A Nation of Screwups?

When I was growing up, I used to notice how older people were very critical of the way things were being done. They seemed to see most change as being a bad thing. I promised myself that I would not be like that when I got 'old'. I have tried to live up to that promise, but as I get older, I realize that while none of us particularly like change, and complaining about it is not productive, it is important to complain about bad changes.

It seems to me that in the past, I remember a time when people took pride in a job well done. Even if it was what some think of as a menial task, it was still important that it be done correctly. I sense that ethic is slowly being replaced with a ‘get by’ mentality. I site the recent screw up with the SAT tests as an example. I realize that mistakes are made, after all we are human. What troubles me is that after the initial mistakes were uncovered, apparently little effort was made to determine if there were any more problems.



Now it comes to light that additional, more extensive errors of omission were involved. I would have liked to think that as soon as the original mistakes were found that the entire process would have been reviewed. Apparently that was not the case. Maybe there was a review and it has taken this long for the facts to come out?

It’s not just the SAT test scoring either. Seems that everywhere I look, someone is screwing up. I am a drive thru person. I know fast food is not good for you, but its what I eat. Locally we have a couple of McDonalds, a Hardees, a Wendy's and a couple of Chicken places. I am heavily into McDonalds, but lately I have been branching out. In particular I have been trying Wendy's as some of their new menu items come highly recommended. Unfortunately, the folks at the local Wendy's seem to lack the capacity or the desire to take and fill a drive thru order. It has gotten so bad that I am tempted to go up to the order speaker and when they say can I take your order, tell them "just throw something in a sack and I will come pay you some money and pick it up, cause that is what you are gonna do anyway."

I know, I know, one less order of fries or a missing Frosty is not gonna stop the world. It surely doesn't match the damage done to those poor kids who had their SAT scores messed up, but to me, it is a local example of what is happening nationwide. We seem to be becoming a nation of screwups. Sure, we can do anything we want we just can't do it right. And when we or someone else discovers the screwup, we fix it, but don't ask ourselves what caused this mistake, are there other associated mistakes?

I guess I have become one of those old people that find fault. Looking back, maybe I just came into the process in the middle, maybe the decline had already started and those previous old people were just taking note of their generation's decline toward mediocrity.