- April 9, 2016
- Macon Telegraph Articles
Honorable and worthy vocations
The world used to be more orderly and peaceful. We all knew our roles and place in the world. Guided by our parents, pastors and teachers, we knew how high we should reach and set our goals so that one day we successfully reach our niche in life. We studied as children and then as adults fulfilled our occupations and professions to the best of our abilities, or at least satisfactorily and responsibly. We strove to reach our métier in life, so we would not end up as a disillusioned and unemployed “poets manqué.”
Today many parents are relinquishing their responsibilities, accounting for such nonsense as midnight basketball and no curfews resulting in such “pranks” as vandalism at Walmart, or more serious crimes like the deadly “Knockout game,” associated with gangs or plain idle delinquency.
The problem is many youngsters do not have sufficient moral guidance to prepare them for fulfilling their future. Instead, our politically correct schools under NEA guidance and our popular culture with all their media clichés, become, by default, the misguided councillors. Children are told to “reach for the stars,” but not all of them can reach those dizzying heights, especially with faulty indulgent parental discipline and deficient education. And not all of us need to be lawyers, doctors, professors, and rocket scientists to be useful to society and to reach self-fulfillment. While one of my daughters is studying to be a lawyer, my son is serving in the military on his way to the Middle East!
Many of the youngsters failing to achieve the misinterpreted and unrealistic expectations of “reaching for the stars” become discouraged and psychologically traumatized. Some, alienated, blame society and turn to a life of vagrancy or crime. Some politicians exploit the alienation of the young for political self-aggrandizement and manipulation of power.
We are ostensibly “created equal” in an idealized political system, but certainly not biologically. Socialist Democrat presidential candidate Bernie Sanders wants to send all young people to colleges and universities. What nonsense! We need young people to do what they can do best. Vocational work is not only honorable and honest work but worthy and gainful work that should be supported. Job training in community colleges should be promoted and youngsters with talent for skilled trades should be encouraged to pursuit them.
It is becoming increasingly difficult to find skilled workers. Has the reader required the service of a “blue collar” professional lately? If you have not called an electrician, plumber, or air conditioning repairman you might be surprised at the cost of their repairs — and you may just wonder why there isn’t more competition. Perhaps this little note of encouragement will help displaced youngsters find their way, as well as promote competition in skilled labor, which is always beneficial to society and the marketplace.
Written by Dr. Miguel Faria
Dr. Miguel A. Faria is an associate editor in chief and world affairs editor of Surgical Neurology International and the author of Cuba in Revolution: Escape from a Lost Paradise. His website is: HaciendaPublishing.com.
This article was printed in the Macon Telegraph on April 9, 2016.
This article may be cited as: Faria MA. Honorable and worthy vocations. Macon Telegraph, April 9, 2016. Available from: https://haciendapublishing.com/honorable-and-worthy-vocations/.
Copyright © 2016 Miguel A. Faria, Jr., MD
2 thoughts on “Honorable and worthy vocations”
That’s exactly why the founders didn’t want MEN WITH A TITLE runing the country, titles like ATTORNEY, DOCTOR, or position of authority by virtue of family association like King, prince, etc. They wanted farmers, shopkeepers, laborers, and those on the ground everyday people running the country who were effected everyday by actions and inactions of the government managers. Managers are what government employees are supposed to do. Not rule.—Ed S. (FB; Dec 29, 2022)
Dr Miguel Faria replies: Ed that is incorrect. They did not want titles of nobility or privilege of birth, such as dukes, counts, marquis, kings or queens. They wanted titles on merit, meritocracy (Jefferson). For example Dr. Benjamin Rush was Surgeon General and Father of American Psychiatry, and he was referred to and better addressed as Doctor Rush! Dr. Matthew Thornton another signer of the Declaration of Independence was a physician and essayist, and the other two doctors who also signed the documents were referred to as DOCTORS and referred as such by the other founders: Dr. Josiah Bartlett and Dr. Lyman Hall. The majority of the signers and framers of the Constitution were lawyers (sometimes referred as doctors as well) and referred to as LAWYERS as well; most of them returning to civilian life as attorneys and serving in the legislature of their states! There are several books about this. But read the Constitution; it is a brief and concise document — Article I, Section 9, Paragraph 8. Addendum: Not even communists erased those titles earned from higher learning!
Strive for goodness and excellence in all you do and success will follow if it is in the nature of things— Dr. Miguel Faria, Controversies in Medicine and Neuroscience: Through the Prism of History, Neurobiology, and Bioethics (2023), Cambridge Scholars Publishing in Newcastle upon Tyne, England. https://www.amazon.com/Controversies-Medicine-Neuroscience-Miguel-Faria/dp/1527594173