Serving proudly since 1873 as the beautiful Nebraska Panhandle's first newspaper

We Have It Rough?

If you think we have it rough today with a shaky economy, terrorists, wars and rumors of wars, earthquakes, hurricanes, tidal waves, high taxes, high unemployment rates, low income to high cost of living ratio, a growing stronger dictatorial federal government, and all of the additional etceteras of life in today’s America – think again.

Consider poor Methuselah and all that he had to deal with. For starters how about having a 900-year lifespan? And you think you get bored doing the same job for 20 or 30 years! Now consider the results of living so long.

Imagine the cost of keeping up an 700 to 900 year old home. How many times did he have to repair the roof? We can only surmise that he lived in the same neighborhood, so how many obnoxious neighbors did he have that moved in next door. How many goats did he have to buy in order to keep the grass trimmed to conform to local codes?

Then there would have been the number of storms to be endured during his lifespan. Or, how many windows replaced and floors redone?

Maybe his wife got fed up with the current home and either forced Methuselah to either remodel the house or pack up the family and move them to a new and better local.

During his lifetime how many children did he have that he had to buy clothes for? Then there were their birthday parties! How many gifts there must have been! Now add to his kids the rather large number of grand children and great grand kids and most likely great great grand kids and who knows how many more!

In 900 years how many shoes would he have worn out, along with the number of outdated robes and other clothes that filled his closets to over flowing? How many family reunions was he required to attend?

Oh, and what about the number of weddings he would have paid for during his life span!

And this is just the beginning. How about the taxes he paid to the local city government for street maintenance? And all he got out of it was dust, sand and rocks.

Then being an elder, how many times did he have to sit on the jury, or even worse, be the judge? And guys: imagine having the same wife to listen to all those years (or maybe wives as he outlived them). Or gals – imagine listening to your hubby’s same jokes and stories for a 100 years? And who knows what else he had to contend with during his 900 years.

On the other hand Methuselah was probably far better off than we are in today’s America. He didn’t have to contend with a national government that was hell bent on controlling every aspect of his life – at the same time that government was taxing him and his family into poverty. Oh, and their justification for doing that!

They would have told him they were just making everyone equal by putting everyone into the same poverty bracket. Yeah, and at the same time politicians were lining their pockets from “donations” from uber-rich corporate big wigs. And these politicians’ paychecks are a whole lot richer than yours. They should get a taste of how the average wage-earning American lives and be paid the same as you and I. And taxed at the same piratical rates! The state of the union is not good.

I bet old Methuselah is in heaven laughing his self silly over how easily Americans have been fooled, and rightly so. Elections are coming closer. Study each candidate. Ask them serious questions and listen to their answers. Then vote wisely.

 

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