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What Is This World Coming To?
I recently read an article that dealt with all the planning that is necessary to ensure that we are prepared in the event of another a terrorist attack. I cannot recall the many scenarios of evil that must be explored from a law enforcement perspective. With fear of people accusing me of portraying myself as a philosopher (which would be equivalent to me attempting to portray myself as an astronaut), I began to think about the question that is the title of this article. What is this world coming to? We have heard our parents, our grandparents and even old Aunt Ann offer this expression on countless occasions. Lately, if you are a fellow baby boomer, you have probably caught yourself pondering the same. Scary, isn't it? Without trying to sound like a philosopher, the question does call for some philosophical reflection.
What is this world coming to? If we listen to the nightly news reports or what we may read in the paper, not to mention what we may see on billboards along I-75, the answer would be the end of the world as we know it. Crime is on the rise, one war after another, people hungry, and a plethora of other various and assorted bits of gloom and doom that we deal with on a daily basis. Thanks to the internet and CNN, bad news is just a click away. If you ever fear that you are a bit too happy, just tune in to Wolfe Blitzer and he will bring you down quicker than a blimp over a baited field during dove season.
Are things really all that bad? Yes they are! Is the world coming to an end? I am not prepared to etch it in stone but I really do not think so. I remember speaking a while ago to a lady who was celebrating the century mark. She talked about her life and the things that she had experienced. The wise old woman peppered her conversation with a few bright spots such as family, electricity, their first car, indoor plumbing and few other things that we now consider owed to us, but for the most part she spoke of some very dark times. She had lived, as most people her age would have, as a very poor child, who had seen more wars than she would care to remember, the Great Depression, gasoline rationing, Polio and a number of other things that make our bleakest moments seem like a walk in the park.
What is more surprising is that she (and many of my relatives who had lived through this period of our nation's history) still refers to that time as the good old days. The good old days? How could that be? The thought of walking to school 5 miles, uphill both ways, in 3 feet of snow, without shoes, has little appeal to me. I mean seriously, the good old days? I am confused! The fact that they refer to this period as the good old days is based on a way of life that was simpler, easier going, family, community, and church oriented. A life where simple pleasures such as diving in the old swimming hole and making tom walkers out of strings and soup cans drowned out all the bad stuff that was going on around them. They knew it was there, but they did not let it consume them. And, low and behold, as time went by things always got better.
What is this world coming to? The same thing as it has since the beginning of time. One challenge after another that will be resolved by bright minds and creative spirits. More wars will come and go, but that will hopefully make a difference for millions of people in a positive manner. We will see more crime than we think we have ever, but if we study past statistics, we see that it is not much worse based on population than it was when J. Edgar Hoover was running the FBI. The difference is that in the good old days, they did not have someone telling them every 60 seconds just how bad it was. Our current events capabilities are wonderful in some ways, but damaging in others. It is important that we have some knowledge of what is occurring in our world, but I am sure that we do not need an injection of media doom every hour on the hour.
We need to live our lives in a normal fashion, despite al-Qaida terrorists, the greenhouse effect, the governor's race in California, anthrax, and Court TV. We need to do this the same way that wise old woman did with World War 1, World War 2, Adolph Hitler, the Cold War, nuclear threats from Russia, the KKK, and all the other "what is this world coming to" events that have happened before us. We do it by living our life to the fullest, cherishing our family and friends, and with full confidence that if God was ever going to end our world, all of the moaning, groaning and whining in the world could not stop it.
What is this world coming to? I do not have a clue but I can not wait to find out! In the mean time I am going to do all that I can to ensure that my child gets to ponder this same question somewhere down the road.
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Stan Hall is the Director of the Victim Witness
Program for the Gwinnett County District Attorney's
Office. He is also the host of the Gwinnett County
Communication Network's television show "Behind the
Badge."
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