I was disappointed to read Pepper Adams’s open letter apologizing to the children of this nation. He clearly sees America’s glass as half-empty. I see it as not only half-full but almost to the top.
Mr. Adams and I are from separate generations. He is a Baby Boomer and I am Generation X, so that means we clearly have a different perspective. His generation may be disappointed in themselves, but they only have themselves to blame.
The Baby Boomers certainly didn’t fill the large shoes of the generation before them (the Greatest Generation as labeled by Tom Brokaw), and perhaps that is the reason the Baby Boomers seem to have a lack of self-worth. They realize that after 60 years they did not measure up to their parents.
But that’s no reason to see the glass of our nation as half-empty, and I suspect that Mr. Adams is basing this strong opinion on just one short year of Democrat rule in the federal government. This would be ridiculous considering we could list an encyclopedia of negatives going all the way back to the landing of Columbus’s ship 500 years ago.
Instead, look at the glass as half-full: Think of all the great things that have happened in the last 50 years. We can go into space. We are curing cancers and lowering cancer rates. We communicate with each other much easier, and can go virtually anywhere in the world and learn anything we want through the use of the Internet.
I could go on all day, but no list of great accomplishments by the USA is going to convince someone with a bad attitude that the glass if half-full.
Mr. Adams mentioned divine intervention. He and I attend the same church. It was in that church that I came to know Jesus Christ, and I’ll forever be grateful to them. I even took a class taught by Mr. Adams about Christianity and science, and it was a great class.
But I think Mr. Adams might be forgetting an important lesson from our Lord: Earthly concerns are a trap. The greater reward is the grace we receive from our Lord Jesus Christ, and through Him we have all we need.
The world of men will forever be corrupt and full of evil, and it has nothing to do with Democrats, Republicans, healthcare, war, or any other matter relating to politics. Our world was infested by evil long ago through choices made by our ancestors. And our descendants will continue to make many poor choices that are not based on God’s Word and Commandments.
The divine intervention Mr. Adams mentioned came, was crucified, buried, and rose again to take our sins, forgive us of those sins, and redeem us.
If we just focus on God and His will, trying to do His will and walk in His grace, then our glasses are not just half-full, but overflowing.
Mr. Adams: Don’t get bogged down with the earthly matters. All that will pass, but your eternity with God will endure forever.
Mike Fairbanks
Peachtree City, Ga.
