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The Nation's Pulse
Dead Lines
What the obituary page says about us.
Few lives can be condensed to a half dozen paragraphs. Yet that is exactly what the obituary writer must do everyday. For years I wrote death notices for a small rural newspaper. The vast majority of these departures failed to make headlines. Even in small towns, the front page is reserved for tragic farm and highway accidents and the passings of important community leaders.
The latter are not always easy to distinguish. Among the generation now heading for the exits the vast majority were deeply involved in their communities. They were of a generation known for putting God first, family second, community third, and themselves somewhere way down the list.
They were joiners long before it became fashionable to pad one’s résumé volunteering for liberal causes. Nearly all had proudly served their country, even when the reasons they were fighting were not always clear. When they returned home they continued to serve, joining the American Legion and the VFW Post. Many were members of at least one fraternal organization (Elks, Eagles, Moose, Masons, Rotary, Jaycees, Optimists, Odd Fellows, Lions, Knights of Columbus), to say nothing of the fire protection district and the electric coop. They served as village trustees and founding members of the county public water district. They were part of their communities in a way that today’s peripatetic suburbanites can never be.
Because they played an important role in their churches and their communities, they behaved themselves. A man’s reputation and self-image mattered, nor was it damaged because he sometimes donned a fez and drove a minicar. Shame was still a powerful check on one’s morals. At the local level at least, society ran smoothly and the country prospered.
The world changed greatly during their lifetime, though not always for the better. Perhaps the biggest transformation came in the size of government. In their father’s day, a man’s only contact with the federal government was the post office and, after 1913, the tax form. But Washington would not be denied a larger role in their lives, and wooed them with instantly addictive middle-class entitlements the likes of farm subsidies, corporate welfare, government loans, unemployment insurance, social security, Medicare, and now ObamaCare. As we have become more dependent on government, society has run less smoothly, the country is less prosperous.
THEIR OBITUARIES are characteristically brief because even in death they are dignified, modest, and not prone to talk about themselves. Their stories celebrate the simple pleasures of life:
“He enjoyed woodworking, making coaster wagons, plant stands, birdhouses and stained glass stepping stones.”
“He enjoyed fishing, hunting, gardening and his dogs.”
The women were active with their church groups. They were the ladies who cooked the meals you ate in the church basement after the funeral of a loved one. They enjoyed their grandchildren and playing cards and cross-stitching and making blocks for quilts. They were excellent pie and cookie bakers. Is there a better way to be remembered?
They were in the main hard workers. One did bookkeeping for the local Buick dealer. Another worked at the box company, and helped her husband with the dairy and grain farm.
They represent an older, traditional America, one whose critics dismiss as a nostalgic, rose-colored Neverland, whose underbelly seethed with racism, sexism and fundamentalism. “Groups often reflect society’s divisions,” noted pundit Robert Samuelson. “Many old social groups reflected prejudice,” wrote the novelist William Kennedy. One would think we were talking about the Klan and not the Elks.
These are the same Americans Sinclair Lewis and H.L. Mencken once ridiculed as the booboisie, the great mass of Babbits and boosters. One wonders if Lewis were alive today if he wouldn’t long for the Babbits and the Carol Milfords, who were, relatively speaking, harmless, decent folk?
The men and women who look out from today’s obituary pages did not feel they were suffocating in small town America. They felt rooted here, but in a good way. Because few went away to college (even with the GI bill), it was not necessary to leave and find work in the cities and the suburbs. Only a few misfits and malcontents left home to find themselves, but they nearly all returned to retire after getting their fill of the chaotic cities and the loneliness of the Commutervilles.
The critics are right about one thing. They were not perfect by any stretch of the imagination. But when I consider my own generation, which too often shuns the responsibilities of marriage, family, and community service, while seeming only to care about a shallow hedonism, I am left to wonder how we will get by without them.
About the Author
Christopher Orlet writes from St. Louis.
Letter to the Editor View all comments (53) | Leave a comment
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Steven Burgess| 6.9.11 @ 6:42AM
Well said. We will never see there likes again.
RetUSA1/75| 6.9.11 @ 8:49AM
Remember me in one quote; "This man did his best."
Phil| 6.9.11 @ 8:49AM
We will never get along without them. This country is doomed. We no longer believe in God and Country.
RetUSA1/75| 6.9.11 @ 9:39AM
I volunteered at the ABCCM Wharehouse, Asheville, NC, for a short time, and the folks running the wharehouse and shopper's from the community were very kind, upbeat, and humble. Those folk's still exist. You just have to search and believe. Take care, Phil.
Delta Zelda | 6.9.11 @ 1:03PM
We regain our roots one family at the time. We start teaching our kids about God and family from the day they are born so they can never remember a time they did not know it.
