Exceptional Just my honest opinion Hard Rain Don't Last by Earl Corp These Challenging Times contest entry

One of the most interesting statements through history that fits this prompt to a “T” is, “May you live in interesting times.”   Thinking back on the last six decades that I have been around I can surely say that I have lived in challenging, but interesting times. In my lifetime there have been 12 men who held the office of President.  Interesting enough one was assassinated, another resigned, and two were impeached. When you consider that only three other presidents were assassinated and one impeached in the prior 184 years, it seems we’ve seen more activity in my interesting times.   According to Matthew 24: 6-13, “You will hear of wars and rumors of wars, but see to it you are not alarmed. Such things must happen, but the end is still to come.”   Interesting enough there has been the Vietnam War, Desert Shield/Storm, Afghanistan, and Iraq. That’s not counting the combat excursions to Grenada, Panama, Kosovo, and Somalia. If you want to talk about rumors of war you can’t leave out the Cold War. This is where we lived in fear that the 33rd Mongol Horde was going to go through western Europe like poop through a goose. Oh, and you can’t forget the Soviet Union was going to bomb us back into the stone-age. I remember my grandparents being amazed at the invention of television. Technology has sprung wild in these challenging times. When I was a kid Dick Tracy would talk into a clearly marked wrist radio in the comic pages. Now you can talk into your watch and watch television on it too. Once upon a time when you needed to call home you did so on a payphone. And you better hope somebody is home because there was no such thing as an answering machine. If you tell kids this, they react the same way they would to you telling ghost stories around the campfire. I’ve seen men land on the moon. Now they’re worried about sending them to Mars. People feel challenged to explore space. Me, I think we ought to concentrate on where we are at and make it more livable.   Transportation provides a whole set of challenges in these times. Considering that gas combustion engines cause pollution, they want to do away with them. Other considerations are we’re running out of oil. Since we can’t raise dinosaurs to make more petroleum we need to find alternative fuel sources. I don’t know about anybody else, but I’m not going to get on an electric airplane. My luck would be somebody forgot to plug it into the charger and I’d go down over the Atlantic. I guess it’s time to talk about the controversial issues such as politics. Allegedly we live in a constitutional republic. The problem is we have let it erode to the point that people are apathetic about elections. And if you have a different opinion you get called fun names like "deplorable" and racist. And why shouldn’t they be? We have let our government erode to where we have only two choices and people either vote straight party line or vote against the candidate they dislike the most. That’s how we ended up with the do nothing government we have. Think about it. Do we really need 435 members of the House of Representatives? With that many people there, things don’t get done, glaciers move faster. Being elected to congress is the only job you can walk in as a pauper and come out a millionaire. Elected office shouldn’t be considered a career. It’s the only job I know of you only have to work two years then get a full pension. During these challenging times I am perplexed. I spent 12 years of my life ensuring communism was contained and didn’t spread. Now American politicians are trying to bring it here in the guise of free government giveaways. During these challenging times I find that there is a lot of it being hyped up by the media. The riots of 2020 were a good example. When the BLM protesters were burning and looting the media called them “peaceful protesters.” After the riot in D.C. they were labeled as “insurrectionists.” This brings me to the Black Plague of our times—COVID-19. Whatever side of the coin you’re on in this issue this disease has been politicized and used to win a presidential election. Masks and vaccines have been hotly contested and it pits people against each other.  If you don’t want to wear a mask you’re a selfish person who doesn’t care about anybody else. In my opinion the masks are about as effective as handling nuclear waste with oven mitts. If we didn’t run right out and get the COVID shots we’re evil. I think everybody has a personal choice in the matter and if you want to take the risk of catching COVID then that’s your choice. I also noticed the daily count of COVID related deaths have disappeared from the front page of the newspaper I guess nobody has died from COVID since Jan. 20. To get through these challenging times I’m choosing to stay in my own lane and try to make my own little corner of the world better for me and my family. The only problem with that is the people who take their half of the road out of the middle. But with the way gas prices are going I won’t be driving anyway. After all, hard rains don’t last, and brother it's pouring.   Recognized Author Notes This is just my humble opinion. I'm sure people don't agree with it and that's cool. Enjoy and be kind.

© Copyright 2024. Earl Corp All rights reserved. Earl Corp has granted FanStory.com, its affiliates and its syndicates non-exclusive rights to display this work.