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2002 Soap Box Archives Thoughts on 2002 2002, just the number boggles my mind having lived over sixty two of my sixty five years in the 20th century where it was always 19 something or other. To think that we’re in the 21st century still amazes me. I’ve had basically the same New Year’s resolutions for the last several years. Some I accomplished and some I didn’t, so I’m still working on resolutions I made in the last century, much less coming up with a bunch of new ones for the new century. I’ve seen an awful lot of changes in this old world, some good, some bad. When I was a kid about the only thing approaching an antibiotic was quinine, until penicillin was discovered in the forties. Computers and jet aircraft were just ideas on someone’s drawing board and television was only a futuristic dream. I remember Pearl Harbor and the day we dropped the first atomic bomb on Hiroshima. I remember nickel cokes, fifteen cent hamburgers and getting in the movie theater for nine cents. I recall families sitting around radios in the evening listening to Bob Hope or The Shadow or the evening news. I remember that the first profanity I ever heard in a motion picture was when Rhett Butler told Scarlett O'Hara,”Frankly madam, I don’t give a damn”. I remember a time when I didn’t even know anybody who would dare question the existence of God and a handshake was as good as a written contract to a lot of people. I remember when people put their faith in the Almighty and their dependence in themselves to raise a family. There were no government subsidies, no safety net and few people even had hospitalization insurance. There was a time when men took their hats off in the presence of ladies and would not even dream of uttering an off color word in the company of the fairer sex. When I was coming along corporal punishment was viewed as necessary in the proper raising of a child, and after being on the receiving end I can honestly say that I think it’s a good thing. A spanking never did any permanent damage but it sure did some permanent good. Guns were looked at as something to be respected and always kept out of the reach of children. But nobody questioned anyone’s right to have them. When our nation was involved in a war the citizens of this country got in behind it and nobody would have had the nerve to protest it on the streets of America. Of course the Vietnam war and bad politicians put an end to that kind of blind patriotism, and it’s a shame. Of course, there was racial prejudice and superstitions, and many diseases which today are considered trivial, but were totally incurable all those years ago. Yes, times have surely changed and I’m sure that 2002 will bring more changes, some good and some bad, some brilliant and some stupid. But in this ever changing world we must remember, there is one thing which never changes, not even one iota, I’m talking about Almighty God. He is the same yesterday, today and for all eternity. My fervent New Year’s wish for 2002 is that millions of people will come to know him this year by accepting the eternal life provided for us through the sacrifice of Jesus Christ. I could have no greater wish. Happy New Year What do you think? God
Bless America
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