By: Susie Kleiner 

I’m reading the Northwest Herald and come across a raucous locale debate. It’s fueled by a group of Galesburg High School students who were denied their diplomas because their dopey parents hooted and hollered at their recent graduation ceremony. I, too, have been in that situation. As always, the administrators requested that families be respectful of others while names are being called. In fact, parents at Galesburg H.S. willfully signed a contract, assuring they’d abide. Still, “bleacher screechers” yelped and applauded and stomped until they exhausted themselves. Their children are now being denied their diplomas. The parents are preparing for battle…threatening lawsuits, citing racial discrimination and shouting from the rooftops, “I know my rights!”  Etc. Etc. Etc. 

We are a society of cowards, sissy’s , punks & snitches.  We’d rather sue out of raw spite than suffer even a moment of humility. We’re a society of apathy, instant gratification and superfluous sex: little girls’ underwear with the phrases “Wink Wink” and “Eye Candy” on the front…stopping traffic to have an idle chat with a jaywalker…marrying in June and divorcing in August…ripping into waitresses who don’t refill our Diet Cokes in three seconds flat…drowning in credit card debt instead of paying rent…shooting classmates to ease the pain of adolescence…and finding every loophole in the book just to alleviate ourselves of an ounce of responsibility.  

Through the depression, people like my father went without. They scrounged for every penny, worked miserable jobs and were grateful for every morsel of food they could shove into their salivating mouths. My father tied his own shoes and made his own meals. Others hid from Nazis in basements and watched their families – and their homes – crumble at their feet. Yet, they endured. Would we have had the same grace?  

Here’s something to chew on. Americans have sued, citing the following: 

“My neighbor has a pool and won’t let my kids swim in it.”

“I was told my prize was a Toyota; what I got was a toy Yoda.”

“I broke my tailbone because I slipped on the restaurant’s floor.” (That last guy slipped on soda he spilled. He was awarded $113,000). 

The freedoms and opportunities in this country are boundless. We can be Christian, Muslim, Atheist, Buddhist or Jewish. We can be black, white, red, yellow or brown. We can attend the best universities, land the best jobs and eat the best food. What many of us aren’t is grateful. What many of us can’t do is help ourselves from becoming a nation of spoiled brats.  Shakespeare said, “In peace, there’s nothing so becomes a man as modest stillness and humility.“    

Maybe Mr. Shakespeare was on to something.