What Is Happening In America?

I was thinking about the past and the present of the America that I grew up in. There were always Democrats and always Republicans and the occasional third party. I remember clearly the inauguration of John F. Kennedy. That is probably the first inauguration that I watched and understood what I was seeing.

The key sentence from President Kennedy's inaugural address was, of course, "Ask not what your country can do for you, ask what you can do for your country." What ever happened to that sentiment, that idea that each citizen owed something to this country and that it was a debt to be held dear and freely paid.

At present, the prevailing sentiment of a large portion of our citizenry seems to be, "What can my country do for ME to satisfy MY special interest, to promote MY pet projects, to make MY life better? While both major political parties have pandered to this sentiment in varying degrees, I believe that the current Democratic party works overtime to think up new entitlements to get the votes of more and more people in this country. However, in doing so, a permanent underclass of citizens is being produced and our country is being bankrupted.

When was it decided that the government should choose who will be the winners and losers in our economy and country. It is not the government's job to make that determination. It is the government's job, in a free market society, to see that everyone has an opportunity to succeed and then get out of the way so that an individual can succeed OR FAIL!

Socialism espouses the idea that the government, not the individual, knows best what and how much you need, and the rest is distributed at the whim of the governing powers. Is that really what America wants to become? The far left of the Democratic party seems to think so!

Those who have worked hard in this country for their whole life might feel that, after paying into social security for all their working years. they are not in favor of allowing illegal aliens to dip into that money when they have not contributed one dime to this fund. But our esteemed Speaker of the House, Nancy Pelosi, and her cohorts want to do exactly that. Shouldn't the citizens who have contributed to this fund be the ones to make such a decision?

One of our greatest presidents, Abraham Lincoln, has some thoughts on these matters that bear consideration.

"You cannot help the poor by destroying the rich."
"You cannot strengthen the weak by weakening the strong."
"You cannot bring about prosperity by discouraging thrift."
"You cannot lift the wage earner up by pulling the wage payer down."
"You cannot further the brotherhood of man by inciting class hatred."
"You cannot build character and courage by taking away men's inititative and independence."
"You cannot help men permanently by doing for them what they could, and should, do for themselves."

And most imortantly, "A house divided against itself cannot stand."

MAYBE IT IS TIME FOR THE AMERICAN CITIZENS TO RETHINK AND RE-PLAN OUR FUTURE, WHILE WE STILL HAVE ONE!