For all of you folks who remember “Give-a-way Don” on late night television in the 1950s and 1960s, cutting prices on used cars was a given. The blackboard sat mid-stage with “original” prices scrawled to the left. Don, with his trademark flourish, would strike that chalk across the figures and slash them “to the bone,” as he put it.
Well, take a deep breath and lean back, for the newest version of that old personality is at it again. Voices rise in fervor as they cast out across the waters and seek support of those who want the government to take care of them. This has never worked. It won’t work now, but they banter away incessantly as if repetition equates results. Working folks know better. For want of a better explanation, use the old adage that remains as valid today as when it first surfaced: “There is no free lunch!”
Labor yields capital. Anyone heard of that mantra? Well, it seems that the 48% of Americans who paid absolutely no federal income taxes in 2008 haven’t been exposed to that credo. Undoubtedly, this figure is even higher today. And what of the rest of us — employed and retired? Well, we foot the bill and nobody in the federal government seems the least bit concerned that there are soon to be more folks in the wagon than pulling it.
Oops! Where has America failed? It all began with the dismantling of the nuclear family. Three generations ago, single mothers were widows. Families were close knit and worked together. The only debauchery flaunted was that of the characters described in The Great Gatsby, where money fueled bad behavior and poor moral habits. Sadly, such philandering is still common among some of the upper crust. But don’t judge all by a few. There are a lot of families who have worked their way up the corporate ladder and still held to traditional values.
The franchise is the keystone of our republic. I am reminded of Benjamin Franklin.
When asked what type of government the American people were going to participate in, by a well-meaning woman, a stern Benjamin Franklin warned that our new government was going to be “A republic, madam, if you can keep it.”
Recently, I booted up a site called Freedom’s Phoenix. You remember Phoenix, the bird that rose again from the ashes. Well, we’re not in ashes yet, folks, but we are smoldering and it should alarm you to such a degree that you encourage others to go to the polls and vote people into office that ascribe to the tenets of the Founders and rebuff the current attitudes that border on outright Socialism. Like the famed “Trojan Horse”, government promises sound good, but they hold a dark secret — they aren’t free. If you work, you will pay for them and so will your children and grandchildren!
Freedom’s Phoenix asks a simple question of readers: Can we preserve our great country or will the American government be irretrievably lost to the special interests who would dare to use our country for their own ends, regardless of the cost. Consider this Robert Hutchins’ quote:
“The death of democracy is not likely to be an assassination from ambush. It will be a slow extinction from apathy, indifference, and undernourishment.”
The site goes on to expound on basics that guided those educated and determined men who fashioned this nation so many years ago. America has indeed been living on momentum which began with the Founding Fathers and has been perpetuated by successive generations of American people, until recently,
Increasingly, the American people witness the abrogation of their political rights, their economic futures and the heritage of its children. Yet, the events that would have plunged America into the throes of a bloody revolution only a couple of generations ago are met with notable indifference today.
To which I add this. That indifference should not accompany you to the ballot box. Despite what the majority in Congress thinks, they do not know what is best for you. You do. Clear the board. I saw a wonderful slogan on a tee shirt at one of the rallies earlier this week.
We the people…. Are coming. Are you? I hope so. Think about it. You need not take up arms. Use your vote. Some of the most famous freedom fighters in the world never held a gun. One came from India.
“First they ignore you, then they laugh at you, then they fight
you, then you win.” Mahatma Gandhi
My, my, how things stay the same. They ignored us. They laughed at us. They called us names. Now they must fight us. The end will come swiftly. We will win.
Take up your flag and hold it in your heart and you enter that booth on Tuesday next week. The future is in you hands. Forge it well.
“First they ignore you, then they laugh at you, then they fight you, then you win.”
Mahatma Gandhi