Response to "I'm 76 and I'm Tired"

Well, for some reason I felt like writing a response to a post that I saw floating around on Facebook. I felt it was particularly offensive for many reasons although I think the people who repost it have some trouble seeing it the same way that I do. Anyway, go ahead and read it and then if you’re not too bored read my response to it.

Bill Cosby "I'm 76 and I'm Tired"

"I'm 76 and I'm Tired" Well worth reading.....


This should be required reading for every man, woman and child.

I'm 76. Except for brief period in the 50's when I was doing my National
Service, I've worked hard since I was 17. Except for some some serious
health challenges, I put in 50-hour weeks, and didn't call in sick in nearly
40 years. I made a reasonable salary, but I didn't inherit my job or my
income, and I worked to get where I am. Given the economy, it looks as
though retirement was a bad idea, and I'm tired. Very tired.

I'm tired of being told that I have to "spread the wealth" to people who
don't have my work ethic. I'm tired of being told the government will take
the money I earned, by force if necessary, and give it to people too lazy
to earn it.

I'm tired of being told that Islam is a "Religion of Peace," when every day I
can read dozens of stories of Muslim men killing their sisters, wives and
daughters for their family "honor"; of Muslims rioting over some slight
offense; of Muslims murdering Christian and Jews because they aren't
"believers"; of Muslims burning schools for girls; of Muslims stoning
teenage rape victims to death for "adultery"; of Muslims mutilating the
genitals of little girls; all in the name of Allah, because the Qur'an and
Shari'a law tells them to.

I'm tired of being told that out of "tolerance for other cultures" we must let
Saudi Arabia and other Arab countries use our oil money to fund mosques
and madrassa Islamic schools to preach hate in Australia , New Zealand ,
UK, America and Canada , while no one from these countries are allowed to
fund a church, synagogue or religious school in Saudi Arabia or any other
Arab country to teach love and tolerance..

I'm tired of being told I must lower my living standard to fight global
warming, which no one is allowed to debate.

I'm tired of being told that drug addicts have a disease, and I must help
support and treat them, and pay for the damage they do. Did a giant germ
rush out of a dark alley, grab them, and stuff white powder up their noses
or stick a needle in their arm while they tried to fight it off?

I'm tired of hearing wealthy athletes, entertainers and politicians of all
parties talking about innocent mistakes, stupid mistakes or youthful
mistakes, when we all know they think their only mistake was getting
caught. I'm tired of people with a sense of entitlement, rich or poor.

I'm really tired of people who don't take responsibility for their lives and
actions. I'm tired of hearing them blame the government, or discrimination
or big-whatever for their problems.

I'm also tired and fed up with seeing young men and women in their teens and
early 20's be-deck them selves in tattoos and face studs, thereby making
themselves un-employable and claiming money from the Government.

Yes, I'm damn tired. But I'm also glad to be 76.. Because, mostly, I'm not
going to have to see the world these people are making. I'm just sorry for
my granddaughter and her children. Thank God I'm on the way out and not
on the way in.


There is no way this will be widely publicized, unless each of us
sends it on!

This is your chance to make a difference.

Ok, just void of all content it’s offensive off the bat because it’s attributed to Bill Cosby. A quick Google search will inform you that it’s attributed to a guy named Robert Hall who is a state senator. I don’t know who originally changed the authorship to Bill Cosby but no matter who it was it’s just offensive to change it to a respected black conservative just to give the article more validity. And it seems obvious that it’s not Bill Cosby writing the article when you hear the author talking about 50 hour work weeks and it being a bad time to retire now.

Anyway, in the first paragraph the author talks about working hard and not having anything given to him to get where he is now. This assumes that there are many people who don’t work hard and just have stuff given to them. I know that in my own experience that I have worked hard and I have had things given to me. I know that I got my first real job at a summer camp because my dad was a pastor and I got a job working for the city because I have a good friend who could recommend me and my current job where I have been a supervisor for years I got because my friends brother knew the owner of the company. And then when it goes to my education I have a Bachelor’s Degree because I had parents who cared to help me fill out financial aid forms and a large support system of people who cared about me and also knew the steps needed to help me succeed. I find it offensive to assume that people who have fallen behind in life just don’t work hard enough. Of course that can be part or even most of the problem some of the time but let’s not just blame the poor for being poor when many of us who are doing well have had many more opportunities to better ourselves then the some people who remain struggling in our society.

