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Life’s Not Fair — A List in Progress

Now that FAIRNESS is officially a campaign issue, I’m in the mood for bitching about things that just aren’t equitable. Sure, it goes against one of my primary Parental Proverbs, something I worked hard to instill in my family — LIFE IS NOT FAIR. But since our society appears  intent to correct the scales of justice, I thought that venting might be appropriate.

So without further ado, IT’S NOT FAIR THAT…

  • Some people can eat what they want and never get fat.
  • Only women suffer childbirth.
  • Warren Buffet’s secretary makes somewhere between 200 and 500 K a year and people feel sorry for her.
  • Mediocre writers make tons of money.
  • Great writers go unrecognized.
  • Your daddy is rich.
  • OWS protesters can camp downtown for weeks, get free food, leave their crap lying around, and get praised for it, while I have to go to work.
  • Somebody making a six figure salary gets to define what fairness is.
  • Skin color matters at all.
  • You get the Tootise Pop without the Tootsie center.
  • More women read than men.
  • Lawbreaking celebrities get community service instead of jail time.
  • Lawbreaking politicians go to Club Fed instead of Bubba’s Cell.
  • White men can’t jump.
  • Other people win the lottery.
  • Some people are born in Third World countries and others aren’t.
  • Some people get cancer.
  • I can’t do anything to make life fair-er.

OK. Anything you’d add to the list?

{ 17 comments… add one }
  • Jay DiNitto January 27, 2012, 7:55 AM

    It’s not fair that there is always someone is better looking than me (or you). Dangit!

  • Chris D. January 27, 2012, 7:59 AM

    It’s not fair that teachers only have to work 9 months out of the year and they still make more money than many people who work 12 months straight!

    It’s not fair that the father threw a party for the prodigal son after the son squandered away all his money. And the older brother, who was loyal and responsible, never got a party thrown for him (Luke 15:11-32).

    • Katherine Coble January 27, 2012, 4:05 PM

      My sister, mother, two cousins and sister in law are teachers. My mother in law and her sister are retired teachers.

      During those “9” months a year–which are now actually 10 months & 1 week–they get to work at 7am for meetings. They have students from 8am to 4pm with NO coffee or bathroom or cigarette breaks and only a 20 min break for lunch.

      After the children go home they continue to work at school preparing the next day’s lesson, often not leaving until 5 or 6pm. They take home papers to grade and supplies to prepare for class and often work at home 2-3 hours a night and 5-12 hours over the weekend.

      During those “whole summers ‘off’ ” they tutor, assess students’ skill levels for the upcoming year, take classes for license renewal and go into school for planning meetings. Every teacher I know works as hard OR HARDER than many folks I’ve worked alongside in banks, travel agencies, design firms and publishing houses.

      • Chris D. January 27, 2012, 7:28 PM

        @Katherine: I didn’t say that teachers don’t work hard. I’m a teacher myself and know it can be a very challenging job. That being said, teachers still only work about 9 months a year after you add up all the days off: summer break, Christmas break, Thanksgiving break, spring break, every bank holiday……. Not fair!

        • Christy February 26, 2012, 8:45 PM

          If you are a teacher and you believe that, you must not be very good.

  • Kat Heckenbach January 27, 2012, 8:36 AM

    It’s not fair that someone with a true handicap (such as someone I know with cerebral palsy) does not “qualify” for disability, but someone whose back hurts because their 80-lb gut (a direct result of lifestyle choices) is straining it, does.

    It’s not fair that some loving, caring, responsible couples have to go through thousands of dollars and years of fertility treatment to have one child, while some people who treat their kids like furniture (or punching bags) can pop them out like rabbits.

  • Jill January 27, 2012, 9:00 AM

    What’s with this Friday, anyway?? Another blog writer I follow posted his uplifting “I Hate My Life” article, in which he listed why his life sucks. Okay. It’s not fair that some people just succeed in life, and others seem to be draped by the unlucky veil. There, I said it. That’s the way I feel. It’s juvenile and stupid, but true. It’s also not fair that I haven’t been martyred for my faith, but what can I do–ask someone to chop my head off or something?

  • Nikole Hahn January 27, 2012, 9:04 AM

    1) It’s not fair that my husband got laid off six years ago (or we would have been in a better financial position now).
    2) It’s not fair that people hate other people who can’t have children, and ignore the pain they are in (or God’s direction) to push their agenda that every couple should have children.
    3) It’s not fair that Safeway didn’t have egg rolls when I needed it for a recipe.
    4) It’s not fair that Sees candy store is so far away.
    5) It’s not fair that some people can eat an entire cheesecake and never gain a pound, while I look at it and some buttons pop off.
    6) It’s not fair that people are lumping all the wealthy with the corrupt wealthy and creating class warfare.
    7) It’s not fair that some on welfare cheat the system and can buy items I can’t afford to provide or drive vehicles much newer than mine.
    8) It’s not fair that some come to church to be served and leave because it’s not friendly enough, but they themselves were the ones unfriendly and entitled.

    But…if I focused on what’s not fair, then how could I find joy in what God has provided to me? It’s enough.

  • Jessica Thomas January 27, 2012, 9:15 AM

    It’s not fair that unions protect older teachers to the detriment of the younger and/or newer teachers.

    It’s not fair that new teachers can’t make enough money to support a family.

    It’s not fair that new teachers get cut first, when the older teacher doesn’t care about her job anymore.

