Louis Roney: Methuselah muses

• My concept of justice requires that I not comment slightingly about things that people do not have the power to change in themselves, and in particular, things they were born with. After all, I did not choose to come into this world American, white, and male — those cards were dealt to me at birth, and are the only cards I am able to play. I never forget that fact which fortifies both my humility and my self-confidence.

• “The main vice of capitalism is the uneven distribution of prosperity. The main vice of socialism is the even distribution of misery.” — Winston Churchill. In my opinion, the worst president in our history was F.D.R. — the guy who invented self-destructive give-away programs and whose growing unemployment rate was checked only by the arrival of World War II and the draft.

• My b.w. and I saw a man on TV who had won $100 million. We casually asked each other how our life might be altered if we should win such a big piece of change. Try as we may, we couldn’t think of a thing that we might want that is not already available to us, despite the fact that our personal fortune is not quite $100 million! My grandmother told me, “A person is rich who is happy with what he has got.” She was right!

• The best marriages are those in which each party finds his mate well-nigh perfect, and I am one of the lucky ones to give thanks everyday for the splendid wife I somehow won — a fact which seems to pique a sibling mightily. That b.w. does not see me as I suspect I really am, is just plain amicable fate. We all must act in ways that please ourselves, and a successful assessment implies much unprejudiced self-examination along the way. A fine balance between humility and conceit does the trick, if one can manage such a wondrous juggle.

• It looks as though we are going to get zinged by even more prevarications from El Presidente Obama. He gave his word that only people of higher incomes would bare the brunt of his raising of taxes. He casually dropped figures like $250,000 and even $200,000 as lower limits of those to be punitively taxed. Wanna bet? Don’t forget the man got where he is by blaspheming “eternal verities.” It would be foolish indeed for us to expect him to straighten up and fly right at this late date — not after untruth has brought him such supreme success in the land of the free and the home of the gullible...

• The radio relates that a young woman saw three ruffians approaching her front door. When she did not open the door, the men broke it down to find themselves facing a gal with a gun in her hand. They turned tail and ran. Lesson: You don’t always have to fire a gun to make it an effective protector.

• Lots of Winter Parkers wonder how it’s going to be with trains crossing Fairbanks every few minutes, and perhaps even blocking auto traffic at frequent intervals…

• When I was a kid in the ’30s I heard grown people wondering if Winter Park could retain its special charms. Was it the lakes and the trees, or the quality of human beings the locale attracted? The Animated Magazine was a big cultural win for the city — why did we let it die?

• I am so old that I remember the saying, “The customer is always right.”

About Roney: Harvard’42—Distinguished Prof, Em.—UCF 2004 Fla. Alliance for the Arts award (Assisted by beautiful wife Joy Roney)