• Nathan, Don't worry about the questions. I am happy to answer them. This week has been busy due to labor day and the fact that FEMA has ordered over 30,000 RV's for hurricane relief shelters and we're in a scramble to provide batteries. I did not say that the educational system caused excess. I said it has eroded the work ethic in this country which has created sloth among many people. Sloth, by the way, is a biblical term for laziness. The founder of the modern educational system, John Dewey, believed that education should be separated from morality. He was a confirmed atheist and marxist. He did not believe in corporal discipline for a child, and thought that each should pursue his own individual inclinations within the classroom. Thus the former system of repetitive memorization and written practice was thrown out the window. Children were no longer compelled to work to learn, or earn, as it were. Relativism reared its ugly head. The disaster that ensued has only been complicated by the Federal government taking it over. The past forty years or so have been one case after another of the government putting a band aid on the system to stop the bleeding. The latest being the so-called "No child left behind" program. The Protestant work ethic is alive, still, through tradition, and through the Bible, which is where it comes from. Proverbs is filled with verses which define its precepts. Your Paw-Paw and my Dad are two living examples of what I mean. So I don't mean to say that everybody's lazy now, because they aren't. Spoiled? well that's another matter. There is an old saying. Give a man a fish and you feed him for one day, but teach him to fish and you'll feed him for life. The "entitlement culture" I spoke of comes from the government giving people "fish," but not teaching them "to fish." I'm talking about the welfare state, in which the government has given handouts, in the name of noblesse oblige, for 70 years and created a class of dependants, who are not given any incentive to work and have come to feel entitled to this money. In the black community, this has been very harmful, because black mothers have refused to marry the fathers of their children, knowing they can be supported by the government dole. Why does this continue? Because we have a certain national political party, which starts with a "D," that depends upon these folks for their votes. You mentioned the word excess. That might mean different things to different people. To me, excess is the Federal Government, which wastes money like garbage. Excess is a woman with too many miles at the tanning booth and too much adornment, or makeup. Excess is the amount of food we waste, and arbitrary things we buy. Excess is spending exorbitant amounts for Christmas when their are poor people nearby who have nothing. Excess is buying new furniture, or a new car because your neighbor just did. (The Bible has a word for this called coveting. Our whole system of advertising and consumerism is built upon our covetous natures) Excess is watching television all day long. In short, I think excess is anything material and of the flesh that keeps us from focusing on the truth of what Christ is doing in our lives. Instead of having a nation where anyone, and I mean anyone, could work their way to a better lifestyle, the way we used to. We are slowly becoming a nation of "haves" and "have nots," with the "haves" flaunting their material success and the "have nots" blaming the haves and the government for their lack thereof, never having been taught to work to achieve anything. Gotta go. Still not finished. Brad

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