Madison in perspective: true suffering

  The last few weeks have been somewhat alarming and pretty depressing. 
  As "change" comes to America, it's been interesting watching how people react to "change."
  Personal character is often revealed in difficult times. Certainly character is either built or corrupted when a human being is tested. 
  During the last century, our parents and grandparents were tested repeatedly: by poverty, by scarcity and by war. Racial prejudice existed among the races, but somehow families stayed together, scratching out a living on what they could, valuing each other and working jobs that were unpleasant or sources of terrible anxiety. They did it because there was no alternative; life was what it was and most didn't complain or play the victim.
  Today, decades later, we lead lives that surpass what most people in the past and around the world dream of. Electronic toys are everywhere, we own so much clothing it spills out of the closet, new cars are in the driveway, houses are warm, comfortable convenient.
  This dream of a life is crumbling for some who have foolishly squandered their treasure because they wanted too much. Some have lost jobs through no fault of their own, and with the job, the lifestyle.
  Others have had their lifestyles threatened by....what?
  Having to pay more for their health insurance?
  Losing a few sick days per year?
  Losing Viagra reimbursement?
  Losing the bullying bargaining of a union?
  Having lost these things, people have chosen to act like animals, clawing and howling in an historic building. 
  They've threatened the lives of those they disagree with, including children.
  They've said they'll plant bombs in their workplace, their homes, in the shrubs where they walk.
  They aren't losing their jobs. They're just losing a bit of their pie.
  Yet they've chosen to behave like this:

They've written things like this:

And this:

And this:

And this:

From: XXXX

Sent: Wed 3/9/2011 9:18 PM

To: Sen.Kapanke; Sen.Darling; Sen.Cowles; Sen.Ellis; Sen.Fitzgerald; Sen.Galloway; Sen.Grothman; Sen.Harsdorf; Sen.Hopper; Sen.Kedzie; Sen.Lasee; Sen.Lazich; Sen.Leibham; Sen.Moulton; Sen.Olsen

Subject: Atten: Death threat!!!! Bomb!!!!

Please put your things in order because you will be killed and your familes will also be killed due to your actions in the last 8 weeks. Please explain to them that this is because if we get rid of you and your families then it will save the rights of 300,000 people and also be able to close the deficit that you have created. I hope you have a good time in hell. Read below for more information on possible scenarios in which you will die.

WE want to make this perfectly clear. Because of your actions today and in the past couple of weeks I and the group of people that are working with me have decided that we’ve had enough. We feel that you and the people that support the dictator have to die. We have tried many other ways of dealing with your corruption but you have taken things too far and we will not stand for it any longer. So, this is how it’s going to happen: I as well as many others know where you and your family live, it’s a matter of public records. We have all planned to assult you by arriving at your house and putting a nice little bullet in your head. However, we decided that we wouldn’t leave it there. We also have decided that this may not be enough to send the message to you since you are so “high” on Koch and have decided that you are now going to single handedly make this a dictatorship instead of a demorcratic process. So we have also built several bombs that we have placed in various locations around the areas in which we know that you frequent.

This includes, your house, your car, the state capitol, and well I won’t tell you all of them because that’s just no fun. Since we know that you are not smart enough to figure out why this is happening to you we have decided to make it perfectly clear to you. If you and your goonies feel that it’s necessary to strip the rights of 300,000 people and ruin their lives, making them unable to feed, clothe, and provide the necessities to their families and themselves then We Will “get rid of” (in which I mean kill) you. Please understand that this does not include the heroic Rep. Senator that risked everything to go aganist what you and your goonies wanted him to do. We feel that it’s worth our lives to do this, because we would be saving the lives of 300,000 people. Please make your peace with God as soon as possible and say goodbye to your loved ones we will not wait any longer. YOU WILL DIE!!!!”

  Viktor Frankl, who was a prisoner of war in a Nazi concentration camp, wrote the remarkably joyful book Man's Search for Meaning, which inspires every time it is read. He made the choice day after day, even while suffering from the cold, hunger, deprivation, loss of loved ones, to be happy, while held against his will in desperate circumstances.
  Viktor Frankl wrote this. 

Everything can be taken from a man or a woman but one thing: the last of human freedoms to choose one's attitude in any given set of circumstances, to choose one's own way.

  But then, Viktor Frankl never had to pay 5% more for his health care. 
  He never had his Viagra reimbursement taken away. 
  He never had lost 5 free sick days.
  Yes, Viktor Frankl did not know what true suffering was.