The Reminder is making its archives back to 2003 available on our website. Please note that, due to technical limitations, archive articles are presented without the usual formatting.
Thanks once again to readers for your positive comments on this article! I am glad that you look forward to it! * * * What Children Hear: Children overheard saying their bedtime prayers: "Give us this steak and daily bread and forgive us our mattresses..." A child learned the Lord's prayer as: "Our Father, who are in Heaven, Howard be thy name..." One woman spent her childhood saying: "Hail Mary, full of grapes..." A little boy in nursery school said: "Our Father, who art in Heaven, how didja know my name?" Another child thought the prayer was: "Give us this day our jelly bread..." A child in Sunday school had a favorite hymn: "Gladly, the cross-eyed bear..." Another child interpreted the Apostles Creed as: "He suffered under a bunch of violets..." A different child interpreted the Sunday school song about Noah as: "As the rains came down and the spuds came up..." Another child thought the line in the Lord's prayer was, "lead a snot into temptation," thinking that she was praying for her sister to get into trouble. One eight year old had to be shown the hymnal before she would believe that "Oh Come All Ye Faithful" was not "Oh, Connie, be faithful!" Do you really know how your children and grandchildren interpret what they think they hear? * * * Here is great food for thought, as paraphrased from comedian George Carlin. What's going on in New Orleans? First for the people of New Orleans, we are sorry for your loss. With that said, let's go through a few hurricane rules. Unlike an earthquake... we knew it was coming. A mandatory evacuation means just that... get the heck out! Don't blame the government after they tell you to go. If they hadn't said anything, I can see the argument! They said get out. If you didn't, it is your fault, not theirs... we don't want to hear it, even if you didn't have a car... you get out! If there is an emergency stock up on water and non-perishables, and you don't stock up, it is not the government's fault you are starving! If you run out of food and water , find a store that has some, remembering that TVs, DVDs and CDs are not edible. If someone comes in to help you, don't shoot at them and then complain no one is helping you! I'm not getting shot to help some dumbass who didn't leave when told to! My tax money should not pay to rebuild a $2 million dollar house, a sports stadium or a floating casino. Also, my tax money shouldn't go to rebuild a city that is under sea level. You wouldn't build your house on quicksand, would you? You want to live below sea-level, do your country some good and join the Navy submariners. The US government didn't cause global warming that caused the hurricane... we have been coming out of the ice age for over a million years. The government isn't responsible for giving you anything. Get yourself a job and stop spooning off the people who are actually working for a living. President Kennedy said it best: "Ask not what your country can do for you, ask what you can do for your country."
