By Russell Turner

Posted: July 15, 2012

STILWELL, Okla. -- I can still remember the disaster drill that we all went through when I was a child in school. I can remember the fire drills where all of the children would learn how to exit the building in an orderly manner. I can also remember all of us getting under our desks when having the tornado drills. Some of the children made fun of the exercises, but I feel that those drills were an important part of growing up. I feel that the people that came up with the idea of the disaster drills must have endured some kind of disaster in their lifetime. On a personal level I survived a tornado several years ago, and it gave me a very healthy respect for the forces of nature. Forces of nature can be floods, tornadoes or fire, but I feel that economic disasters can be just as devastating, or more so, as anything nature can throw at us.

Natural disasters often affect only a regional area, but economic disasters can affect the entire planet at one time. From everything I have witnessed over the last several years, I fear that we Americans are not prepared for the economic storms that are brewing on the horizon. In my parents’ and grandparents’ day there were no entitlement programs such as welfare or food stamps. They had to withstand the economic storms on their own, and they learned to recognize the trends and prepare the best way they could. Most of the people in their day had to work hard just to feed their family. They understood the need for their children to have a better education than they had; it was their hope that their kids would not have to work as hard as they had to. They did all that they could to motivate their children to excel in school.  

The schools in my grandparents’ day were primitive compared to the schools we have now. Most of the children had to walk to school and the lunch program was usually a cold biscuit with some jelly spread on it from home, but the kids did learn. From what I have been told times were hard but they felt lucky to be able to go to school and hopefully have a better life later. Today we Americans do not have to sacrifice to attend school. While our schools are staffed with competent teachers and most needs are met, we spend more on education than most all other countries but our test scores rank very low compared to other developed nations.

We adults need to do a better job in motivating the young people of our nation to excel in class. If we do not take our duty serious our future generations will not have the tools or ability to withstand the economic storm that is gathering.   

Russell Turner writes “The Conservative View” and lives in Adair County, Oklahoma.

Copyright 2012 Russell Turner