You miss the point completely, there was pride in becoming a ham, simply
because it was difficult. Once obtained, one behaved as a person worthy of
being called a ham.

The worst behavior I remember back then was W2OY who used to call "CQ No
kids, no lids, no drugstore cowboys..." Unlike the profanity of the bands
today.

With the new age thinking , that finds achievement unfair to those that have
not achieved, we have lowered the bar so those who were incapable of
competing can be included as well.

First it was "why should I learn the code it is only an obstacle to my
desires", the point is all endevors in life have a price of admission, if
your not willing to pay, you don't get in the show. At least thats the way
it used to be, today if I whine enough about fairness someone will give it
to me.

Where does it end? I want to be a brain surgeon, I just don't want to spend
time learning all that medical stuff, it's just not FAIR... Would you want
me as your doctor?

"Minnie Bannister" wrote in message
...
And in some European countries a decade or three back (I don't know if
it's still the same), the tests for a driver's license had questions
about mechanical theory (e.g., what is actually happening under the hood