By Georgie Bright Kunkel

We have come from being almost anonymous in archaic times to being on every corporation’s radar. Information about your life is being sold to the highest bidder for marketing and exploitation. Even though I have put myself on the Do Not Call List.

I have received increasing phone calls scaring me about the allergens in my furnace duct system or how easy it is to steal my identity. We have the latest technology but we evidently need to pay for protection when it doesn’t work. But try calling the help line. It takes a half hour or more to get someone on the line and then they are from Mars.

Recently I decided to refill my empty printer cartridges because the price of new ones was going up bigtime. When I took two empty color cartridges out, I could not print anything, not even in black until they were in place again. So my friend rushed them in to be refilled. But when I finally put them back in, one was lighting up my printer with the message, “The blue cartridge is defective.” When I called to complain I was told that the cartridge needed to be reprogrammed and the tech specialist wasn’t going to be there until the next day. Finally after another trip to accomplish the reprogramming I wondered if all this was really going to save me money.

I have tried to save money in many ways throughout my whole lifetime. I never have my toenails done—not even my fingernails. I never have my hair styled. I never buy lattes or liquor and I never buy movies or even rent them. I get all my reading material from yard sales or the library. Once I added up how much I had saved over the years from being frugal and it was enough to take a great vacation trip every year and buy a crystal chandelier. Recently I heard about two young people who had just graduated with high powered doctorates. They took a two month trip, charging all expenses until they came back and began making big bucks in their respective practices. Now that’s faith in one’s future, right?

They hadn’t evidently read the biography of Harry Truman who rarely bought anything he didn’t have the ready cash to pay for. (But, oh-oh, Harry failed in business at least twice. So take heart you who are hopelessly in debt.) I wonder how many parents give their offspring the values that Harry’s parents gave him. Their motto was to treat everyone with kindness, pay for everything you need, never lose your temper with anyone, and try to find something you like about everyone you meet. It paid off because Harry was well liked and he liked most everyone he came across. Harry’s family never talked about their worries or about the bad side of life. When people asked them how they were they were always fine. No sense on dwelling on the negative they always said.

I always wondered how such a fine person as Harry could throw the atom bomb. Then I realized that Harry was tough and never ever avoided what he thought had to be done. He realized more than once that there is not always a best way but simply the lesser of two evils.

But let’s face it. Harry joined the army when he could have had a deferment to run the farm. This gave him a ticket to political advancement. Most women carry on their societal duty by bearing children. That is the reason I believe that women should be given special favors after going about pregnant for nine months when doing their societal duty as men are given special favors for completing a tour of duty in the armed services.

I have even suggested this to my Congress members and maybe someday it will happen.

Georgie Bright Kunkel is a freelance writer who can be reached at gnkunkel@comcast.net or 206-935-8663