Yester You, Yester Me, Yester America

To the editor:

Once upon a time in America, there was a man named Tom.

He didn't go to Harvard, he didn't go to the mighty MIT.

He homeschooled, pretty much.

He worked. And worked. An underdog. Nobody knew him.

He went on. To invent lightbulbs. Cameras. Direct current that we now call, DC.

Meet Mr. Thomas Edison, an all American man.

There once was another man. Abe, they call him.

A man born naked. In an obscure forest cabin deep in the American Midwest.

His parents were poor.

One day, he had it enough, all that chopping wood chores.

He left. And went to a town. He became a storyteller.

Then, he studied. And became a lawyer. He read almanac and stuffs.

One fine day, this man, who were born with nothing, became a self made man.

Ladies and gentlemen, a true American hero! Meet President Lincoln!

Airplanes, telephones, cellphones, computers, internet, cars, electricity, lightbulbs. Do you see? They are all American inventions!

Now that's past.

This generation is like a spoiled heir apparent of hardworking parents.

Americans: Listen. Your parents, grandparents, great grandparents, they invented all these machines. For us.

Now? We are just sitting back. We inherited the wealth of our diligent and intelligent ancestors.

Even construction workers sit behind the wheel nowadays.

We, us, the U.S., we sit all day everyday. The only time we move our keister is when we walk from our houses to our cars, then from our cars to our offices.

Once we do that, we sit again. In front of the computers.

Then we go back home.

We sit, yet again. In the couches. With yes, potato chips. We don't even walk up to our TVs no more. We got remotes.

Thanks to the agricultural technologies, we got more food than ever. Their tastes have improved so much.

We move less, we eat more. What results? Come on.

We are heavy. Our knees and backs can't handle the gravity. Our arteries are clogged. Our hearts are greased.

We get aneurysms. We get heart attacks. We got knee pain, back aches. We frequent hospitals.

Supply and demand. It doesn't take a Nobel laureate to understand why our health care cost is skyrocketing.

More sick people. More demands for doctors. Of course the price rises. OK?

How did we get here?

Americans: Let us do better. We can.

— Huhnkie Lee

Wasilla