Sick of "important" people

Please edit the profanity out of the original post. Not appropriate for a PG site.

There will always be people who get things by merit of their connections and their family name. These people even turn up in the armed forces serving terms as officers generally. They catch a little grief for being who they are, though it is nice when someone from the elite families joins the military. More of them should serve. We all know that whether these young men and women continue in military service, or go on to academia or running a company or even politics, they will get where they want to be. They won't pay the same price for personal flaws and mistakes that most folks do. And they'll be insulated from a certain level of misfortune. But nobody's death-proof. We will all lose our loved ones, and eventually die ourselves, it doesn't matter what you name is. So don't get caught up in class advantages.

That Psalm came around in daily readings yesterday. I like verse 15 which ask that the Lord balance out days of affliction with days of joy. There has been rather a lot of hardship in the past year and a half, and I hope things won't be that hard again for some time to come. Maybe that's why I don't take all this economic doom and gloom so seriously: I'm not in Iraq, I'm not going back to Iraq. I'm in the United States of America where the vast majority of us have indoor plumbing, electricity 24 hours a day, and access to affordable food. I have time off for a change. I'm with the people I love, people I've been separated from for too long. The grief over my father's death is finally ebbing. (It doesn't so much decrease in intensity as in frequency, if that makes any sense.) Plus I have my mother's collie dog curled up next to me. We are both sitting looking at a lit-up real Christmas tree. Life is beautiful.

There will always be people who get things by merit of their connections and their family name. These people even turn up in the armed forces. They catch a little grief for being who they are. But we are (generally) glad to have them, and more of them should serve. We all know that whether these young men and women continue in military service, or go on to academia or running a company or even politics, they will get to where they want to be. They won't pay the same price for personal flaws and mistakes that most folks do. And they'll be insulated from a certain level of misfortune.

But nobody's death-proof. We will all lose our loved ones, and eventually die ourselves, it doesn't matter what your name is. So don't get caught up in these advantages.

"A Senate seat is a ... valuable thing, you just don't give it away for nothing."

As a certain governor Blagojovic has recently iterated:) I mean, Schlossberg should be required to buy it, at least.

Caroline Kennedy is deathproof? Gimme a break. She lost her father when she was six years old, and her only sibling a few years ago. Not to mention various uncles, aunts, and cousins in between. Arguable, that's the downside of having a large family--more people to lose.