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| -Short Attention Span Theater- |
| Maybe we don't have it that bad? |
| 2020-07-19 |
| [This from an email, author unknown] 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. Smallpox was epidemic until you were in your 40’s, as it killed 300 million people during your lifetime. At 50, the Korean War starts. 5 million perish. >From your birth, until you were 55, you dealt with the fear of polio epidemics each summer. You experience friends and family contracting polio and being paralysed and/or dying. At 55 the Vietnam War begins and doesn’t end for 20 years. 4 million people perish in that conflict. During the Cold War, you lived each day with the fear of nuclear annihilation. 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, almost ended. When you turn 75, the Vietnam War finally ends. Think of everyone on the planet born in 1900. How did they endure all of that? When you were a kid in 1965 you 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 and enlightening as time goes on. Let’s try to keep things in perspective. Your parents and/or grandparents were called to endure all of the above — you've been called to stay home and sit on your couch. Life is short, live it. Love is rare, grab it. Anger is bad, dump it. Fear is awful, face it. Memories are sweet, cherish them. |
| Posted by:Besoeker |
| #6 We don't have it so bad it seems. Contact your HR department. Stimulus plan now allows you to withdraw from your 401 under 62 without penalties. Losses being the reason. Projected big loses in September stock market also. So you can avoid major hit like last time. |
| Posted by: Dale 2020-07-19 12:39 |
| #5 "History would be a wonderful thing if it were only true." -Tolstoy |
| Posted by: Clem 2020-07-19 12:36 |
| #4 "The first time"?? |
| Posted by: Frank G 2020-07-19 12:33 |
| #3 I think my history began the first time I broke my back. I can remember every painful day since then. |
| Posted by: Skidmark 2020-07-19 12:15 |
| #2 For most people, 'history' only starts when they retain their personal memory. Thus, for most people, the saying - those who fail to learn from history are doomed to repeat it - applies. |
| Posted by: Procopius2k 2020-07-19 08:31 |
| #1 Yea, but they didn't have white fragility and systemic racism and gender fluidity. |
| Posted by: g(r)omgoru 2020-07-19 08:30 |