An attorney, a building inspector and a comedian were asked how they would depict this situation: "What do you think about 100 people locked in an abandoned theater?" The attorney said, "A potential lawsuit." The inspector said, " An emergency for the fire department or police." The comedian said, "A great opportunity!"
Opportunity is from the Latin nautical term indicating "favorable winds"- Opportununus compound adjective from the prefix ob (to) and portus (harbor). Originally it described winds, "blowing toward the harbor." These winds create an advantage for a ship to reach their destination harbor. The phrase became figuratively "coming at a convenient time." Or as we say, "Being in the right place at the right time with the right qualifications."
The nation in which we live seems to be facing some tremendous opportunities. Like a ship at see, we can either recognize these favorable winds or miss them all together. These favorable trends swirling around us are exciting and strong. They can propel our nation to our next destiny safe and secure, if we allow our sails to be positioned at the correct moment. That moment seems to be right now!
What trends? Why are today's trends, winds of opportunity? For me today, an old saying expresses it best,"Today's opportunities is yesterday's dreams and tomorrow's memories." The underlying strength of the USA is the results of well visioned dreams of many leaders and statesmen. If handled properly by the current generation of dreamers those dreams will be pleasant realized memories for each and every citizen. Handled wrong and our memories of wonderful nation will have become nothing more than a distant dream of long ago.
Opportunity made our great nation. We must once again seize this opportunity. How? First we must begin a unified approach to the future. Congress, social and business planners, even state officials and every politician needs to produce concrete plans for our future expansion. What buildings, roads and social services are being planned by various identities that could be more effective if consolidated into one unified effort. Also to churches and service groups, what services do you render that could be strengthen through a cooperative effort? With our continued population growth these questions gain in importance. Plus the governments crackdown on length of time a person can receive welfare will be producing more and more people in need of services no longer available in sufficient quantities.
It does seem to be a thrilling notion to see our nation as one long political traffic jam from one end of the nation to the other with a mish mosh of solutions scattered randomly around, with a sprinkling of beggars and criminals lurking at every corner.
Today is the day to catch the favorable winds. We are headed toward the right port, but the sea is scattered with rocky shoals. I would feel more comfortable if I knew there were some wise and cool heads at the helm insuring our trip to safe harbor isn't stopped short. You know who you are and history is asking you to step up to the plate as a citizen leader, putting aside all self interest for the best interest of the nation. Your dreams of yesterday are depending on you today, so our future maybe what you envisioned so long ago. Opportunity is a group effort. It is time for all good men (and women) to rise to the challenge above self interest.
No comments:
Post a Comment