Thoughts On The State Of Things

When I was growing up my father used to say that “success happens when opportunity meets preparation”.  He would go on to say that the only part of this equation that one can control is the preparation, for you have little control over the opportunities that may or may not present themselves. The aim in life, according to my dad, was to be prepared when the opportunity came and thus position yourself for the greatest possibility of success.  How does one prepare? For what should one prepare? The obvious answers to my father were to get as much education and information as you could, but that was not the most important way of preparing to him.  He would constantly ask “what kind of person are you becoming?” To him the best way one could prepare for future success was to be a genuine person of integrity and character. Integrity and character are the basic foundation upon which education, information, and skills are to be built. Without this foundation the building of your life would be shaky and unstable at best and a complete disaster at worst. It is out of this fortress of character, or lack thereof, that we face every question and situation that life throws at us. 

In recent years we have all seen examples of the failure of politicians and businessmen alike. Our newspaper headlines and news broadcasts are so full of the stories of corruption and sordid scandals that it begins to boggle the mind. All of this has served to crush the public trust and breed a culture of cynicism toward public and corporate institutions. How did we get here? I once heard it said that a man should not be thrust into a position that is greater than his moral capacity to handle or deal with it is. Simply put, we have seen examples of people in positions that are and were in way over their moral heads. We have seen people of academic and educational achievement stumble and fall over moral weakness. We have seen people of great skill and ability sink to very low levels in corruption and scandal. We have seen lives forever damaged by the lack of integrity and character. Our society is writhing in the pain and cynicism of the damage caused by this abominable plague. 

The good news is that it is all curable. This pain and damage is all self- inflicted. The question is “have you had enough yet?” Integrity and character do not come with expiration dates and they are immune to the whims and fads of time. They stand as the immutable and unchangeable bedrock of a life well lived. When we see these two qualities in our politicians and business leaders again, we will see a restoration of the public trust and a nation that can hold its head high once again. We will witness once again the real power of a free and peaceful people.  As a chain is only as strong as its weakest link, our society is only as strong as an individual. That individual is you. What kind of person are you and what are you personally doing to bring about the cure to what ails our society? In the immortal words of The Irish statesman Edmond Burke; 

“Perpetrators, collaborators, bystanders, victims: we can be clear about three of these categories. The bystander, however, is the fulcrum. If there are enough notable exceptions, then protest reaches a critical mass. We don’t usually think of history as being shaped by silence, but the only thing necessary for the triumph of evil is for good men to do nothing.”

And these are my thoughts on the state of things, respectfully submitted.                                            Michael Marsh, Co-Founder of the Parma Patriots