Think of all the bad things your child might get into at all ages. After your initial terror, start working on this and meaning it: Tell your children from babyhood that nothing is so bad you can’t bring it to the family. Tell them you might chew them out for bad judgment, but they will not be left hanging. Mean it; yes, it will take work, but you can do it. When your child has done something upsetting, shocking, and/or disastrous, triage the situation, but let some time lapse to give you perspective before you mete out punishment.
After age 6, have them sit in the sanctuary with you. The will learn to sit still, and they will absorb a tremendous amount of spiritual knowledge.
Next, we regain our communities one neighbor at the time. Knock on their doors. Invite them for coffee. Ask their opinions on how schools are run, what kids are being taught, whether code enforcement is doing its job, law enforcement, etc. Generate interest in attending meetings of various governing boards; if the meetings are held when everyone else is working, get citizens to push for meetings to be held when most voters are home. Talk to people at your church, service organizations, and county political committees about a neighbor running for a town or county office.
We are going to have to KEEP the pressure on the RINOs and establishment republications (ER) to do what is best for us. (Repeal the CFL law; Obamacare; etc.) Everytime the Repubs take a tough stand, they seem to get wobbly and become Democrate Lite. We need to replace the RINOs in both houses, but only their constituents can do that. So we must convince those constituents to change their minds.
It’s a very difficult job, but we are Americans. We have sent men to the moon and brought them back. If we can get to the moon, why can’t we take back Washington?
Pelligrino| 6.10.11 @ 2:39AM
Thank you, Delta Zelda. Thank you for your spirit, gained wisdom, and tenacity. We need more of it!
Yes! At 6 all kids should be sitting in the pews next to their parents and older siblings.
Note: Vacation Bible School -- probably coming to a church near you in the next few weeks. Help spread the word. Help get unchurched kids there.
C Smith| 6.9.11 @ 9:02AM
Not long ago, my uncle's pastor was at the hospital with his wife and son. "Dad, you are the best father a son could ever have." David, gasping for breath from the apparent decadence of earlier years, with effort and in kind responded "you are the best son a father could ever have." And as final exchanges waned, his pastor ask: "David, do you want the service at the church or the funeral home?" Then David with joy and peace and a smile consistent with his latter years shot back: SURPRISE ME!
"Wherefore seeing we also are compassed about with so great a cloud of witnesses, let us lay aside every weight, and the sin which doth so easily beset us, and let us run with patience the race that is set before us" (Hebrews 12:1).
http://popularapostasy.blogspot.com/search?q="god+and+country"
maximumrandb| 6.9.11 @ 9:09AM
The young have no respect, none, for those who went before them. It's all a part of the coarseness of today's society. There is no consideration for others, as there is no room when one is consumed by their own personal bitterness.
Pelligrino| 6.10.11 @ 2:43AM
I agree with the lack of respect for elders still living and those passed. It is sad to see so little overall interest in ancestry, family heritage, family stories. As for what consumes those 40 and below? I'd say their personal vanity.
Sam Vaughn| 6.9.11 @ 9:13AM
Ah,, it is tempting to think that people like the above no longer exist. Thanks for the reminder to be grateful Mr. Orlet. In my home town, a town that seceded from a city (we had been told for years that we were too dumb to run our own affairs). Life has a way of preserving our heritage though, it may be buried but the genes are still there. Where I live we don't need Washington and don't look to Washington for help. When the storms hit, or neighbors are in danger we get in our pickups, grab our chain-saws and get to work. We're still here, we don't brag, Ivy Leaguers look down there nose at us, but come to us when they're in danger.
Having lived and worked in the cities and suburbs of those cities it is easy to forget how vast this country really is and how unimportant DC really is.
Where I live mother nature keeps the constant reminder of life-threatening danger just over the horizon, we know it's there, we're not scared we're not cowed. We're certainly not cowed by Washington, alarmed yes, not cowed. So with the appointment of a DHHS official, Local Health Officer, in our small community to "monitor" our health we are not unaware of what that really means. I doubt the rest of fly-over country is as dumb as we're made out to be, e.g. Sarah Palin.
Sam Vaughn| 6.9.11 @ 9:45AM
p.s. if you are wondering what a "Local Health Officer" is it is part of the ongoing evolution of ObamaCare as it reaches it's tentacles to the local level. There are at most 1,000 people in our town and we have a "Local Health Officer", one of our neighbors (also a delegate to the Democrat Party National Convention) assigned. Here is an example of the empowerment in just one state;
RCW 70.05.070
Local health officer — Powers and duties.
