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Show A Message from a i DISHONORABLE BOY j The progress of science has made it possible to fly through the heavens like the birds; to travel beneath the waters like the fishes in the sea--nov may GOD grant that men can learn to walk the earth like MEN! I just got bounced out of college for "dishonorable" conduct. con-duct. That will make it pretty tough for me to get a good job because "respectable" society you and you and you have branded me as a bad risk. You are shocked at the moral standards of the younger generation. In a way I can see your point, but you should also take a good look at my point. How do you suppose I got used to the idea of doing things the easy way and forgetting the rule book? I got that way by watching the grown-ups. II I read in the papers of millions of "honorable," able-bodied people loafing around on relief, chiselling something some-thing for nothing. I saw politically-minded Supreme Court justices appearing as character witnesses for a communist. I saw Congressmen and Senators putting their nonworking relatives on the public payroll. I saw political cronies, and even relatives, of presidents get rich through special influence. I saw millions of people with political influence getting raise after raise for doing less and less work. The people working the hardest seemed to be getting the least out of it. Ill I learned a copybook motto as a schoolboy that said: "Be sure you are right, then go ahead." Now the idea is to be sure you are ahead, and then go right. Everybody seems to want to meet his problems the easy way. Everybody wants economic security at someone else's expense. ex-pense. Everybody wants medical care at somebody else's expense. ex-pense. Farmers want guaranteed prices at somebody else's expense. ex-pense. Labor wants guaranteed wages at somebody else's expense. ex-pense. But, inexperienced as I am, I can tell you this is a sucker proposition because that someone else is you. I remember another motto: "You can't cheat an honest man." I have studied enough history to know when nations of people lose their moral standards and their work habits, ha-bits, they begin to go downhill. When the idea of grabbing something replaces the idea of creating something, people are in serious trouble. Maybe you, personally, never acted dishonorably, but it is at least slightly dishonorable not to raise your voice in protest against what is going on around you. I am just one of millions of young people who have formed their sense of honor by WATCHING YOU. That Is what made me what I am today a "dishonorable" boy. I have got a real problem on my hands, but I think you have got even a bigger one on your conscience. 1 |