On occasion, I enjoy reading the Daily Nexus. I did so today.

And even as old as I am (I qualify for codger status) I am still amazed at how youngsters ascend to the tops of their Ivory Towers with a combination of energy and flexibility to oversee the Kingdom from afar.

Such were my thoughts as I read the Opinion piece on page six of the January 13, 2012 issue. You see, as I read this piece, I viewed life from another perspective — from ground level.

The initial theme of this piece, worded different ways, was that water is “the world’s most precious resource …” I immediately smiled and thought, “No, our life is.”

We agree that water is an essential part of life. However, one can forego water for days, but one cannot forego life for a second. Well, actually, that’s not true, but if that occurs, it makes this conversation impossible.

I did wonder what it would be like if life had begun on a waterless planet. Ah, but be silent old man, for youth is trying to make a point.

However, the young author does an amazing pirouette at this point and declares that, “ … we must concern ourselves with the quality of life every person is entitled to have.” Really! A view from the Ivory Tower, and a view with which I disagree!

There is no constitutional or statutory requirement that everyone is entitled to a quality of life.

I know, at this point, Thomas Jefferson’s words crystallized in the Declaration of Independence now flow from your lips like water. Guess what, that’s not the law. Never has been, and isn’t now. Please discuss this point with a political science major for further clarification.

At ground level, no one is entitled to a quality of life. The ground level world doesn’t work that way.  Every utopian attempt has ended in failure, unless you want to count communism as an achievement. Personally, I don’t, because the two great leaders of communism are ranked as the number one murderer and number two murderer of human beings in the entire history of the earth. Of course, if you want to overlook this fact, then I stand corrected.

What we are “entitled to” is what we earn; what we fight for — be it in the classroom, or in the work place, or fighting dandelions in the backyard.

We are a truly blessed people. All those ‘old, white men’ who gave us our Constitution with their foresight, blood and, in some cases, their lives, gave us a foundation to become — yes, here it comes — the greatest nation on earth.

This will probably shock the I.V.-ers, the Ivory Tower viewers, but 300 years ago, paved roads were a rarity in America … and there was no ATM machine or Facebook.

The quality of life we have today is based on the foundation that those ‘old, white men’ gave us, followed by the sacrifices of countless Americans who came after and built this great nation.

What separates us from those people who trudge three miles every day for their drinking water? After all, didn’t our forefathers and mothers start walking upright at the same time? And if we left the start line at the same time, shouldn’t we all be at roughly the same point today? And when our segment of mankind arrived in the Americas in the form of pilgrims, there was just unending wilderness over what would with time become the United States of America.

So what event has separated Americans from others who trudge three miles for drinking water, while we live in the lap of luxury, which I define as access to my Mac? I vote that our most precious resource is our Constitution, which entitles us to hard work to keep it in place.

Written by Robert Lynn.

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