Pessimists in the Optimist Club

WAAAAAH!

The country sucks! The sky is falling! Everything is broken! I could cry!

This coming from the Optimist Club.

I think the Optimist Club should reconsider its enrollment requirements.

Americans' unhappy birthday: 'Too much wrong right now'

Even folks in the Optimist Club are having a tough time toeing an upbeat line these days. Eighteen members of the volunteer organization's Gilbert, Ariz., chapter have gathered, a few days before this nation's 232nd birthday, to focus on the positive: Their book-drive for schoolchildren and an Independence Day project to place American flags along the streets of one neighborhood.

They beam through the Pledge of Allegiance, applaud each other's good news...

But then talk turns to the state of the Union, and the Optimists become decidedly bleak.

They use words such as "terrified," "disgusted" and "scary" to describe what one calls "this mess" we Americans find ourselves in. Then comes the list of problems constituting the mess: a protracted war, $4-a-gallon gas, soaring food prices, uncertainty about jobs, an erratic stock market, a tougher housing market, and so on and so forth.

...Happy birthday, America? This year, we're not so sure.

The nation's psyche is battered and bruised, the sense of pessimism palpable. Young or old, Republican or Democrat, economically stable or struggling, Americans are questioning where they are and where they are going. And they wonder who or what might ride to their rescue.

These are more than mere gripes, but rather an expression of fears — concerns reflected not only in the many recent polls that show consumer confidence plummeting, personal happiness waning and more folks worrying that the country is headed in the wrong direction, but in conversations happening all across the land.

"There are so many things you have to do to survive now," says Larue Lawson of Forest Park, Ill. "It used to be just clothes on your back, food on the table and a roof over your head. Now, it's everything.

"I wish it was just simpler."

Lawson, mind you, is all of 16 years old.

..."Did I cringe when I filled my car last week? Yes," she says. "But 100 years from now, if I were still alive, would I really care that I paid $4 a gallon for gas? No. I care my grandbaby is safe and she's well and she has a good place to live.

"Your joy can't be about your circumstances."

As she says this, the other Optimists nod in agreement. Then their president, Susan Kruse, begins reciting one of the 10 tenets of the "Optimist Creed," and the others soon join in, their smiles returning.

"Forget the mistakes of the past," they chime in unison, "and press on to the greater achievements of the future."

In the end, that's what the Optimists do. They get their troubles off their chests, debate possible solutions — and then move on to doing what they can to make some positive changes in their communities, and in their own lives.

A birthday lesson for all Americans, perhaps.

What a load of crap! Really!

"Americans' unhappy birthday"?

They have to be kidding. If they think American 2008 is so unhappy, I think they need take a remedial American history course.

These people aren't "optimists." They sound like Obama supporters.

Michelle Obama should be the honorary president of this decidedly pessimistic, "down on America" Optimist Club.

If our Founding Fathers were such annoying whiners and dwelt on their fears, they wouldn't have had the courage and the drive to found this country. They would have been cowering in corner, whining.

We've always faced challenges and our history shows that we have overcome them.

Recognize your discontent and TAKE ACTION. Quit whining.

Furthermore, there is so much that's right with this country. I'm not suggesting that we pretend there aren't problems or there's no suffering. I'm suggesting a realistic look around. I'm sick of the so-called "optimists" being so pessimistic. They're closing their eyes to all that's positive here and now.

We're blessed to live in this great country.

We're free.

HAPPY Birthday, America!

HAPPY! HAPPY! HAPPY!


Freedom is the last, best hope of earth.

--Abraham Lincoln