The local health officer, acting under the direction of the local board of health or under direction of the administrative officer appointed under RCW 70.05.040 or 70.05.035, if any, shall:
(1) Enforce the public health statutes of the state, rules of the state board of health and the secretary of health, and all local health rules, regulations and ordinances within his or her jurisdiction including imposition of penalties authorized under RCW 70.119A.030 and 70.118.130, the confidentiality provisions in RCW 70.24.105 and rules adopted to implement those provisions, and filing of actions authorized by RCW 43.70.190;
(2) Take such action as is necessary to maintain health and sanitation supervision over the territory within his or her jurisdiction;
(3) Control and prevent the spread of any dangerous, contagious or infectious diseases that may occur within his or her jurisdiction;
(4) Inform the public as to the causes, nature, and prevention of disease and disability and the preservation, promotion and improvement of health within his or her jurisdiction;
(5) Prevent, control or abate nuisances which are detrimental to the public health;
(6) Attend all conferences called by the secretary of health or his or her authorized representative;
(7) Collect such fees as are established by the state board of health or the local board of health for the issuance or renewal of licenses or permits or such other fees as may be authorized by law or by the rules of the state board of health;
(8) Inspect, as necessary, expansion or modification of existing public water systems, and the construction of new public water systems, to assure that the expansion, modification, or construction conforms to system design and plans;
(9) Take such measures as he or she deems necessary in order to promote the public health, to participate in the establishment of health educational or training activities, and to authorize the attendance of employees of the local health department or individuals engaged in community health programs related to or part of the programs of the local health department.
TrueBlue| 6.9.11 @ 4:31PM
I still love the number of "or by the rules of" bits in ObamaCare that basically let the various appointed (not voted on) individuals to bypass any need for laws to enforce things. The D.C. elite crowd has become our England, appointing local magistrates to enforce their views/decisions upon us with no actual vote by us or our locally elected officials.
Remind me, what was the 10th Amendment again? /sarcasm
Steve A| 6.9.11 @ 9:42AM
Whenever I read the local paper I find myself reading at least 3 or 4 full obits of random people. I look at the photo & pick them out for some unknown reason. I am not sure why. I think it may be my way of reminding myself that a life, lived with true meaning & purpose, results in others being positively impacted as a result of your actions.
KyMouse| 6.9.11 @ 10:17AM
In addition to changes in obituaries, there are big changes going on with cemetery tombstones. Recent generations put crosses, stars of David or other religious symbols on their memorials, along with perhaps an upside down torch or truncated column as a reminder that a life has been snuffed out, cut short. Ivy, an evergreen plant, symbolized eternity. Bible verses or reverent poems and saying were usually included.
In the cemetery in which my family is buried (and which has room for about 145,000 people, if memory serves) I have seen in recent years memorials emblazoned with depictions of the deceased's favorite gun, the deceased playing golf, and favorite cars.
One of the strangest we have seen recently is a very big memorial to a woman and a young man whose bronze statues show them standing side by side in jeans and sweatshirts, but with outstretched wings and holding swords upright in front of them.
That one REALLY has us puzzled.
PAUL| 6.9.11 @ 11:03AM
A couple of years ago my next door neighbor died, he was a retired Army Warrant Officer, 4 tours in Nam, and a proud, proud, American. Always a July 4th party at this pool. I called him sir, not Ken (he was a warrant officer, I had been an enlised man), and I refused to take $ for shovelling snow for him, his wife did make me brownies, which I apprecated more than any $. Not long after, my step dad died, he had served in the USN in the late 50's, and was "invited back," as he put it, for both the Cuban missle crisis, and the Bay of Pigs. He was the kind of guy that when I graduated as Honor Man of my USN recruit company in 1982, he said it was one of the proudest days of his life - and he was not kidding. That generation is leaving us, and there are not enough replacements for them.
RetUSA1/75| 6.9.11 @ 11:29AM
Well put. I was the first of my 3rd Generation Irish in USA to join the US Military. My father came from "old money," and he was horrified, as he had "big plans for me educationally." I never turned back and am a Ret Vet SNCO. I miss my Brother's and Sister's I served with. I do my best with service with my community. Thanks for your service, Paul. Mike.
Jack in Wi.| 6.9.11 @ 11:16AM
Well the old have to be replaced by the new. Lets hope this new generation grows up, to at least come back to some of the moral values of their ancestors. I probably don't expect it .
Seek| 6.9.11 @ 11:26AM
There was plenty of "immorality" in the Good Old Days. All of us who get beyond 40 see the past through that rosy tint. Every generation faces new challenges; every generation, in its own way, somehow meets them. Ours is no exception.
RetUSA1/75| 6.9.11 @ 12:58PM
You do not speak for me, however, you have a point. The "rosy tint" only applies to folks who gave up on their communitie's and became submissive and jaded of their own past.
Al Adab| 6.9.11 @ 11:53AM
It is not the applause that greets on entrance, but that on exit that is of consequence.
