Welcome to the next century?.

Sunday, January 02, 2000

Welcome to the next century?

Say "Hello" to the new millennium. What a difference a new year can make.

Be forewarned: it’s an election year.

Local government, state and federal government, too, will conduct elections this year. For the Presidential election, the campaigning really never stopped since 1996.

But America prides itself on the process of making elected officials accountable — occasionally — to the people who elected them and therefore this is an opportunity for voters to make changes.

It couldn’t come at a better time.

Consider the American paradox that exists:

The paradox of our time in history is that we have taller buildings, but shorter tempers; wider freeways, but narrower viewpoints; we spend more, but have less; we buy more, but enjoy it less.

We have bigger houses and smaller families; more conveniences, but less time; we have more degrees, but less sense; more knowledge, but less judgment; more experts, but more problems; more medicine, but less wellness.

We have multiplied our possessions, but reduced our values.

We talk too much, love too seldom, and hate too often

We’ve learned how to make a living, but not a life; We’ve added years to life, not life to years.

We’ve been all the way to the moon and back, but have trouble crossing the street to meet the new neighbor.

We’ve conquered outer space, but not inner space; We’ve cleaned up the air, but polluted the soul; We’ve split the atom but not our prejudice; We have higher incomes, but lower morals; We’ve become long on quantity, but short on quality.

These are the times of tall men ant short character; steep profits and shallow relationships. These are the times of world peace, but domestic warfare; more leisure, but less fun; more kinds of foods but less nutrition. These are days of two incomes, but more divorce; of fancier houses, but broken homes.

It is a time when there is much in the show window and nothing in the stockroom."

An American paradox, indeed.