Entitlement

I have a Barnes & Noble Membership Card. It costs something like $25 a year and I get varying discounts and extra coupons from whatever I buy in their stores or online.

Today I received an interesting coupon in the mail today. Well, two coupons. Basically, they're stickers I can apply to any item I want to buy at Barnes & Noble (or a code to use online) and I get 15% off that item, in addition to my regular member discount. The stickers say, "Member Exclusive - I am entitled to an extra 15% off this item".

Entitled. Wow. That's a strong word.

I'm entitled to breathe, pay taxes, and die (and there are restrictions on dying). That's about it. Especially if this country gets any more paranoid about 'security' and civil rights limitations. If not, then you could say I was entitled to 12 years of education, which, while it could have been better, it could have been a lot worse.

No one is entitled to love or success in life. No one is entitled to happiness. And most definitely, no one is entitled to make a difference or change the world.