I rarely listen to radio music – I dislike DJs like I dislike dysentery – but I heard a snip of John Mellencamp, “you got to stand for something or you’re gonna fall for anything.” I don’t know that the words are original to him, but they are profound. We each must make a stand somewhere, decide where we stand on issues, t
hen always act according to that decision.
In college, mid-1980s, the fad was for businesses – and colleges – to divest themselves of interests in South African diamonds. Dozens of fads have blown through since then, and most have lasted no longer than mood rings and the Twist. High carb diets are a fad, as are low carb diets. Eat more oatmeal. Don’t eat oatmeal.
One long-running, so far, fad is global warming. When I was in high school, early 1970s, I went to bed at night in fear of the glaciers that would soon overtake us in the coming ice age. The way was polluting the planet, the inevitable cold would take us all.
Take a stand. Don’t fall for every media-generated crisis that comes along, don’t devote too much faith in the latest buzz words.
