Am on vacation, so am trying to:
- Review some older posts I had bookmarked to see if they were still relevant
- Fight through writer’s block
This acts as a starting point:
This scenario is terrifying Carol Poor, whose 83-year-old mother lives in an Alzheimer’s unit at Christian Care Centers in Gunter, a town north of Dallas. If her mother were discharged, Poor said she would have to retire early from her secretarial job to care for her mother since neither can afford to pay for a nurse or nursing home.
"My mother worked and paid taxes all these years," said Poor. "She deserves someone to be there for her."
Shouldn’t that be YOU, Carol? Versus some unknown Government paid worker (no matter how kindly that person might be)? It is this attitude that has rubbed me the wrong way?
Have we come so far as a society that a daughter believes that someone should be other than her to her mother? Or a son to his father? Have we progressed down that road to serfdom, to believe that outsourcing such a responsibility (that to our parents) is a rightful function of Government? That so many believe it to be just a normal state of being, begs the question itself.
While many believe that the political battle is between Democrats and Republicans, it really is between Statists and Freedomists, those that would grow government in a vain attempt to have it meet all needs vs. those that believe it cannot and that self-reliance and responsibility are the keys. The cited article brings the question to the fore, and into focus.
The writer talks about all of the Government programs that will be taken away from the elderly. The problem is real – what will happen when the money runs out? As the demographic bulge, which is my generation – the Boomers, retires at an ever increasing rate, the problem will only accelerate. Yet, the underlying assumption throughout is that this is normal – that Government is responsible for our seniors – and not the children.
But should it be? The thrust is to keep our seniors "independent"; is this really independence – or trading a traditional dependence (on family) to a socialism one (on Government)? Should we blithely allow a redefinition such that Government dependence is "independence"?
When did it become OK for the kids to foist their familial responsibilities onto others as a normal case of living?
