what was hurtful to the peace and unity that had existed in the school.
George didn't think it was very fair that his friends started calling him names like Sissy, Chicken, and Geek. After all his views of what was right, hadn't changed one bit. The behavior of the crowd had deteriorated, he had been steadfast in what he believed was right.
It's now 50 years later, George has a great family. He has worked hard all of his life and dedicated himself to being a good example for his children. The values that he and his wife talked about before they got married in the 60's, haven't changed. They were after all, the same thing everyone else believed. Now, he's once again being called names because some are trying to drag his school, (er, society) down the wrong path. Now they call him Extreme, far right wing, fundamentalist, evangelical, christian, wacko.
Funny thing is that he never moved to the right at all. Those who have tried to drag the center, to left, are insulted by someone who won't be part of the dummying down of society. George refuses to be drug. He makes them look bad. No, they make themselves look bad.

1 comment:

Gel said...

Cliff, thank you for directing me to this post of yours. The link in your email didn't work, but I figured your post was written in Nov. because of the election.

I think you wrote your views in a very creative way. It is obvious who "George" is. My political beliefs are different than yours but that did not take away from appreciating your post and how people are treated.

Humane treatment needs to be sharply incresed in our world, for humans and animals. Your wife knows much about this for dogs from her occupation.
Take care