Friday, October 24, 2008

Where Are We Going Part 1

What is happening to my country?
In this, the bastion of freedom in the world, I see running for president a man who refuses to allow us to see his past, who associates with a known and unrepentant domestic bomber and terrorist, a hate-filled priest, a country-hating preacher, a now-convicted wheeler-dealer, and who tells us in so many words that his goal is to redistribute the wealth of this country.
Excuse me, Mr O, but if you would take a moment to read some of the documents upon which this great country was founded, you will note that my personal possessions, my personal property, and my money is MINE; it does NOT belong to the government or to you to redistribute to anyone.
Back in the mid to late 1700's, the British government tried to tell the colonists that their personal homes could be taken and used to house British troops, and that the government in England could take whatever taxes they deemed necessary. This country came into existence because a group of men said "No" to what they saw as unfair and unjust governmental actions. I cannot even imagine what these same men would say if they came back and looked at what has happened to their ideals and dreams, what has happened to their country. Instead of a government of, by and for the people, we have become a people of by and for the government. The government....no, the government people in Washington, have become an all-consuming monster, whose function first and foremost is its own survival and growth. The term "public good" is simply an excuse, a catch-phrase, to justify whatever it is that allows government to grow and extend its reach deeper into our lives and our pockets.
The "War on Poverty" of the Johnson administration, which continues to this day, has spent literally billions of dollars, of OUR dollars, and guess what........there is still poverty, poverty as bad and as wide spread as it was back then. There are also literally hundreds if not thousands of people now on the government payroll to "administer" these programs. And what have these programs accomplished? They have given us 2 generations of people who expect, who demand that we "take care" of them. HORSE-HOCKEY!!! Our society has always been notable for its concern for the downtroden and those who needed help (No, I am not saying we did as much as we should have, but we did a darn sight better than most countries did or do). But that concern and assistance had an unstated corollary, which said that we were more than willing to help, but that the recipient was also expected to do his best to get back on his feet and recover, to once again become a part of the functioning society as quickly and as fully as he is capable of doing. I can’t go to the grocery store any more because as I stand in line to check out, counting and recounting to see if I have enough cash to pay for what food I have, I see strong, healthy people, their grocery carts overflowing with top-of-the-line foods, with their handful of food stamps, and I get so angry that I come THIS close to shouting out my anger over this ripoff of the money that is being taken from me. This is not my idea of where this country should be, or should be going. You can work, then get a freakin’ job. You have "issues’? Well guess what...we all have issues and we still manage to drag our bodies to work. (I’ll say it once again.....there are people who need assistance. God bless them and I have no hesitation in helping them. I am talking about those who have found that there is no reason to try, since food stamps, WIC, medicaid, SSI, etc etc will pay them to remain off the work rolls forever. Let us call them, for convenience, freeloaders.) Do you think the God-fearing men who sat down in Philadelphia and set up this country ever thought that this type of activity would be encouraged, let alone tolerated, by the government they were setting up? Did any of them ever consider the possibility that their creation would morph into a monster that consumed 50 % of some people’s incomes, that would insinuate itself into almost all facets of day-to-day life? Would any of them, even those most in favor of a strong central government, ever dream that the government would essentially take over medical care (Medicare, Medicaid, Tricare, etc, etc), retirement (Social security), and now the financial markets (Buy-outs, bank take-overs, etc), while at the same time impinging on the very rights for which the founding fathers were fighting and dying (Fairness Doctrine, innumerable gun-control law, IRS DEA EPA and so on)?
I dare say that if they were alive today, the founding fathers would be heartbroken at the destruction of their dream, and would be hard at work to make things right once again.

1 comment:

Unknown said...

One founding father did not trust the financial system to begin with.

"If the American people ever allow private banks to control the issue of their currency first by inflation and then by deflation, the banks and corporations that will grow up around them will deprive the people of all property until their children will wake up homeless on the continent their fathers conquered".
-Thomas Jefferson in 1802 in a letter to then Secretary of the Treasury, Albert Gallatin

"I believe that banking institutions are more dangerous to our liberties than standing armies".
- Thomas Jefferson

Excellent post!!!
-J