something to ponder today

Two of my adult daughters did this very thing to me and came to the same conclusion all be it years later for one.

A young woman was about to finish her first year of college. Like so many others her age she considered herself to be a very
liberal Democrat and was for distribution of all wealth. She felt deeply ashamed that her father was a rather staunch
Republican which she expressed openly.

One day she was challenging her father on his beliefs and his opposition to higher taxes on the rich and the addition of more
government welfare programs. Based on the lectures that she had participated in and the occasional chat with a professor
she felt that for years her father had obviously harbored an evil, even selfish desire to keep what he thought should be his.
The self professed objectivity proclaimed by her professors had to be the truth and she indicated so to her father.

He stopped her and asked her point blank, how she was doing in school. She answered rather haughtily that she had a 4.0 GPA,
and let him know that it was tough to maintain. That she studied all the time, never had time to go out and party like other
people she knew. She didn't even have time for a boyfriend and didn't really have many college friends because of spending
all her time studying. That she was taking a more difficult curriculum.

Her father listened and then asked, "How is your good friend Mary doing?"

She replied, "Mary is barely getting by." She continued, "She barely has a 2.0 GPA," adding, "and all she takes are easy classes and
she never studies. But Mary is so very popular on campus, college for her is a blast, she goes to all the parties all the time and
very often doesn't even show up for classes because she is too hung over."

Her father then asked his daughter, "Why don't you go to the Dean's office and ask him to deduct a 1.0 off your 4.0 GPA and
give it to your friend who only has a 2.0." He continued, "That way you will both have a 3.0 GP and certainly that would be a
fair and equal distribution of GPA."

The daughter visibly shocked by her father's suggestion angrily fired back, "That wouldn't be fair! I worked really hard for mine,
I did without and Mary has done little or nothing, she played while I worked really hard!"