Balthazar Gratian
KyMouse| 6.9.11 @ 11:55AM
I forgot to mention, in my comment above about changes in cemetery memorial stones, that some "bone orchards" (especially in Japan) are now putting QU codes on tombstones. Visitors can scan the codes with their smart phones to read about the deceased and see photos of him/her. Amazing.
KyMouse| 6.9.11 @ 11:56AM
Sorry, fingers slipped -- I meant "QR codes."
Delta Zelda | 6.9.11 @ 12:03PM
Chris, You wrote a wonderful column. So true. Our parents did not want society to relieve them of their responsibility to family and community.
Louis Jenkins| 6.9.11 @ 12:29PM
A good article. Hopefully the new kids have not forgotten how they were raised. I have sat and pondered my father's passing, and whether or not I will have the same privileges. My thoughts return to the minister who spoke at Dad's funeral. The minister himself was feeble and weak, but was determined to see the service through, and it was a good service too. The minister has now passed on, and even though we miss both of them, Heaven is truly blessed.
JP| 6.9.11 @ 1:12PM
In my neighborhood there is a very old Catholic cemetary (old at least for Americans). Originally, it served a Catholic parish a few blocks down. Most of the names on the tombstones are Belgium, German, and some Italiens. One can always pick out an old Catholic cemetary, as there are plenty of votiv candles, statues of Our Lady, crucifixes, and photos of the deceased. However, at the newer end of the cemetary one can find newer plots that have plenty of military inscriptions in the tombstone (ret USA served in Europe 1944-46, for instance). And the newer plots (post 1960), one gets less of a Catholic feel and more of a civic feel to the cemetary.
Not to knock the really older timers, or the younger generation; but, the Americans born between 1915-1940 were probably the most civic minded Americans in our history. As Christopher Orlet wrote, it was these people who volunteered in droves to support organizations like the Kwanis Club, Lions Club, the Elks, etc... My father told me that when he came back from Korea, the VFW had weekly events that were standing room only. This generation (1915-1940) was a quietly proud generation -proud of thier military achievments, thier families, thier vocations, and thier neighborhoods. They came quietly into this world, and they are leaving the same way.
cuban pete| 6.9.11 @ 1:58PM
From the early 60's until the mid 80's I played in a weekend "wedding" band. We played for the local service organizations such as the Moose, Elks, American Legion,VFW, etc.
One Saturday night during the Iran Hostage crisis after we played Goodnight Sweetheart to end the dancing I announced that we wanted to honor the captured Americans by playing "God Bless America." I was not prepared for what happened.Every person in the room stopped what they were doing,stood up and began to sing. The WWII vets in the group,and there were many, not only stood up but stood at attention. As a direct beneficiary of those guys' sacrifice I'll never forget that as long as I live. After that night we played "God Bless America" after every gig until the hostages returned and the response was always the same.
Thanks PAUL and RetUSA1/75 for your service.
Handy| 6.9.11 @ 2:23PM
I must respectfully disagree with the conclusions, if not the sentiments of this article. The folks that Orlet lauds were anything but family and community-oriented. It is to the "Greatest Generation" that we owe the collectivism and statism that we now must tear down.
First, the GG did not win WWII. Even if born before 1920 (90 years ago) and in their 20s, they were mostly low ranking officers and enlisted men who had no real impact on the strategies and tactics that led to victory. They certainly didn't win in Korea or Viet Nam which were wars where the GGers had achieved high rank both in and out of the military. Surely, these self-proclaimed heroes of the Ardenne and Guadalcanal should have been able to handle pip-squeaks like Kim Il Sung and Ho Chi Minh. Instead, over 100,000 of the "fodder" they used to be perished because of their dithering and incomparable incompetence.
(As a personal aside, by the 1970s VFW and American Legion halls were just glorified drinking clubs where old men embellished their combat experiences, even if they were merely state-side latrine orderlies. No Viet Nam era vets needed to apply. It was not until the 1990s that, with dwindling dues, the VFW and AL began to reach out to younger vetereans. The VFW even invites civilians to their bars these days.)
Secondly, and more to the point: The GGers had every opportunity to roll-back the failed New Deal programs. Instead, througout their lives, they voted overwhelmingly to expand them. Not only did they not end Social Security, they instituted more. From the GI Bill, the VHA, Medicaid and then Medicare, the War on Poverty, EPA, OSHA, and too many others to mention; the USA has become a socialist nation, thanks to them.
If those things weren't enough, the GGers have constantly denigrated their own offspring to the point that most Boomers have bought into their mythology. (BTW, remember that the Boomers did not breed themselves.) A Boomer in business had to endure bumbling hangers-on at every step of the corporate ladder, and it was actually worse for union members who were held back or laid off due to seniority rules. If the GGers were so dedicated to family, then why have they so punished their kids and grandkids?
