Are you normal?

Are you normal? I speak to you 1/3 who are overweight ( like me according to the govt.) or normal ( by my definition of a senior citizen). If 1 in 3 Americans are obese and an additional1/3 overweight, are 33% left to carry on the business of profitable living according to our illustrious leadership? I speak to you in a country where a local advertisement for a Honda auto dealership promises “transparent pricing and minimum negotiations.” I don’t believe either is a reality on the car lot. So here is check into a past reality. After he finished crying, a survivor of WWII POW atrocities for 3 ½ years said after the surrender of the Philippines to the Japanese in April, 1942 : “Oh God, I don’t want to die; I’m too young (23) to die, but if it’s your will Lord, I’m, ready. But please Lord, don’t let me die. If you let me live, I’ll do all I can to help my fellow prisoners in whatever may lay ahead.” What lay ahead? Hell - the Bataan Death March, Camp O’Donnell, Cabanatuan, Lipa Batangas, Camp Murphy, Bilibid Prison, the Hell ships, Hokusen Maru prison camp, Capt Toroku, Melbourne Maru, Wakinohama Camp, Maribara and finally rescue in Sept. 1945 after the bombing of Nagasaki ( its pink cloud witnessed drifting overhead). Has your life been normal? Probably not as abnormal as that of veteran Abel Ortega Jr. Let’s hope to God that the little, Taliban creep now under indictment in New York for plotting the Twin Towers attack, suffers a teeny bit as much as a member of the ‘greatest generation.’ Sometimes I loathe and fear the present state of our culture.