The PC Guy - Al Lustie
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Shortcuts

In a short article found in Christianity Today, January, 2005, the epidemic of taking shortcuts (cheating, plagiarism, lying, claiming to do the work but only doing a surface gloss) is noted. It got me thinking. . .

Have you and I become molded by the high pressure, short deadline culture to the extent that we take shortcuts when we should not? Are we already working 50 or 60 hours per week, wanting to be home to enjoy the family, see the kid's ballgame or read a good book (maybe the Good Book!)? But there is this other demand on our time. Either the boss demands it, or we demand it from ourselves. In either case, something has got to give.

• This latest demand -- can I steal something from someone and get home tonight?
• That job I can't put off any longer -- can I design a quickie presentation that will get the boss off my back?
• Can I blame Bill, or Jeanie, or Rick, even though they really did everything I asked them to.

Keyboard shortcuts and desktop shortcuts are helpful -- but inappropriate shortcuts erode the character inside us as well as chipping away at the trust that makes our society work.

I don't have answers except for me -- take the time to do it honestly and properly, and be honest about what I have done and what I can't find time to do.

In his recent book, "Hoax" by Robert K. Tenenbaum, Butch Karp faces a dilemma -- should he expose and prosecute evil doers in the Police Department, in Industry, and in the Church, knowing that it will tarnish and hurt maybe a million trusting, innocent people. He has reflected on his mother's unfair, horrible death to cancer, and says, "Maybe it doesn't make sense to you, but I promised my mother's memory that I would never compromise with evil. I would not look the other way for the sake of expediency or politics. Cancer destroys from within--for whatever his reasons, Kane understands that and so do I. You can cut cancers out, attack them with chemothearpy or the New York penal law, but they do not quietly retire without leaving some small part of the disease behind to grow large again when conditions are right."

He would not take a shortcut.

| God is Not a Party Member | Civil Speaking |

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