Look around sometime. Due to the GG's insatiable appetite for hand outs, there were not enough resources to maintain vital infrastructure. 100 year old water mains bursting, 50 year old bridges crumbling. Levees failing. Electrical disruptions nearly everywhere. But, as Emily Letila used to say, "Never mind." Just keep my Social Security checks coming.
The GG bequeathed us a National Socialism. Makes one wonder why they bothered to take up arms against Hitler and Hirohito. A better term for these folks, who mostly got "thiers," would be the FFG: Failed Fascist Generation.
Ore Gone| 6.9.11 @ 2:53PM
As a VietNam vet I never had a problem with the VFW or American Legion. I just quit going in there because the crowd was too old and I was looking for some action. If I was to pick one reason on why we are in this mess I would say it was the lack of vigilance and the corruption of the media. I used to believe what the media said and before the internet there was not a good way to check their sources unless you knew first hand. Say what you want, but the streets were safer and the people had a clarity when it came to right and wrong. This is a spinning ship with no moral rudder!
Ken (Old Texican)| 6.9.11 @ 3:16PM
Hey, handy...
Thanks to those "JERKS' ...you get to say your bullcorn.
Do you speak German...or Japanise?
You are simply a t--rd.
Handy| 6.9.11 @ 3:32PM
Dear Ken,
You usually have more intelligent ripostes. Can't blame you for overreacting, so I'll chalk it up to the heat of the moment.
Consider all of those things that get in the way of individual freedom in the USA today. You will see that they are all the products of the GGers. Make a list, if you must.
If those GGer generals and civilian leaders had been in charge during WWII, we would surely all be speaking German or Japanese. Can you recall LBJ, R. Strange Macnamara, Westmoreland and Abrams?
JP| 6.9.11 @ 3:40PM
A person born in 1918 or 1915 was too young to have anything to do with FDR. He or she simply suffered through the 1930s just in time to enlist or be drafted into WWII.
Usually the generation in thier 50s or 60s would control most of the political, civic and institutional organization of our society. So, FDR's generation bequeathed us the New Deal, not the GG. The GG turn didn't come into its own politically until the 1960s (ie the generation that gave us Kennedy, LBJ, and Tricky Dick).
TrueBlue| 6.9.11 @ 4:46PM
I would blame the faith that generation had in FDR for allowing those programs to be passed more than anything. They all felt that the man who had led them through such a time should be trusted in what he thought was right. It was a mistake that unfortunately still affects us today, but FDR was a fantastic speaker that people wanted to believe in (sound like anyone we know today?).
The reason Vietnam went so bad is because we tried to fight a guerilla army like we would have a standard army like the Germans and Japanese. It's the same mistake the British made during our Revolution.
RetUSA1/75| 6.9.11 @ 6:28PM
Dang, Handy, you are pissed about something. As my commander, a long time ago said to me before I retired: "You served your Country. Noone can ever take that from you." So, how are you doing? 20 buck's says you do not participate in any community service within your area. Your article also leads me to believe that you also have disdain for soldier's; both active duty and retired. Bummer for you. Would not want to walk in your shoes.
Handy| 6.9.11 @ 7:40PM
Reread my comments, please. They were directed toward the moribund leadership provided by the GGers, both military and in business. I have nothing but respect for today's military and served over four decades on and off active duty. Still on the Mobilization Designee roster.
But, it was only after the GGers finally got flushed from the systems, that things began to improve. If those holdovers were still in charge, there would have been 10 times the fatalities in the first Gulf War, Afghanistan, and Iraq. Would personal computers have been marketed, if those managers over at IBM had prevailed? Would each GM vehicle contain $2,000 of legacy pension costs, if not for the unions and feckless managers? What about US Steel, and countless others once considered Blue Chip companies?
Does teaching at community colleges count as community service? My part-time stipends barely cover my mileage costs. Who really does more good? The folks passing out bad food at soup kitchens, or those of us who are trying to make soup kitchens relics of the past?
BTW, thanks for responding. I try to revisit when I post. Normally, I don't really spend this much time on the threads.
rendite| 6.10.11 @ 3:07AM
Handy, I appreciate what you are writing. You are giving us food for thought. Perhaps we over-sentimentalize the so-called Greatest Generation and don't realize that they began the massive turn away from firm faith values as well.
I'll have to ponder your thoughts -- to give them time to germinate.
Please don't be warded off. We desperately need intelligent commentary here! I think people need to just re-read the above 3,4 posts you've made.
