Of all the modern achievements in the age that we live, the Internet has to be close to the top.  Not only is it a great communications tool and a positive for world commerce, but because of it, people have been able to renew acquaintances.  Jim and I were raised in a rural community near Springfield, Missouri; but my family moved several states away in the early 1950s.  Just recently we made contact via the Internet and we now E mail each other quite often.  Someone forwarded the following to Jim and he sent it on to us.  It made me think; so, I'm putting it up on the web for our cyber-visitors to consider.

>This joke today is not intended to be a joke, it's not intended to
> be funny, it's intended to get you thinking.
>
> Billy Graham's daughter was interviewed on the Early Show and Jane
> Clayson asked her "How could God let something like this happen?"
> (regarding the attacks on Sept. 11).
>
> Anne Graham gave an extremely profound and insightful response. She
> said, "I believe God is deeply saddened by this, just as we are, but for
> years we've been telling God to get out of our schools, to get out
> of our government and to get out of our lives. And being the
> gentleman He is, I believe He has calmly backed out.
> How can we expect God to give us His blessing and His protection if we
> demand He leave us alone?"
>
> I think it started when Madeleine Murray O'Hare (she was murdered, her
> body found recently)  complained that she didn't want prayer in our
> schools, and we said OK.
>
> Then someone said you better not read the Bible in school... the Bible
> says thou shalt not kill, thou shalt not steal, and love your neighbor
> as yourself. And we said OK.
>
> Then Dr. Benjamin Spock said we shouldn't spank our children when they
> misbehave because their little personalities would be warped and we
> might damage their self-esteem (Dr. Spock's son committed suicide).
> We said an expert should know what he's talking about. And we said
> OK.
>
> Then someone said teachers and principals better not discipline our
> children when they misbehave. The school
> administrators said no faculty member in this school better touch a
> student when they misbehave because we don't want any bad publicity,and
> we surely don't want to be sued (there's a big difference between
> disciplining, touching, beating, smacking, humiliating, kicking, etc).
> And we said OK.
>
> Then someone said, let's let our daughters have abortions if they want,
> and they won't even have to tell their parents. And we said OK.
>
> Then some wise school board member said, since boys will be boys and
> they're going to do it anyway, let's give our sons all the condoms they
> want so they can have all the fun they desire, and we won't have to tell
> their parents they got them at school. And we said OK.
>
> Then some of our top elected officials said it doesn't matter what we do
> in private as long as we do our jobs. Agreeing with them, we said it
> doesn't matter to me what anyone, including the President, does in
> private as long as I have a job and the economy is good.
>
> Then someone said let's print magazines with pictures of nude women and
> call it wholesome, down-to-earth appreciation for the beauty of the
> female body. And we said OK.
>
> And then someone else took that appreciation a step further and
> published pictures of nude children and then further again by making
> them available on the Internet. And we said OK; they're entitled to
> free speech.  Then our Supreme Court went one step further and
>decided that it's OK to use the Internet to make child porno available
>to the perverts of the world.
>
> Then the entertainment industry said; let's make TV shows and movies
> that promote profanity, violence, and illicit sex. Let's
> record music that encourages rape, drugs, murder, suicide, and satanic
> themes. And we said it's just entertainment,it has no
> adverse effect, nobody takes it seriously anyway, so go right ahead.
>
> Now we're asking ourselves why our children have no conscience, why they
> don't know right from wrong, and why it doesn't bother them to kill
> strangers, their classmates, and themselves. Probably, if we think
> about it long and hard enough, we can figure it out.
>
> I think it has a great deal to do with "WE REAP WHAT WE SOW."
> Funny how simple it is for people to trash God and then wonder why
> the world's going to hell! Funny how we believe what the newspapers
> say, but question what the Bible says. Funny how you can send 'jokes'
> through e-mail and they spread like wildfire, but when you start sending
> messages regarding the Lord, people think twice about sharing. Funny
> how lewd, crude, vulgar and obscene articles pass freely through
> cyberspace, but public discussion of God is suppressed in
> the school and workplace.

This discourse brings to mind the some-what vulgar saying that was popular in our youth: i.e.,

You may think It's funny--but, itsnot.

Thanks for thinking of us, Jim.  And we do look forward to reading our E mails.