Quick thoughts….
Have we changed as a country? Have we changed because of a collective moral loss? It used to be a steadfast stance to be self-reliant, or a reliance on family, then to friends and neighbors. Pride in doing for oneself was the rule and not the exception. It seems, over the last few decades to have morphed to "How can you help us?" and is quickly devolving to a more strident tone:
"How can you [dare] NOT help us?"
The implication is an entitlement that I should have your time, your talent, and your money when I decide I need it. How dare you refuse my impositions? After all, I’m not self-reliant – I’m a victim!". Well, that seems to have been the mantra of the Progressives – they have taught it well. Question is, has that been the right lesson to learn?
When did this country go from being "We Do, or do without" to one of "You get to give me"? Simple: the stage when we devolving from being adults to being adolescents; the time when we stopped delaying gratification for now to one of "why don’t I have it now?"(forget "why can’t I have it now" – that’s so last century).
We are told by our leaders that we are in financial crisis. Yet, I stand with Glen Harlan Reynolds of Instapundit when he says
I’ll believe it’s a crisis when the people who keep telling me it’s a crisis start acting like it’s a crisis.
Most adults, when they see a crisis immediately in front of them, stop. Even better, they tell others to do the same. After all, it’s the responsible thing to do. Yet, all the while as our politicians say that there is a crisis, they refuse to act like one. All we get is leadership like Senator "saddle up, cowpoke" Reid defending the spending of my hard earned tax dollars on the ultra-high National priority of "cowboy poetry". Or sending it to NPR, whose highly compensated executives truly believe that I, a middle class TEA Party guy, is racist and not ashamed to say it as they pander for a $5 million "donation" from those that wish to replace Constitutional law with Shariah law (heh – inside joke – Hi Mr. C – great job!).
When is it reasonable when NOTHING can be on the table for cuts? Here in my hamlet, such a hue and cry when the selectmen nicked the community band budget – the Letters to the Editor screamed "HOW DARE THEY!" over a mere $750 – and not even a thought to raise the funds for themselves. I guess, being the principled musicians they are, doing their own fundraising was beneath them.
We see it now in Concord, where each special interest is now lining up to lay claim on "the Government money" – never wishing to believe that it is really their neighbors’ money – or if they do, it is simply that infamous "hey, it’s just a cup of coffee a day" rationalization (and never putting 2 and 3,000 together to sum up how many groups want others to serving those 2,002 cups of coffee to them – daily).
I see it at the national level – too many incidents to go through here (yeah, Quick Thoughts, Skip?).
Let me end with this: if everything had to be paid for locally, do you think we’d have quite as many Governmental financial problems as we do now?
Or is it a case that our moral core is so rotten, that we can no longer resist the temptation of taking others money simply by passing a law, and still feel good about ourselves?
After, we didn’t earn it….