We're obviously in a terrible sport today in our nation. Divorce through the roof. Kids all with step this or that as a parent or maybe no real parental figure in their lives. Debt everywhere (both personal and societal/governmental). Lousy education standards. Weak universities not focused on teaching but on PC nonsense. Moral depravation in all our public officials. No one going to churches or churches so watered-down as to not be preaching the Gospel. Illegal aliens all around us and their defenders making laws to protect them. Our borders insecure. Our wayward (if at times well meaning) military ventures in Afghanistan and Iraq. Our pop culture that is debauchery.
So where did the rapid decay all start? You are saying the GG had a significant roll in the precarious place we find ourselves now. I think that this argument deserves a hearing and has its merits.
Keep posting.
RetUSA1/75| 6.10.11 @ 4:34AM
Ok, point taken. Just take care of yourself and fellow neighbor's. In my persective, they have much more to give than personal view point's alone.
RetUSA1/75| 6.10.11 @ 5:13AM
Handy, I failed to ask you if you had any interest in protecting your neighbor's, and participating in community service. I do it. Just because of where I come from leads me to believe. Do those honors's lie in your heart? Who are you? Nothing personal. Mike
skip| 6.10.11 @ 12:50PM
I have long noted the greatest generation begat the 60's hippie retards, America's 'the leastest generation', and that smack dab in the middle of the 60's the great society experiment exponentially expanded socialism in the nation. The understanding of this situation I concluded was the greatest generation had seen and been part of so much human misery through acts of war across either ocean, they kind of more or less unconsciously, and more or less collectively, said no to any further human misery of any kind, they just no longer had the patience or will to deal with any more of it, and acted passively when confronted with any human conflict of any kind in postwar society, in the end to everyone's detriment. For what they did across both oceans they are and remain the greatest generation, but in hindsight at a significant cost.
Handy| 6.10.11 @ 2:12PM
I don't think of myself so much as a volunteer, but I do get drawn in to some projects. One example is the church steeple episode. Hope you find it mildly amusing.
My old church had a rotten steeple that had weathered about 75 years of harsh midwestern winters and sizzling summers. Well, the Building Committee was taking bids from local contractors and the pastor was pushing one of his friends to do the job. The cost estimates were outrageous!!! And most of the guys said they needed at least six months to complete the job. Enter "Super Handy." J/K.
In the Corps of Engineers I had learned of prefabricated steeples which were being used during a building boom on US posts and bases during the 1960s and early 70s. So, I contacted the company that made them. To my mild surprise, they not only made them, but now installed them. At no cost, a guy came out with a tape measure and a camera to survey the situation and prepare a quote which included removal of the old steeple. The result? One eighth the quote of the local low bidders. The Building Committee couldn't pass that up.
So, a few weeks later, a crane and a truck carrying the new steeple arrived. After some reinforcement of the old steeple, it was lifted off intact. Then, up went the new one. Some carriage bolts secured it in place. Less than 10 hours from start to finish.
Did I mention that the new steeple housed not only the old single bell, but a new electric carillon hooked up to the organ? No longer just ding, ding, ding, but actual music!!! Oh yes, it is also made of fiberglass, never needs to be painted, and will last at least another hundred years.
I no longer attend church, but did save the parishoners some serious coin in that instance. Does that count as community service? (BTW, I suspect that the pastor was on the take and looking for a kickback. In any case, he was gone shortly thereafter. He took his hippy-dippy peace signs and his scraggly beard with him, Praise the Lord.)
When I was younger, I was a volunteer fireman with a radio and siren in my car and all the gear. Suffered some pretty bad burns on the job and became a dispatcher before the era of the 911 operator, but age would have done me in by this time anyway.
Now I teach firearms safety at the police firing range. Leaves those officers free to hand out more traffic and parking tickets and raise that - oh so - important revenue for civic projects like the new flower boxes in front of the library.
Protect and serve. You just might have some fun in the process.
Handy| 6.9.11 @ 3:21PM
Mr. Orlet, et.al,
Sorry to take up so much space, but I need to address your concerns about low marriage rates, lack of family and community commitment. It is precisely the policies of the GGers that people marry less often. Young, single people barely get to keep enough of their earnings to even consider marriage, let alone to raise children responsibly. If they ever manage to achieve some degree of financial stability, they are probably too old to bother with marriage.
This is largely due to all the tax priveleges existing families enjoy. The joint income tax return (There is no marriage penalty.). Child care tax credits. Subsidized public education, including all those damned buses (Apartment dwellers, overwhelmingly single, pay property taxes, but cannot deduct them.). SCHIP (For families with incomes 4 times the poverty rate. Puhleez.) And, on and on.
Let's remember who created the suburbs you impugn. It was the GGers, mostly with VHA and FHA guaranteed loans. The VHA and FHA set the precedents for Fannie May and Freddie Mac, just in case you did not know. These massive developments were largely cheap tract housing that have ceased to exist, having been abandoned or replaced.
