{"id":2051,"date":"2022-04-12T10:40:31","date_gmt":"2022-04-12T15:40:31","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/iowappa.com\/?p=2051"},"modified":"2022-04-12T10:40:31","modified_gmt":"2022-04-12T15:40:31","slug":"enabling-the-entitled","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/iowappa.com\/?p=2051","title":{"rendered":"Enabling the Entitled"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a>My adult driving record appears to be a sterling example of an upstanding citizen.\u00a0 It doesn\u2019t reflect the dozen or so times of being pulled over for: struggling to drive the recommended speed; periodic taillight outages; occasionally sliding through a stop sign, etc.\u00a0 Over the years, there have been an assorted group of law enforcement officers pulling me over to chit-chat for a while, yet something occurs between exiting their vehicle, with pen and pad in hand and leaving our friendly one-on-ones without writing me up for a well-deserved ticket.\u00a0 One kindly officer even tried to offer me a number of excuses for my taillight being out:<\/p>\n

\u201cThis isn\u2019t your car?\u201d The officer asked.<\/p>\n

\u201cNo, it\u2019s my car.\u201d\u00a0 I responded.<\/p>\n

\u201cYou didn\u2019t know the light was out.\u201d\u00a0 The officer stated.<\/p>\n

\u201cNo, I knew it was out.\u201d\u00a0 I said.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt just went out.\u201d\u00a0 The officer offered.<\/p>\n

\u201cNo, it\u2019s been out for quite some time.\u201d I said.<\/p>\n

When another call came through on his radio, the look of both relief and exasperation was really quite touching.<\/p>\n

Another officer pulled me over for sliding through a 3-way stop close to my home.\u00a0 There was such a dogged look of determination on this fellow\u2019s face as he marched up to my car.<\/p>\n

\u201cMa\u2019am, you did not completely stop back there.\u201d\u00a0 The officer said, clearly preparing to write up my infraction.<\/p>\n

\u201cThank-you for bring it to my attention, officer.\u00a0 It\u2019s very easy to get sloppy in my driving habits, especially this close to home.\u201d\u00a0 I sincerely responded.<\/p>\n

Suddenly stricken with inner-conflict, this man\u2019s face contorted and changed color, until ultimately deciding against writing me up.<\/p>\n

So, why do some people pay consequences for their actions and others are allowed to drive away?\u00a0 There are just some people granted entitlement.<\/p>\n

Others earn entitlement, but carry it with humility.\u00a0 My father was such a man.\u00a0 People put him on a pedestal for surviving 25 missions as a WWII, B-17 pilot.\u00a0 He was a man of faith, who gave God the credit for his survival.<\/p>\n

The decidedly largest and most vocal entitlement candidates are those dubbing themselves such because of: fame, inherited wealth, acquired wealth, education, expertise or maybe just because their ancestors came over on the Mayflower.\u00a0 These poor souls get extremely agitated and at times angry when not properly revered.<\/p>\n

Within this group of artificially entitled are those believing sexual favors are part of the package.\u00a0 Former Minnesota governor Jesse Ventura spoke about this during an interview years ago.\u00a0 He felt, as a Navy SEAL himself, that women should sexually service SEALS, after all, these courageous men put their lives at risk for our country, which entitles them to, well sex on demand.\u00a0 Poetic patriotism.\u00a0 It would never occur to this group that the sexual attention would be seen as undesirable, unwanted or nonconsensual.\u00a0 Any woman should be flattered by being selected for this special attention.<\/p>\n

The gauntlet recently fell on this distorted viewpoint and we\u2019ve watched powerful, seemingly entitled men such as Harvey Weinstein, Jeffrey Epstein, R&B music star R. Kelly and Mr. Jell-O Pudding Pop, Bill Cosby pay serious consequences for taking unwanted sexual favors.\u00a0 But just when it seems some headway has been made on treating women with respect, the National Football League (NFL) enters the picture with the mute button stuck on a rather curious delayed enforcement of its code of conduct policy.<\/p>\n

Gifted quarterback Deshaun Watson has been in the news as his trade to the Cleveland Browns \u00a0\u00a0from the Houston Texans, sparked anger, admiration, confusion and for some women, searing pain followed by a sense of utter hopelessness. \u00a0Over twenty women have accused Watson of various sexual misconduct acts during his many massage therapy sessions.\u00a0 He won\u2019t be facing criminal charges, but civil suits are still pending. \u00a0The Browns organization feel that they properly vetted him before signing him to a record breaking $230 million guaranteed contract.\u00a0 Watson stated that although he can\u2019t discuss the case, he has never assaulted or disrespected women, it isn\u2019t who he is and counseling is unnecessary, because he hasn\u2019t done anything wrong, has no regrets and is going to work towards clearing his name.\u00a0 The Browns clearly stated a number of times that their focus is on \u201cDeshaun the person\u201d and they believe in him.\u00a0 His brand will be to get involved in helping the community.<\/p>\n

Yet, there is a moral responsibility for those willing to enable the entitled.\u00a0 For example, the first time I was pulled over at age 18 by a Wisconsin State Trooper on my way back to a graveyard shift job in Minnesota, a twelve-pack of beer was clearly visible on the passenger seat with a few \u00a0empties on the floor.\u00a0 He looked me in the eyes, smiled and waved me on, saying:<\/p>\n

\u201cTake it easy to the border.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

My adult driving record appears to be a sterling example of an upstanding citizen.\u00a0 It doesn\u2019t reflect the dozen or so times of being pulled over for: struggling to drive the recommended speed; periodic taillight outages; occasionally sliding through a … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[264],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2051","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-fairness"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/iowappa.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2051","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/iowappa.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/iowappa.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/iowappa.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/iowappa.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=2051"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/iowappa.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2051\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2052,"href":"https:\/\/iowappa.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2051\/revisions\/2052"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/iowappa.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=2051"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/iowappa.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=2051"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/iowappa.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=2051"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}