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Citigroup eyes options including merger
NEW YORK (Reuters) - Citigroup Inc lost more than one-quarter of its market value on growing worries over whether it has enough capital to withstand billions of dollars of potential...
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Fed's Bullard: U.S. spending slump to sap 2009 growth
EVANSVILLE, Indiana (Reuters) - St Louis Federal Reserve President James Bullard said on Thursday that financial market turmoil has collapsed U.S. consumer confidence and this would weigh on growth well...
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Oil falls over $1 on demand worries
SINGAPORE (Reuters) - U.S. crude oil dropped more than $1 a barrel on Friday, falling for sixth straight sessions as more distress for the global economy threatened to eat further...
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NY City securities workforce down to Sept 2005 level
NEW YORK (Reuters) - New York City's securities companies shed 16,000 employees in October, measured on a year-over-year basis, pushing the total work force down to a level last seen...
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Democrats demand U.S. Big 3 offer survival plan
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Democratic congressional leaders, seeking to salvage a bailout of the Big Three automakers, demanded executives provide a business survival plan in exchange for their support of up...
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S&P dives to lowest level since 1997
NEW YORK (Reuters) - Stocks plunged yet again on Thursday, as a frantic flight from risk prompted by investors' deepening economic fears drove the benchmark Standard & Poor's 500 index...
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Marsal to lead team of over 600 at Lehman
NEW YORK (Reuters) - Bryan Marsal, currently chief restructuring officer of Lehman Brothers Holdings Inc , will take over as chief executive of the bankrupt investment bank after the close...
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Paulson defends handling of U.S. financial crisis
SIMI VALLEY, California (Reuters) - Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson on Thursday defended his handling of the financial crisis but refused to say whether any further help will be offered to...
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Dell profit tops Street view, shares rise
SAN FRANCISCO (Reuters) - Dell Inc, the world's No. 2 PC maker, posted a better-than-expected quarterly profit on Thursday as cost cuts offset lower revenue, sending its shares up about...
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Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac suspend some foreclosures
NEW YORK (Reuters) - Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, the two biggest U.S. home loan finance companies, on Thursday said they would suspend foreclosures of occupied homes until early 2009,...
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Written by Stephen Palmer
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Tuesday, 12 August 2008 12:54 |
Don't Be a Sell-Out
The term and concept of "sell-out" has been on my mind lately.
My definition of a sell-out is "one who forfeits, disregards, corrupts, or otherwise marginalizes their freedom, principles, talents, heritage, self-respect, relationships, and or virtue in the short-sighted pursuit of anything less, including money, power, fame, pleasure, and/or security."
The Bible provides a more succinct definition in the metaphor to "sell one's birthright for a mess of pottage."
Of course, it's easy to sit back in the position of stone-thrower and identify the low-hanging sell-out fruit in America -- raunchy entertainment, Hollywood/Las Vegas glitz, glib politicians, the Enrons of business, etc.
It's much more difficult to point the finger at oneself, dig deep, and find areas where one has sold out themselves -- if even just a little bit. For example (and I'm including myself in all of these examples, and yes, they may be uncomfortable):- Do you stay in a job that you dislike, or at least does not provide full expression of your gifts, just for supposed corporate security or a high salary?
- Do you have dreams and passions that you don't pursue because of fear?
- Do you claim that the government should do nothing but protect unalienable rights, then turn around and accept government-funded programs such as school or home loans?
- Are you discouraged by the moral decline in America, then encourage it by casually listening to common radio fodder which blatantly features pornographic promiscuity, adultery, homosexuality, and drug use, just because it's a "catchy" tune or a fun beat? (I don't think I'm being overly puritanical here considering that all of the links above feature songs on Billboard's Hot 100 list--the most listened to songs in America.) And how about the movies you watch and magazines and books you read?
- Are you frustrated with the national debt, while spending more than you earn in your own household?
- Do you do things in your private time that you would be ashamed of if anyone else knew about them?
- Do you praise and admire the Founding Fathers, but are unwilling to follow their example by becoming liberally educated?
- Do you love the Constitution, without having really studied it in depth and without having the ability to defend and support it?
The list could obviously be expanded, but that's probably enough to make the point, which is that we've all sold out to one extent or in one form or another, and this is why America is struggling. We've largely sold our birthright of virtue, freedom, and true prosperity for the cheap pottage of false security, base entertainment, and the love of money.
It seems that if America were a department store, it's advertisements would read, "Selling out entire inventory of virtue! Everything must go!"
We can all find someone or some group to blame, but at the end of the day, all we can do is improve ourselves. This starts by identifying where we have sold out, the areas in our lives where we have spend time, money, effort, and energy pursuing things far less valuable than what we know we're capable of.
We're better than this. America was born for greatness, and so were you and I. We were created to fly, not dumpster-dive. America -- and the world at large -- need each of us to rise up to our potential and claim our birthright as loving, virtuous, powerful forces for freedom and truth.
Don't be a sell-out, no matter how trivial it may seem in the moment. There's enough of that going around. You can be a standard, a pillar of strength to rely upon, a light to follow.
Virtue is the price of freedom -- are you willing to pay that price and pave the way for others to follow?
Recommended Reading:
Jonathan Livingstone Seagull by Richard Bach
The Alchemist by Paul Coelho |
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