Then there are pensions. Specifically, defined benefit pensions, both public and private. Very few have survivor benefits, and if they do, only the spouse and minor children can be beneficiaries. Such pensions were rare before WWII. They are almost totally an invention of the GGers. Now we have the Pension Benefit Guarantee Corporation that is as massively underfunded as the Federal Savings and Loan Insurance Corporation was in the 1980s, and the FDIC would have been since 2008. Why so much underfunding? Because the GGers just needed so much for their families and communities. That's why!
Everywhere one looks, the fingerprints of the evil GG can be found on every social and financial engineering policy that has bankrupted us. How much real wealth have they destroyed? Incalcuable.
You wonder how we will be able to get by without them. I say that we would all be getting by a lot better if they had never been born.
John II| 6.9.11 @ 11:22PM
Well--no. I wouldn't be here to respond if they had never been born, Handy, but I think y0u're mostly right.
You need to go back a little further to get the universe described by Orlet. What's generally good about the GG (my parents' generation) was left over from previous generations--those of my grandparents and great-grandparents. One needs to study the movies of the 1930's and 1940's to get sobered with the understanding that the GG were fast consuming the capital accumulated by their forebears.
After all, the GG gave us the Boomers (my generation), and the early stirrings of degeneracy were already on display in the sit-coms of the 1950's. "Leave It to Beaver" anticipates the Clintons--never mind that the preposterous Jimmy Carter was himself of the GG.
I am reassured, however, by my own children, whatever generation they're to be called. Sometimes the offspring spring higher than what they sprang off of. So hope does indeed spring eternal.
And now back to "The Magnificent Seven" (1960), an exemplar of late GG ambiguity.
Handy| 6.10.11 @ 3:54PM
LOL John II,
I regretted that wording as soon as I hit enter. Thanks for pointing out the obvious.
rendite| 6.10.11 @ 3:27AM
Handy,
I would like for you to expound upon what you assert (if I understand it correctly -- from above) on pensions.
To me, this will be a large part of our undoing as a nation. Pensions combined with SSN, Medicare, and Medicaid payouts.
When I talk with now retired police officers and fire deparment member AND THEN factor in all the retired military in this area....whew! Then we have career civil servants (government employees) for local, state, and federal levels. We have other pensioners for whom the taxpayer must pay until death.
It all adds up to huge bills we won't be able to afford -- even if it somehow was feasible to strangle current and future taxpayers with more taxes.
Or do I misunderstand?
To my thinking: Any former civic leader who who is now in their 70's or 80's should have seen this tax/pension/spend/entitlement apocolypse coming.
So, yes, I have no admiration for any government leaders present or past over the age of 55. (and that includes the GG)
The GG paved the way for this entitlement mentality and mathematical entitlement impossibilty/self-destruction.
Is this what you are asserting?
Handy| 6.10.11 @ 3:37PM
Dear rendite,
I am working on my brevity, so will just say that the whole pension/deferred compensation thing comes down to one simple question. "Would you rather have one in the hand, or two in the bush?"
Prior generations preferred a sure thing to a charlatan's promises. The GGers fell for the scam and ended up buying a "Pig in a poke." Actually, they passed it on to the rest of us.
The first time I got to thinking about pensions in any serious way was from a passage in a book about the Railroad Barons. I think it was called "The Scarlet Woman of Wall Street." Anyway, it goes something like this. Commodore Vanderbilt was waiting in the station for one of his trains when a legless man on his scooter asks him if he might shine his shoes. The Commodore says, "Sure. How did you lose your legs?" The man says, "I was a brakeman on your line and I fell. They were just gone." Vanderbilt responds, "You, sir, shall be my first pensioner, and hopefully my last."
When people won't demand that they be paid in full for their labors, and currently; they make room for con men who have less integrity than the Commodore.
Jacob| 6.13.11 @ 10:28AM
Yea cause none of you angels would dream of a Ponzi scheme back then...except of course Ponzi.
Jacob| 6.13.11 @ 10:35AM
Older generations were obsessed with Christian white nationalism, one of the great scourges of worldwide Christianity.
And again, these sentimental memories of how it used to be don't seem to match up with the historical record. (I agree this generation needs a huge amount of healing, but the last thing we need to do is be more like our bigoted small minded grandparents or great grand parents, or especially our parents!)
buckeyeman| 6.10.11 @ 6:09AM
Handy,
I hope you do come back an revisit your threads. I'm spending the month in the French countryside so I'm six hours out of synch with Ohio. You made the points I was thinking as I read the first two dozen posts only you made them better than I would have. You certainly stirred up some folks but not as many as one might have thought. I think there are many would-be protesters with their fingers hovering over their keyboards who just can't figure out how to refute the points you made.
