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Essays by RGHF Historian Norm Winterbottom |
| The angry young man wrote “Granted, there
are many socioeconomic factors, but, from where I stand, it's being
unable to escape one's birth. Anywhere there are people who attain
something because they were lucky to be born to certain parents, in
a certain place, there will be dislike generated from the failure to
escape the world one was born in.” The United States Declaration of Independence , in its preamble states that “all men are born equal, that they are endowed with certain unalienable Rights, that among them are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness” That cannot be construed as meaning that all shall live their lives out as equals in all respects. Every human individual is born with certain talents and the degree to which those talents are developed determines success or failure in life, as so many from the humblest of birth and economic circumstance have displayed in achieving some form of success or fame. Brought up in a world dominated by political correctness, the angry young man cannot comprehend that his application failed, not because he was born one month too soon, but because he did not meet the required criteria for selection while others did so. He is like the small boy at a birthday party who goes about punching all of the other children, and, when thrown out cries, “See, nobody loves me.” Rotary, through all its programmes, seeks some form of betterment for others and those programmes have been carefully crafted with reasonable rules put in place for their application. They remain the best of their nature that are available. Rotary can be proud of what it does and isolated antagonism from an angry young man is irrelevant. |
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