“Smart people wouldn’t bring a child into this world we live in today.”

That statement was sort of the proverbial icing on top of the crazy cake of a conversation a good friend and I recently shared over dinner. It ranged from politics and his support of Donald Trump (maybe that should have been the first warning sign) to false flag conspiracy theories that 9/11 was part of a grand plan by the government and events like the Sandy Hook Elementary School shooting are staged.

While I disagreed with most of what he said, it was that final statement that really blew me away and showed that, much like with our current political climate, some ideological divides are simply too large for the two sides to meet in the middle.

I have read lots of the conspiracies about 9/11 and other tragedies. Most are way too far fetched for me, but when you try to convince me that these and many of the other key events in American history are orchestrated by our government or a shadowy group of elite citizens, I just can’t buy it.

Our government messes everything up; no way they could accomplish something of this magnitude. There are way too many moving parts and human nature is too unpredictable. I just can’t believe that everyone could be in on the scam and no one would talk.

We did agree that the world we live in is a scary place and that the future our children face can keep you up at night. But I don’t think we can — nor should — live in fear.

And the idea that only unintelligent people have children is idiotic.

My youngest daughter turns six this weekend. My oldest is almost nine. I wouldn’t trade those years — and all those to come — for anything.

I may not be the sharpest crayon in the box but I don’t think my intelligence can be measured by my desire to have children.

We cannot live in fear of the future or allow a changing world to rule our lives. Imagine if our parents did so in the decades of world wars, racial tension and political unrest that filled the 20th Century.

Many of us wouldn’t be here today.

A baby born today — or an unborn child — may grow up to be the individual who brings world peace, cures cancer or leads our country as the next president.

We live in a crazy world, but we cannot let that stop us from actually living.

 

Michael Caldwell is the publisher of Leader Publications LLC. He can be reached at (269) 687-7700 or by email at mike.caldwell@leaderpub.com.