I watched a show on TV last night, (in French, but I understood most of it). It documented the evolution of societies from the Egyptians to the Greeks, Romans, and finally the Celts. The evolution of societies is inexorable. We can talk about it but can't change it. Right now I feel as if I were a mid level Roman nobleman watching my vaunted civilization collapsing around me. I fear that our collapse is as inevitable as that of the Roman Empire, and for many of the same reasons.
Audace| 6.10.11 @ 10:56AM
buckeyeman, bon vacance! Perhaps you can do a piece for posting here at American Specator Online on the over-prevalance of North Africans and those from the Middle East -- and how that is choking the life out of a already anemic France.
If you refer to the demise of this USA empire, surely you are sitting now in a French society that is perilously close to its own demise. Mosques everywhere. Faces with disdain. Third generation Algerians, Tunesians, and Moroccans with no French langauge skills or interest whatsoever in the better facets of French infrastructure. No employable skills or great desires to be permanently employed. And a sense of civic pride or civic duty? And a willing media that knowingly plays along to the folly.
Don't know where you might be in le Grand Nation, but it really doesn't matter unless you are in a very exclusive community on the Cote d'Azur or high in the Alpes. The swift demise is palpable all around a person in France. (just visit a banlieu near you)
Please post on these things! (as you see them daily now) And charge American Spectator for your first-hand accounts. That will help with your travel bills.
Handy| 6.10.11 @ 1:10PM
I was raised in a relatively small suburb of Chicago, and there used to be a strong sense of community. Practically the whole town turned out for the high school sports contests The local Catholic, Congregational, Episcopal, Lutheran, Methodist and Catholic church pews were always filled. There was even a Catholic seminary there. Most of these sponsored Boy and Girl Scout programs. Adult supervision was always around, because most Moms were at home in the afternoons. You get the picture.
Today is a much different story. The population has doubled over the past two decades through the migration of Boomers to residential developments which were possible only by annexation of adjacent farms. Still, church and athletic contest attendance is down significantly. Only one Boy Scout troop remains. Although there has been significant commercial investment it has mostly been in retail stores and what I call mini-malls which primarily employ people from out of town. Dunno about the actual vacancy rate of these, but there sure are a lot of closed store fronts today as compared with a few years ago. Needless to say, the three main manufacturing companies and many of their suppliers are long gone.
Not surprisingly, youth crime is on the rise: from drugs to vandalism, to shoplifting, to car theft and even some gang-related stuff. When I was a kid, the population was about 9,000 mostly long term residents, and there were three full-time policemen. Now, there are approximately 20,000 people and over 80 coppers.
So yes; faith based organizations and community spirit go hand in hand, but it is hard to say which came first, and which has contributed more to the atomization of society. They both share some of the blame. The "liberalization" of most major religious denominations has alienated many faithful, and they no longer join nor do they attend. Communitarianism, in the larger sense, has declined due to various factors. Among them are our "Mobile Society" wherein people move in for a few years and are then relocated. No roots. Another significant development is the rise of professional city and county managers. This interest group is more interested in feathering its own nest than it is in improving conditions. In the past, these positions were mostly filled by local residents and even volunteers. Even elected aldermen are paid over $30,000 per year to attend one meeting per week.
As one example that encompasses both of these phenomena; take the relocatee from California. Her family came here because CA had become too oppressive. She immediately became very politically active in everything from leash laws to leaf laws. People now have no right to bag their own leaves and must rely upon the city to collect them with those annoying vacuum machines so that they may be properly composted. You are responsible for raking them to the curb, of course.
To accomplish her goals, she enlisted the support of the local churches and became a deacon of one of them. She preached a liberal gospel from the lay pulpit and convinced many of her parishoners. So she ran for alderthing and won. Guess what? That's right. Barely four years after her family moved in, hubby got a big job back in CA, and before she could even be sworn in, they were off again to the left coast.
Oh yes, that Catholic seminary. It now belongs to the county. Instead of getting no revenue from it in the old days; the taxpayers now must provide for its upkeep as well. Bureaucrats need their office space afterall, and with pastoral gardens maintained by public union janitors and groundskeepers. Natch.
Jacob| 6.13.11 @ 10:23AM
Give me a break. I'm so tired of hearing mushy boomers congratulating themselves for their saintliness when the historical record tells quite a different story.
Thank you for the good things you did.
You have also been one of the greediest most selfish generations in history. Whatever heroic fiction you tell yourself, your kids got it from somewhere.
And if kids are lazy and more selfish today, they're also way less racist and, despite your constant negativity, much smarter than the average cocky farm boy of the fourties and fifties.
You remember WWII heroes...I remember abortion and the greatest wastefulness in the history of man (which you passed onto your children, qquit pretending you heroically fought against it! It wasn't a bunch of eight year olds who put us on the path to failure fifty years ago)!
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