After all these years in South Africa, getting on an airplane and going back to America is a little like finding myself in a science fiction story.  America has changed in little ways that I need time to catch on to and I’m also not the same person who left.  Perhaps things changed so gradually that you didn’t notice the change?  When did adults become so disobedient?  The purser asked everyone to take a seat and fasten their seatbelts.  A minute later the stewardess told a passenger that the plane would not take off until he took a seat and fastened his belt.  He was mumbling, “but I want to…” when she commanded him to “Sit!”  Later in the flight everyone was again asked to take a seat and buckle up.  Everyone sat but within a few minutes, first one and then six were standing again though the glowing signs still said, "keep your belts fastened."  When a passenger later argued with the stewardess, the captain himself made an announcement to back up her authority to limit alcoholic drinks.  On another flight, several minutes after we’d all been told to turn off cell phones; the stewardess leaned over and told the woman in front of me, “either you turn it off or it will be confiscated.”  All of these people were adults, disobedient adults.  I came home and told Jeff we’ve got to teach people to discipline their kids.  How are we going to convince people that they are in fact sinners when they all think “the rules don’t apply to me”?  Jeff listened to my little tirade and said, “Judith, while you were gone, South Africa passed a new law.  It’s now illegal to spank children in public.”  The Devil keeps busy, doesn’t he?

Judy Blanton, South Africa