Puttinng things in perspective...

[bzbrent]

Got this from another website. The author is Ted Bauer, who is a writer/editor for White Rock Locators in/around the DFW Metroplex.

“It’s a mess out there now. Hard to discern between what’s a real threat and what is just simple panic and hysteria. For a small amount of perspective at this moment, imagine you were born in 1900.

On your 14th birthday, World War I starts, and ends on your 18th birthday. 22 million people perish in that war. Later in the year, a Spanish Flu epidemic hits the planet and runs until your 20th birthday. 50 million people die from it in those two years. Yes, 50 million.

On your 29th birthday, the Great Depression begins. Unemployment hits 25%, the World GDP drops 27%. That runs until you are 33. The country nearly collapses along with the world economy.

When you turn 39, World War II starts. You aren’t even over the hill yet. And don’t try to catch your breath. On your 41st birthday, the United States is fully pulled into WWII. Between your 39th and 45th birthday, 75 million people perish in the war.

Smallpox was epidemic until you were in your 40’s, as it killed 300 million people during your lifetime.

At 50, the Korean War starts. 5 million perish. From your birth, until you were 55, you dealt with the fear of polio epidemics each summer. You experience friends and family contracting polio and being paralyzed and/or dying.

At 55 the Vietnam War begins and doesn’t end for 20 years. 4 million people perish in that conflict. During the Cold War, you lived each day with the fear of nuclear annihilation. On your 62nd birthday you have the Cuban Missile Crisis, a tipping point in the Cold War. Life on our planet, as we know it, almost ended. When you turn 75, the Vietnam War finally ends.

Think of everyone on the planet born in 1900. How did they endure all of that? When you were a kid in 1985 and didn’t think your 85 year old grandparent understood how hard school was. And how mean that kid in your class was. Yet they survived through everything listed above. Perspective is an amazing art. Refined and enlightening as time goes on. Let’s try and keep things in perspective. Your parents and/or grandparents were called to endure all of the above – you are called to stay home and sit on your couch.”

Sort of puts 2020 in perspective, for me at least...

-b-

[dwmgg17]

Those numbers and what they went thru is hard to put into perspective and is mind boggling for sure.

[5 BASS ASSASIN]

Thank you for showing everyone what perseverance is...

[frogfish202]

Very thought invoking. Thanks

[mattmann7]

Tried that perspective on my GFs son Thanksgiving day. He was preaching global warming and I said we don't get to dictate the events that determine our future. My grandmother told me about all those things as she was born in 1907. My dad's mother in1911 and her parents died from TB in 1918 leaving her and her 5 siblings orphans. They all survived and with the exception of my grandmother who had a stroke at a young age they all lived productive lives.

[Jeff Hahn]

My Granddad was born in 1906 and lived through all of that. Ugh!

[yatesville88fan]

Sure was a lot of tough years for our country and the whole world.

[Astyle954]

Good stuff. We as a country are much better than whats going on right now.

[xcoach]

Thanks for posting.

[jc1234]

On the flip side think of all the progress our grandparents (those born around 1900) saw in their lifetime. They went from horse and buggy to seeing a man on the moon. All of the advances in medical care. From mail and telegraph to handheld cellular phones. The list is endless.

[wiget10]

Nice

[Rip Bass]

My grandpa Bass was born in 1895 and lived through all of that too, he was a doughboy in WW1, lost a finger and an eye. He died in 1974 from liver cancer. He was a quiet man and didn’t like to talk much about his experiences,I wish he had.

[Rip Bass]

According to the numbers in that article,about 460 million people died in that era from wars and disease,I wonder what the population would have been now if they had not died.

[grout-scout]

Geez, anyone remember the “good ol’ days”. Lol

It’s almost like we need something majorly bad to happen for people to appreciate the way they have had it for the last 4 decades.

[FTC]

My mother is 101 years old and every now and then she will make the comment " you guys don't know what tough times are". I believe her.

[bschwoep]

50 years from now 2020 will be a few sentences in a history book. Nothing more, nothing less.

[gehol]

Truly they were the greatest generation. Dad and two uncles served in WWII. Both my parents were raised in rural north Alabama. Both my parents and grandparents knew what hard times were. Their sense of personal responsibility, self sacrifice for family and country, their respect for the rule of law along with a love of country helped carry them through many difficult times. They wholeheartedly endorsed the concept of self determination and considered America a noble country even with her faults and warts. They cherished the ideas and ideals of the constitution. They believed in the capitalist economic system that rewards hard work. Let me add by way of edit; They did not need nor want the government to interfere in their life. They insisted in making their own way at their own speed and accepted the consequences, good or bad, for their decisions.
I am sure this same attitude and beliefs will carry us uhmm, never mind.

[BrianKF]

I still don't like wearing mask and still don't agree with having lockdowns. Anything my grandparents had to SUFFER thru isn't going to change that. They didn't like it back then, and I don't like it now.

[SWbass]

and for some reason we seem to always expect better days in the future, life has it's ups and downs, tough times don't last tough people do

[Transom]

50 years from now 2020 will be a few sentences in a history book. Nothing more, nothing less.

Just like the Spanish flu. It was an answer on a test growing up. Nothing more nothing less.