JAWing On – Life on Okinawa

I was watching the first part of a “King of the Hill” episode the other night before going into work. Coming to Okinawa from Texas thirty-one years ago, I found the subject matter a little surprising. It was the episode where Hank was trying to teach Bobby self-reliance and they run into a group of “hippies.” Hank comes back from somewhere and Bobby has turned all of their possessions over to the group. I always thought there was something a little weird about a group of people who expected someone to give all their worldly possessions to the leaders of the group. Isn’t that what cults were all about? The leaders of these organizations fed off of other people by tossing around romantised idealisms and catch phrases such as “peace,” “brotherhood,” and “love.” Meanwhile, they were living it up on the members of the group’s hard-earned money under the pretense that it was for the “good of the group.” I always felt if someone had to side-step an issue, then they aren’t mature enough to be honest with themselves or anyone else.