Archive for January, 2020

275 – “Meaning”

Wednesday, January 1st, 2020

IN DEFENSE OF COMMON SENSE
By Hetty Gray

January 1, 2020

# 275

“Meaning”

First of all, readers, I want to wish each and every one of you a “Happy New Year.” In the current atmosphere of animosity spread with rumors and innuendos, that is a wish that may be hard to achieve. But try we will. Now, let’s turn to the next 364 days left in this calendar year.

The year is 2020. Those numbers have been bandied around for as long as I can remember, and I am no young chick anymore! More often than not, we think of the number 20/20 as something we hear in the optician or ophthalmologist’s. Most, if not all of us, take this to mean a visual diagnosis. But, I ask you to consider this next sentence as more than a play on words: “It’s 20 20.” Think about perfect vision as how we the world, not merely a ocular score.

Seeing the world involves far more than eyesight. Seeing the world is understanding the world, with all its beauty, serenity, flaws, conflict — weighing the good and the bad with a mindset that not every situation has a resolution that lasts. Yet, every situation can improve.

The documents of our Founding Fathers were written to last. They were meant to last. And last, they have — to this point — in great part due to the diligence of educators and ordinary citizens who saw the import of our great foundation documents and the necessity of passing on the values of freedom and responsibility to the next generation.

The allegiance to our nation displayed by generations of Americans, in war and peace, has held the United States out to the world as a beacon of freedom and the benchmark for progress for the individual — not a specific group, ethnicity, or religion.

Over the last thirty years many of us “older folks” have noticed the slow slip of American values in our schools. That slip permeates the culture we encounter now and endangers all that previous generations have fought and died to preserve. History is given short shrift in many schools, from K-12. And our colleges have become bastions for anti-American sentiments. In many cases, socialist professors outnumber conservatives in huge percentages. With a captive, classroom audience, their slanted view of government is more than poor judgement on the part of the college administrators, it’s downright dangerous.

This comment is not without defense. Nowhere on the planet has socialism succeeded. The most recent collapse of a productive economy within a system is Venezuela, long the gem of South America. That, sadly, could happen here. The push for socialism among the Democrats running to secure their party’s nomination for president would make the founders shudder. Yet, they foresaw such peril and designed the Electoral College and the Separation of Powers for just that reason. Who cries to tear them apart? The Democrats. Were they to succeed, you would not see the America that we know. Without the Electoral College, large population areas and big cities would hold sway over the smaller states and their voices — along with most of “fly-over” America — would be silenced forever.

At no time in American history has her progress or stable government been the products of socialism in any form. I cannot begin to trace the beginning of the thought processes we see among the Democrats today, but perhaps we could look to the communes of the 1960s and those who espoused the mantra: “Never trust anyone over thirty.”

Savants and exceptional students aside, education and intelligence may exist under thirty, but wisdom is rare. One acquires wisdom in living. Reflecting on ancient Rome, historians will tell you that subsidizing nonproductive people brought the then most famous Empire to its knees. No country can exist when more people take than give.

Go back to the old phrase that you cannot overload a wagon. Rome fell prey to inflation, over-taxation, and a form of feudalism. What do you call it when the most impressive, efficient medical system in the world succumbs to government control? Well, the doctors become serfs and a new, radical form of feudalism relegates the average person to less health care, less choice, and all the inherent problems resulting from both. What do you call it when a presidential candidates avows to raise your taxes? This should make every voter cringe!

If there are too many riding in the wagon and too few pulling, the wagon stalls — as will the America as we have known it. There is no excuse for promising that no work reaps reward. Hard work has merit, hard work achieves, and hard work fuels the human spirit with pride.

Look around you. Consider any industry responsible for the explosive growth of the United States since the middle 19-th century. Where do you see sloth? Where do you see lack of ambition or motivation? Nowhere.

Let’s consider this for the best explanation of why the year of 2020 should project a great future for America. 20/20 has long been the numerical equivalent of perfect vision. That is what we need. Perfection eludes us, but President Trump asks Americans to aspire to more. He asks each of us to achieve more. He asks us to be better as a people. He asks us to join together to make this a better country.

Make America Great Again is not merely a campaign slogan. It a challenge we can meet, each in our own way. Do not fall prey to those who promise free stuff. Like the old saying, “There is no free lunch.” Someone pays for it.

Do not allow the anger and the envy of those who lost the 2016 presidential election to poison the well to a point that people actually believe they can live off the government. Do not stand by and let others take up the fight. Refuse to donate to any college or university that limits conservative speech. Watch the social aspects of your own local and county governments.

Do not support anyone who turns against our basic values and spouts garbage. Garbage is good food that rots. Government is judged likewise. Once good and nourishing, responsible government ends up in the worst form of economic debris and is borne of
hogwash gone wild and baloney sold as solid advice.

Once, it was common to hear this: “If it sounds too good to be true, it is.” I guess we have forgotten to pass that bit of wisdom along over the last thirty years. More’s the pity….

Socialism rots a republic from within. Why not embrace a bright future for America? Secure our borders. Root out the government corruption that corrodes long-standing confidence in our FBI and CIA. There are far more government workers than elected officials and for lack of a better term, “The inmates are running the asylum.”

President Trump lays out a vision for America. No vision is perfect, but his is the only one in the last thirty years that roots in our founding and invokes Almighty God on a regular basis. He sees strong, resilient America, beholden to no one, and challenging the leaders of the world to wake up and smell the coffee.

We have stood as the beacon for freedom and can do so again, so long as we make sure that the generations younger than we know and understand the risks of buying the tempting, illicit messages of angry snake oil salesmen who travel about stirring up hatred and dividing people for no good reason. Right now, these purveyors of rot are busy on the campaign trail….

There is promise in 2020, but that promise roots in individual effort not governmental largess passed out in a cavalier fashion in order to enslave by deceit. Once the government controls any part of your life, that part is gone forever. As President Reagan said, “The closest thing to eternal life on earth is a Government Program.” How right he was, and is.

If the only way the Democrats can win is to lie and distort the record of this amazing administration, let’s give them a run for their money. Oops! It’s not their money. It’s ours. Think about it.