GIVE ME A BREAK -- ALREADY!

Sometimes I'm tempted to avoid all the hype and hoopla that comes out about food and beverages!  Media thrives on sensationalism and overstatements calculated to get everybody excited and paranoid.

I'm referring to this article that just appeared on Huffington Post:  http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/02/15/alcohol-cancer-risk-one-drink-light-moderate_n_2694622.html#postComment

Every time I turn around, some dumbass pronouncement comes out about this food or that food, this drink or that drink that's either going to be my fountain of youth or the elixir of death.  I like to take a close look, if I can, at where these pronouncements originated and what axe may be in the process of being ground.  Especially suspect are places like Loma Linda University, run by Adventist head up their behind worshippers of Ellen G. White's psychotic nonsense about food and drink.

Not long ago, we were assured that a glass of wine or beer everyday would do much to prolong healthy life and add to the emotional well-being of the elderly.  Now this sensationalized clap trap comes along to get everyone scared that they're going to die of some terrible cancer if they take an occasional drink.

The facts are that we're all going to die sometime and something is going to be blamed for it. 

I will. 

You will. 

Will it be cancer?  I don't know.  Could be.  Will the occasional beer I enjoy, or glass of wine, be at fault?  Who knows? 

Anything can be a hazard to my life or yours.  I have to eat or I'll starve.  I try to eat wisely, but there could be a carcinogen in just about anything I shove between my lips.  It's a crapshoot whether it will get me or not.  Just getting out of bed every day constitutes a hazard, but staying in bed will weaken my body and certainly get so boring that I'd wish I were dead.

So, how about shutting up with all this sensationalist clap trap?  I do enjoy a little drink once in awhile, but since it tends to give me acid, I don't do it much.  But, there are tums, so when I'm celebrating, pour that champagne and I'll chew a few. 

THE GOLDEN RULE VS. THE HAMMER OF PUNISHMENT

For this entry, I've decided to talk about the golden rule, something any decent person will endorse, no matter their religion of lack thereof. This account is taken from another website: http://www.kawasakimotorcycle.org/forum/main-lobby/70204-i-got-pulled-over-today-need-help-2.html

“Buck Snoddy...was a rural Arizona cop back in the 1940s and 1950s (Buck caught the FBI's #1 Most Wanted one year, and was featured in a Dragnet episode a few years later after catching a fugitive from LAPD). Legend has it that Buck never issued a traffic ticket -- if you had been dangerous, he'd just arrest you, otherwise, you got a Buck Talk, during which he explained in excruciating detail the depths of your error. Few people wanted to chance another roadside chat!

An insight into his character are stories such as the time a kid came out of a dance after drinking a few more beers than he should have. Buck sees him weaving through the lot, comes up behind him, and as the kid digs his car keys out, shouts "Hey, how you doing, Mike?" and slaps the kid on the back. Of course, the keys fall to the ground. Buck kicks them under the car, then helps Mike look for them. He says “I have to go check the doors on Main Street, but I'll bring a flashlight back with me. Have a seat in your car, and I'll be back in a few minutes."

Mike, of course, sits down. Next thing he knows, Buck is slamming his hand several times on the car roof to wake him up, and the sun is rising. Buck says "Enjoying the hangover? Your keys are under the car, now get the hell home and be smarter next week."

It would have been easier for him to arrest Mike for public drunkenness, or driving under the influence …. Instead, Buck cut a good kid some slack and gave him a lesson that was remembered 50 years later....”

My wife's father worked as a deputy under Buck Snoddy. He was a man of similar attitude and character, respected and loved by the people he served. He was slow to arrest but quick to be stern and pointed, such as the times he saw workmen in a bar blowing their paychecks and ordered them to go straight home and give their money to their wives. Those were the days when benevolent men such as he could get away with doing such things. You might say it was pre-civil rights times. They were sort of neighborly, fatherly and grandfatherly types of community guardians nobody wanted to mess with.

I'm sure there are still many officers of the law with similar attitudes, but our straight laced, litigious society has made it increasingly difficult for them to follow their charitable instincts. Buck Snoddy didn't have to worry about MADD MOTHERS descending on him in lantern jawed vindictive fury. He also served in a much less crowded environment where everybody basically knew everybody else and had a neighborly concern for each other.

What these men, and their modern counterparts, really championed was the Golden Rule, which is common to all advanced moral systems. They really believed in loving their neighbors as much as they loved themselves and their own families.

We need more of that attitude and practice in our present world. There would be far fewer people in prison or shadowed by a felony record for the rest of their lives.