    It’s not fair that teacher retention is not based on merit.

    It’s not fair that someone should find their calling only to have it stripped from them by unions, politicians, and government.

    It’s not fair that a union rule could protect a current employee who has an art teaching degree but no experience, versus a laid off art teacher who has experience and whom the kids loved.

    It’s not fair that some people are satisfied with status quo when status quo is broken and self serving.

    Hmm. Let’s see. What else.

    I guess you can tell what’s bugging me. Thanks for the opportunity to rant a little.

  • Melody Fredricks January 27, 2012, 10:23 AM

    I love bitch sessions

    Its not fair that parents who have a hard time getting pregnant have babies who die then teenagers or others get pregnant without trying and give their babies way or treat them bad.

    Its not fair how much our government does for people when other people are dying in other countries and their government does nothing.

    Its not fair that the Chinese don’t want baby girls.

    Its not fair that a man who goes another country to do Gods work gets murdered

  • Caprice Hokstad January 27, 2012, 11:05 AM

    It’s not fair that more people will read and comment on a blog post about unfairness than will try a new, unknown author who put years of painstaking work into a published novel.

    • Heather Day Gilbert January 27, 2012, 2:11 PM

      And Caprice, to even out the unfairness, I’m going over and following your blog right now, in case you’re the aforementioned unknown author!

  • Heather Day Gilbert January 27, 2012, 2:06 PM

    It’s not fair that I can’t come up with controversial blogposts like you, Mike! Seriously, I’m pretty content in my knowledge that life isn’t fair to us. I’m happy being a pessimistic optimist–I expect the worst to happen, but somewhere deep down, I know it’s all going to be evened out in the end.

  • Katherine Coble January 27, 2012, 3:53 PM

    My mother’s unfailing response to “That’s not fair!” was ALWAYS

    “If life were fair, Jesus wouldn’t have died on the cross.”

  • SherryT January 27, 2012, 7:02 PM

    Okay, I’ll add a few, mostly self-serving:
    It isn’t fair that I’ve been battling depression and anxiety since I was about 16. (I’m 65 now.)

    It’s not fair that I wrote, revised, re-revised & tried to find a publisher for Seabird & for Earthbow, from 1979-1990(?) and then again from 2001 to 2006.
    And then it wasn’t fair when I finally got a publisher, to sell only about 100 copies of Seabird over four & a half years and maybe 40 copies of Earthbow over two years. (Many of them purchased by me on Amazon to use as gifts)

    It’s not fair that I’ve spent since last July:
    1. using tons of time to battle the apartment rental office about just about anything you can think of, including monthly water bills between $120-$180;

    2. living in a place that the owners had allowed to go to seed so much that, for a while, the post office refused to deliver to us. UPS still won’t;

    3. finding out that I’ve begun to lose hearing in my right ear;

    4. learning that I need to find another place to live with only a couple of months’ notice because the apt owners are closing this place down. And needing to take out a loan just so I can pay apt & pet security deposits, pay for some of the help in moving (with some additional help from church volunteers–God bless them!), and to pay for packing materials.

    5. needing at least a few months once I’ve moved to unpack everything–meaning that I will have had no time to write or even revise anything for the better part of a year.

    It isn’t fair I was stuck frantically packing all through the Arisia con weekend–when I had expected to attend it for Spencer Hill’s book launch (reception, interviews, readings, autographing, etc) of an anthology in which I have a story;

    It isn’t fair to be diagnosed less than three weeks ago with early stage macular degeneration;

    It isn’t fair to discover a week ago:
    1. that M&T Bank–which bought out another local bank–wants to collect over $2000 they insist that I once owed to the defunct bank. (That would have been over ten years ago. No, I didn’t. No, I don’t.)
    2. It isn’t fair that–with 4 weeks until moving day– I need to go through old papers to prove M&T is wrong. And maybe have to hire an attorney, semi-immediately.

    OTOH
    It isn’t fair that there are talented people all over the world who will never have a chance to write, paint, sculpt, sing for someone besides their immediate family, learn to play an instrument, or otherwise make use of their God-given talents. Or even live to try.

    It isn’t fair to millions and millions of people–including many right here–that they are living in such miserable, unsanitary, and dangerous conditions that they would gladly trade to be where I am now, except that they have neither the freedom nor the money to move anywhere. (This most definitely includes abused children and spouses.)

    It isn’t fair that Brandon, our Bible study group leader–and one of those hard-working teachers–has been spending 3-4 hours a week praying for me, cheering me up and helping me pack, when he should be getting a bit more than his usual four or five hours sleep a night. It isn’t fair that Brandon doesn’t know if he’ll have a job next year.

    It isn’t fair that God loves me. But he seems to love -all- of us regardless and took the trouble to do something about it.

    • Kat Heckenbach January 27, 2012, 7:33 PM

      I have to jump in here. I’ve read Sherry’s books. And she is VERY right about it being not fair. I adored all three of her novels. Seabird quickly became one of my very favorite fantasy novels. Ever. YA, but appealing to a wide age range, including adults. Classic fantasy. So. Up. My. Alley. Her lack of sales are due, imho, to a sucky publisher. It is not her writing. Really, really not. Omigosh, I cannot stress how *not* her writing is to blame.

      And Caprice (above) is another under-appreciated author. Her writing is lovely. Unique. Deep. Heady. People complain about so many books being “fluff” and whatever–then Caprice gives them something with meat, and they all rush back to the salad bar…

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