...to
remember what life was like in the past for so many!
It's a mess out there now. Hard to discern between what's a real
threat and what is just simple panic and hysteria. For a small amount of
perspective at this moment, imagine you were born in 1900.
On your 14th birthday, World War I starts, and ends on your 18th birthday.
22 million people perish in that war. Later in the year, a Spanish Flu epidemic
hits the planet and runs until your 20th birthday. 50 million people die from it
in those two years. Yes, 50 million.
On your 29th birthday, the Great Depression begins. Unemployment hits 25%, the
World GDP drops 27%. That runs until you are 33. The country nearly collapses
along with the world economy.
When you turn 39, World War II starts. You aren't even over the hill yet. And
don't try to catch your breath.
On your 41st birthday, the
United States
is fully pulled into WWII. Between your 39th and 45th birthday, 75 million
people perish in the war.
At 50, the Korean War starts. 5 million perish.
At 55 the Vietnam War begins and doesn't end for 20 years. 4 million people
perish in that conflict.
On your 62nd birthday you have the Cuban Missile Crisis, a tipping point in the
Cold War. Life on our planet, as we know it, should have ended. Great leaders
prevented that from happening.
When you turn 75, the Vietnam War finally ends.
Think of everyone on the planet born in 1900. How do you survive all of that?
When you were a kid in 1985 and didn't think your 85 year old grandparent
understood how hard school was. And how mean that kid in your class was. Yet
they survived through everything listed above. Perspective is an amazing art.
Refined as time goes on, and enlightening like you wouldn't believe. Let's
try to keep things in perspective. Let's be smart, help each other out, and we
will get through all of this.
This illustrates the fact that what you see depends on your point
of view.
Jim White
Happy Old Southern Gentleman
By the grace of God
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