"Here here" on both your comments on entitlement. I think that our entitlement culture is the result of the perverting over the years of the American dream. The opportunity for prosperity and success and upward mobility, the original American dream, has been bastardized to mean, "I should be as prosperous and successful as everyone else". Of course the key missing element in all of this is that ability or effort. Yes, everyone has opportunity, but it depends on ability and achievement, and those must be obtained - they cannot be given.I don't have a lot of patience for the entitlement attitude, as I'm sure neither of you do. I see it in the young people that are joining the Navy these days. They want the respect and privilege that comes with the accomplishment achieved over the course of a career without having to earn it. I realize I probably sound like our dear Father sometimes, but I often find myself telling stories to the younger Sailors about how things were when I joined the Navy. I got paid $600 a month, had to live in the barracks, and didn't own a car until one was given to me in Rota, Spain, four years after I joined the Navy.
I don't have any magic answers for curing the entitlement epidemic. Perhaps we need to have a discussion about immediate gratification?? That's another staple of the American culture, right? I want it, and I want it right now. Delayed gratification is so 1960s man. Why should I have to wait?
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