Dear Editor:
I have never written a letter to the editor, even though I regularly read the letters in the local newspaper. I am a scientist by education, which means I have been involved in numerous scientific papers. Even so, I’ve never felt compelled to write a letter. Many of the letters I have read are political, and this one is not different. It is, however, also educational.
While I have served in several elected offices in my professional organization, a few years ago I was elected to the local property owner’s association. I participated because I wanted to learn how the association worked and to meet other owners. I have acted in my elected offices by employing the golden rule: “do unto others as you would have them do unto you.” This is from the bible (Luke 6:31 and Matthew 7:12), and it has served me well.
Unfortunately, there is another golden rule: “Whoever has the gold makes the rules.” This is from the satirical cartoon “Wizard of Id”, which began in 1964. Unfortunately, it is prevalent in many political situations. To get the gold, it is often taken to be mutually exclusive to the biblical rule. However, this need not be the case.
You may have gold, and you may rule others, but you don’t need to ignore the biblical rule. But one often needs to abandon the original traits that led to success. This is easy to say, but hard to do. However, it can be done if you want. You must remember that there are two golden rules, one biblical and the one satirical. They need not be mutually exclusive but usually are. It takes effort to make both rules work together.
Let’s face it, life is often not fair. There are often things which happen to you that you can’t or don’t control, like an accident as an example. The problem is you can’t get even or retaliate. This can be frustrating, but “crap happens” even if you follow the biblical golden rule. I hope our leaders and you pick the biblical rule, rather than the satirical one. At least think about this when you read the letters and run your life accordingly.
Joe Margraf
