Golden Girls

Last  summer, I was on a business trip.  As I was getting ready to go to a meeting, I was flipping through the channels and landed on an episode of Golden Girls.

Remember that show?  Bea Arthur, Estelle Getty, Betty White and Rue McClanahan were swinging 60 year olds in their retirement community in Boca?

Betty White looked fantastic.

Anyhoo, the story line caught my attention.

Estelle Getty was in the hospital.  She told some people that she was on Medicaid.  They all took two steps away from her.  Like, "euwww!"

Isn't that funny?  The show was on from 1985 to 1992.  So sometime in the last generation, we have a gone from a society that looks down on government dependence to one that demands it as a right.

The main story line, though, was Bea Arthur.  A (young!) Martin Mull was taking "Meals on Wheels" meals that she was delivering.  She was outraged that a young, healthy man would take charity meant for those who were unable to care for themselves.  Here was a young man, clearly he could take care of himself.

She decided to help him stand on his own two feet.  Which, of course, she did.  And, she did it in 30 minutes and still rescued her mother from the hospital where she had been left accidentally.

Those crazy gals.

Again, this was about 25 years ago.

What has happened to us?

Can you even imagine a story line like that today?  Of course not.  Our country has changed, fundamentally.  We have gone from a country of people who were proud of liberty and independence to one that cherishes less freedom and more dependence.  We demand it, in fact.  We call dependence on government a "right."

I can't believe how much we have changed and in so little time.

Can you?