Dexter Iowa Community Site

Consider this quote from Abe Lincoln

"America will never be destroyed from the outside. If we falter and lose our freedoms, it will be because we destroyed ourselves."

Another birthday has come and gone for our country and I can honestly say that I feel somewhat troubled at the future that is before us in this nation. Maybe it comes with age and perhaps I’m getting a little cranky as I get older but I find that more and more I want to retreat from the public arena because we are no longer setting ourselves on a path towards greatness.

I have always thought that government in any form should be for the common good of all peoples. This is not to say that there won’t be times where one “group” of people won’t have to give up something in return for something else, but as a whole government should be made up of compromise and adhere to a strict effort to allow those freedoms and liberties that are God given to be allowed without the interference of a body of people and their special interest.

There was a time in this country, or perhaps I’ve wished there was, when ones effort determined ones stand in life. Through the hard work and sweat and tears of one’s own hand or brain or work, your life was your own and you were allowed to achieve or not achieve whatever was in your heart to do so. As always there should be a safety net to allow for the care of those who are unable to care for themselves. But when did we allow ourselves to set the bar so low that suddenly that safety net became an entitlement? There is no document, no God given right to take what is another’s and distribute it to those who simply don’t care to put forth any effort on their own.

We have allowed ourselves to be sold to the highest bidder and in this case it is our government and its willingness to hand out money as though it was deserved by those who simply decided to make poor choices and were not willing to put forth whatever effort was needed to bring themselves out of that situation. When a government does this it creates a class of individuals who no longer become productive members of society, but instead become suddenly entitled, in their own minds, to those things which those who work and toil have. You are not owed anything in this life. Period. When did we as a culture feel as though we were? If the ability for me to attain the pursuit of happiness is only allowed so long as I have to provide for more than just my pursuits am I really given the liberty to attain them?

There are a few basic tenants that I do believe that are not only proper, but necessary for the common good. We should, as a people, have a program to help feed people who have found themselves on times when the purchase of food becomes a hardship. Also we should give every child a good education, paid for by the masses, however this does not mean that we are all responsible for an advanced education. There should be a retirement program, which allows the elderly a stipend to help with the finances in their golden years, but should we set a limit on when that starts, or should we allow people to continue to work if they wish to work? We should also have in place strong programs that work and aren’t full of bureaucratic red tape that provide for those who have placed their lives on the line in defense of not only this country but the freedoms which we all hold so dear across the globe.

Unfortunately we have not just taken the small steps to make sure those who have fallen on hard times are taken care of, but we have stood at the front door and welcomed them in to stay without ever devising a plan for their departure from these programs. When you allow the government to become the caretaker of a group of people, there is no turning back from it, and certainly it creates a group of people that can be used for political means, when it was supposed to be about helping them in the first place. Isn’t it the duty of all of us to be citizens who are contributing to the overall well being of this country? Unfortunately I don’t see a lot of that anymore and as long as we continue to pit one group of people against another and hold them hostage by providing for them at the expense of another then we are certainly not allowing anyone to achieve those things which we all hold dear….life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness. See you next week…remember, we’re all in this together.