Then in the second paragraph the author seems to not understand what taxes are. Of course we can debate the line of what percent we should pay for taxes and how we as a society should spend that tax money but of course we as a society collect taxes and if you don’t pay your share then yes there are consequences. But also it is offensive to hear the author say that his money is being taken and spread to people who are too lazy to earn it. There are so many programs that so many people benefit from that I would guess you as the reader have also benefited from but would not call yourself someone who is too lazy to earn the money. If there is fraud or waste in the system let continue to try and clean it up but let’s not use that harmful rhetoric to call people lazy when the vast majority of us actually use and benefit from many of these programs. Anyway, taxes are a complicated issue and should be debated in an honest way but if you just use examples of poor people cheating the system or rich people cheating the system just to advance your ideology it really is just counterproductive.

I find the third paragraph to be exceptional offensive and I find it hard to see how someone could think it is ok to repost this but of course it is right to say some Muslims do violent and bad things. But that’s cherry picking. The Nazi’s were part of a Christian country, The Spanish Inquisition killed many people in the name of Christianity, and the most obvious thing would be if you lost a family member in one of the wars that we have been fighting in the last decade by what you would call a “Christian nation.” There is no need here to argue the morality of weather we should have went to any of these wars but just try to see the perspective of how some Muslims could at least on some level call Christianity a violent religion because a “Christian Nation” has dropped bombs to kill people they know.

I consider myself a Christian but we also need to look at how Christianity has been used to condone slavery and oppress women and just remember the KKK still burns crosses in the name of Christianity. Those things do not represent me and my idea of what Christianity is and we as a members of the world community should try to realize that most people are good people and don’t want violence. We need to tone down our rhetoric and try to have some kind of understanding of what other peoples of other countries and religions points of view are.

At this point I’m tired too………

But now in the fourth paragraph the author is talking about how the US buys oil. I don’t really understand this paragraph and I would guess the author and anyone reposting it also don’t understand it very well. He says something about oil money funding mosques but I don’t know if this is private money or state money or what, and I don’t know what mosques he is talking about or what hate that is preached that he is talking about. Then when it talks about there are no churches in Saudi Arabia what is the solution to that. Should we stop buying oil from them or if we continue should we force them to build Christian churches as a condition to buying oil. This paragraph is really confusing but just seems to be trying to convey that Christianity is better than Islam without having any real facts or data or a solution to the problem that is suggested.

OK, I’ve got to make this thing shorter. It really is making me tired

5^th Paragraph – He talks about his living standard going down because of global warming and that there is no debate about global warming going on. I personally have not seen our living standard go down because of global warming and I listen to a lot of debate about global warming all of the time.

6^th Paragraph – He talks about not helping people on drugs. I’m not sure who he thinks is telling him he needs to help people on drugs and even if someone is telling him that, is it better to not help someone that needs help.

7^th Paragraph – This seems to suggest that there was a golden age when athletes or politicians or anyone for that matter didn’t do bad things. What is the point of this paragraph? Is it that things were better 50 years ago or that people should not make mistakes or is it just to trying to portray a sense of self-righteous.

8^th and 9^th Paragraphs – He just seems to be ranting about lazy people and people with tattoos. I don’t understand if he thinks these people are such a problem in his life that he needs to point them out and complain. And he seems to be complaining about these people complaining.

Now at the end he is talking about how he’s glad he will die soon because the world is getting so bad. First of all he doesn’t see any of the great progress that we have made over the years. He doesn’t see how good our Nation and world has become and is just pessimistic about all life after himself. Then, even as I would admit that some things have gotten worse or that some things we still need to work on to make this nation and world a better place, I would like to steak my claim for better or worse on how this world has changed and how it will continue to change. The author seems to take no responsibility for anything bad that is happening. I would hope that everyone even in the last years of their life can make a difference and not just sit back and complain and lament that his granddaughter will have to live in a terrible world.

Anyway, if you’ve gotten this far you must be tired too. As you’ve figured out I am fairly liberal but I love my conservative friends and I would hope that when we both see a problem in the world we can have an honest debate on solutions. I hope we don’t just use rhetoric to tear down the other side. And I would guess that if you read this whole thing I might have said a few things that sounded a little too rude to my conservative friends. Sometimes I am also guilty of using negative rhetoric that does not help that conversation progress to a point where people can try to move the debate to real solutions that can help our society as a whole improve and move in the direction that we all what to go. I hope we all can take in to consideration what other people are thinking and try to move this nation and world into and better place.