Is Everybody Happy!? No? Then Vote For Me.          

     When I was younger, it was common around Memorial Day to find veterans in or out of uniform, sometimes accompanied by a currently serving service man, offering small red paper poppies outside stores, on street corners, or anyplace they thought there might be a crowd.      These poppies had a stem, a green center, and a banner attached saying that any donation went to the Veterans of Foreign Wars. For a donation these past and present service persons would give you a poppy, which you would proudly wear in a lapel, shirt pocket, or somewhere so people could see that you supported the veteran’s cause. It also kept other poppy purveyors from accosting you for a donation. 

      My point is that you didn’t get a poppy unless you made a donation. I can’t remember anyone ever saying that it was unfair. No one even thought that way. Why in the world should you get a Poppy unless you made a donation? It was one of those common sense things.              Yesterday I was coming out of Fred Meyer loaded down with bags of stuff to eat, when a veteran stepped up to me and stuck a poppy into a fist clenched around the plastic handles of grocery bags. He was giving one out to everybody who walked in or out of the store. Helping him was a young Marine. They did have a table with some literature and a canister for donations. 
      I thought to myself, so, in this kinder, gentler time we live in, here’s another example that all of us are equal, and that we all get the same thing no matter what we do or how much we contribute. Everybody is a winner.       The problem is, from what I see, the general populace is more divided now, or at least much more vocal about our differences despite the effort to make us all out to be the same, all equal, all worthy of the same things, and the same treatment. 
      Part of what brings this to light is the current situation where political contenders, are using divisiveness as a springboard to political office. They’re telling us how unequal we are, what freedoms we lack, who’s taking advantage of us, and which neighbor’s trying to kill us. Then when the candidates tell us how they’re going to solve the problems, it only further points out to everyone how much better off the other guy or group is. This creates everything from jealousy, to hate. I’m not saying it all started with Buddy Poppies, but that the Buddy Poppy situation brought it to my mind.