AS WE LOOK TO THE FUTURE

I attended another funeral for one of our Greatest Generation.  A 95 year-old gentleman...one of those who fought through World War II, endured the Great Depression and contributed to this great country to make the United States of America a great nation. 


We are the next generation.  What do we want this country to look like?  We are in a situation which is similar to that which the Greatest Generation of our time faced.  They believed in this great country and its founding principles.  They worked hard to make money to support their families; whatever it took.  I remember my own mother from this generation saying that they were so poor at one point that they would have qualified for "food stamps" but they didn't partake in that - that generation worked to overcome hardships.

 President Clinton, of the "me generation" (no offense to those of you from that generation) has said that 'one of their biggest mistakes was sending food to countries and it only lasts for a short amount of time.  They should have taught the people of those countries how to grow crops, and produce milk, etc'  This concept seems so basic:  Give a man a fish and he will eat for day, teach a man to fish and he eats forever.   President Kennedy famously said, "Ask not what what your country can to do for you but what you can do for your country."  Today, we have even more government assistance programs from all areas - with people with their hands out.  This is making us a nation where people don't want to contribute and make money for themselves.  There are government programs for for free food, help for home payments, help for cell phones, etc.


The Greatest Generation brought us a nation of people who freely donated to help those less fortunate than themselves.  Today the government is taking from us to provide the services that once were donations from a caring generation.  Innovation and eutropeaurialship made this country stronger than any other country on earth in only over 200 years.  The greatest generation tried to leave these traditions (and constitution) for our generation, their grandchildren and great grandchildren just as the generations before them did.  We must refuse this governmental take over our country for entitlement programs if we want to feel proud of our own accompishments and the good feeling we get from donating to those less fortunate (used to be called charities but now they are referred to by the government as "non-governmental organizations or NGO's").  They want to take from and us and redistribute as they see fit instead of the system of charitible giving that has worked so well for us until this point.