"Whatever Happened to Class"

A good friend of mine, Dr Stan Blevins (Senior Pastor, Highland Baptist Church, Lubbock, TX) wrote this almost ten years ago in their weekly church bulletin:

_________________________________

There is a difficult to define quality about people and society, that makes them concerned for the well-being of others and the country as a whole. Because it's hard to specifically define, it's sometimes called "class."

Americans used to have a lot of class. They were a people proud of their country, their community, and themselves. But somewhere in the last thirty or forty years, class has gone by the wayside.

Here are a few examples:

**When I was a boy we'd play on the lawn around the courthouse. Prominently displayed were signs that read, "$200 fine for spitting on the sidewalk." Yet today I constantly pull up behind someone in a pickup truck, stopped at a light, who opens his door and deposits the filth of his chewing habit in the middle of the street, often right where people must cross.

No class.

I'd favor restoring the fine system: "$1000 fine for depositing your germs in the middle of our community."

**It seems I often stop at a light and a vehicle pulls up beside me with speakers larger than the back seat. The sound is turned up as loud as it will go, blasting every person in every surrounding vehicle, not to mention anyone walking along the street.

How pathetic that our society has produced people so desperate for attention that they can only get it by making a public nuisance of themselves.

No class.
Perhaps there ought to be a fine for that as well.

I'll not go futher in detail, but one could pursue such issues as smoking in enclosed public places, cutting in waiting lines, being rude to customers, and the ever-present threat to sue.

No class in any case.

By the way, don't give me any of the popular baloney about "rights." Always remember that the rights of one individual end where they begin to intrude on the rights of another individual.

I liked our nation much better when we all had some class.

Let's each one do our part to restore what we can before it gets any worse.

______________________

Amen, Dr Stan, Amen!