The year is 1800. On a small farm in the Steppes region of China, just south of lower Mongolia, a Chinese peasant has a translated copy of the Declaration of Independence tacked to the wall of his hut. The peasant can only dream that a government would grant its citizens one's natural rights and place them above all others.
1875. An anthropology team from Europe climbs high into the Carpathian Mountains. There they find a tribe of people so remote that they still fashion tools by slamming two rocks together. As the tribesmen are interviewed, and asked who in the wild world they'd most like to meet, almost universally proclaim "Abraham Lincoln".
June, 1944. An American pilot, flying bombing raids over Haiphong Harbor, is shot down over Vietnam by occupying Japanese forces. Before the Japanese can find his downed aircraft, a small band of Vietnamese guerrilla fighters locate the crash site, rescue the American pilot and spirit him off to some nearby caves. When the pilot's broken leg and broken arm is set and bound, and after his wounds are tended to, the pilot awakens from a fever to find none other than Ho Chi Minh standing over him. When the pilot asks why he was rescued Ho Chi Minh says "because we admire Americans." "Just as you Americans threw off the yoke of an oppressive government, just as you fought for your own independence, we Vietnamese strive to free us from the yoke of French colonialism and Japanese aggression". 'We aspire to our independence as deeply as your country once sought your own". (And for the rest of the war the "Viet Minh" would rescue many downed American pilots, care for them medically, and whisk them back across the Chinese border, to safety. And when the war was over America would repay those "freedom fighters" by siding with their French masters.)
April, 1995. An American journalist, traveling in Vietnam, visits a peasants hut fifty miles outside Saigon. Inside the hut the peasant has pictures of Ho Chi Minh on the wall. Surrounding Ho's pictures are dozens of American Ben Franklin's sayings, written in English, all over the walls. "A stitch in time saves nine", "those who surrender freedom for security will most assuredly have neither", "early to bed, early to rise makes a man wealthy and wise". When asked why he has all those American sayings on his wall the peasant says "I want my children to learn the American way; to work hard so they can take care of me when I'm old".
June, 2010. 100,000 Mexicans march in downtown Los Angeles, Another 50,000 takes to the streets of Phoenix. They carry Mexican flags and shout out the glory of Mexico..even as they stomp on the Stars and Stripes, and brand Americans "racist" for being opposed to open borders. And, as much as they hate America, they enjoy the overly generous American welfare and child care benefits...and demand the right to continue to enjoy them evan as they profess their hate for those who pay or them.
June 2015. A Back To Africa Movement is born in the American ghettos. After Ferguson, and after Baltimore, the movement purports to raise funds that would allow African Americans to return to Africa...to free themselves from American persecution. Never mind that millions of Africans would gladly trade places with them, these African Americans are fed up with free health care, welfare checks and preferential quotas for college and for employment. They've had enough of America and want to leave her.
March, 2016. Thousands attend a Bernie Sanders rally. Each time Bernie Sanders declares the evil of American capitalists, the crowd cheers. Each time Bernie Sanders promises to double Social Security pensions, the crowd roars. Each time Bernie promises free college for everyone the people erupt with orgasmic delight, and each time Sanders laundry lists all of America's evils, his followers deface and burn American flags and thrust their fists in the air and repeat his hateful mantras.
Every one of the above citations are absolutely true..taken directly from the annals of history.
It seems that everyone loves America...dreams the American dream...except Americans themselves.
8 comments:
What a sad reminder of what we have become! So how, I wonder, did this happen?
I put myself through the University, married and lived in a little house all while working 20 hours a week. Can't be done now:( I bought the house I am living in in 1972 while earning $2.00 per hour at the local cannery. can't be done now:(
It is funny though, the Really Successful Stories I see around me are all from "strangers" to this new land, sometimes Mexican, or Asian and others whose identity cards I have't bothered to check, people willing to work 12 hour days, up early and up late, still working for this American Dream that we have lost along the way! Any answer has to be found in some kind of compromise. Discover the problem and realize the consequences. The Biggest Benefactors of Government Assistance are corporations like Walmart and Target. Get rid of welfare and food stamps and it would tumble their bottom line! and, as long as I am rambling, one more thing!
The University of Oregon has about 13,000 students in 1972 and there was no "Nike" and other than dorms, no student housing. Now it is all Business. Multi-million dollar Sports Programs! and tearing down older neighborhoods around the University, replacing the tiny houses with seven story Student Apartments. All with gyms, espresso cafes and juice bars, dishwashers and granite counter tops. All the luxuries that Students have come to expect and need! In my town alone this is Billions in development and services for the now 20,000 students. All paid for by the Federal Government in the form of Student Loans and Educational Debt to the tune of Over a Trillion Dollars! Pretty Crazy! and to keep this cash cow going the classes offered are dumbed down to being meaningless.
In order to "solve" this problem (that no one really wants to solve because there is too much money in it), like any good crime drama, "follow the money". What is Government Subsidy Really About???
Jerry, I'm sure if we both sat down with a cup of coffee and a BLT we could satisfactorily hash out "how all this happened". I don't think we'll ever agree on who benefits the most from the government gravy. While I am thoroughly disgusted by corporate greed and the decline of "corporate citizenship", I believe far more harm is done as we pamper selected classes of individual citizens. (Your point about Oregon, and student debt and the rising expectations of the spoiled would seem to prove that!)
In the end both of us must agree with Jefferson...when sufficient numbers of a Republic begin voting for the government gravy you've lost your Republic.
BTW, I apologize to my readers for the jagged format of the blog (all those open spaces). It is a google problem that pops up now and then. Working on it.
June 10 2010. This is why we need someone(even Trump) who will divest us of these types. June 2015-Be willing to bet, not one taker on going back to Africa. They can complain all they want but that would not be an option any sane person would take.
As for the spaces. I think for this blog, it worked. One needed to think in between sections and the spacing allowed that to happen.
Oh. And Bernie Sanders? He'll just be a footnote in history. He will go away after he loses to Hillary just like Ron Paul did.
Frank, I'm betting you are right on that Back to Africa movement. Blacks are the poster children for ethnic pampering.
"America" is an idea, an idea put into practice in 1789 by a bunch of white, slave-owning church goers (most of them) that dreamed of living in a nation where they would be free of government oppression, free to speak their minds about elected officials, and free to live a life THEY choose - not one chosen for them at birth. Freedom requires responsibility - your choices mean your consequences. Take away or refuse to accept those consequences, and you have abdicated an essential part of freedom. Government is always ready to step in and "help", but at a cost. The founders said "No"to that form of government and gave the nation a framework to keep that government in check but even as they did so, those men knew the greedy, selfish nature of man would never change. They warned us about letting government get too powerful, about electing politicians that would "give" us things from our own treasury. They gave us the remedy for what they knew would occur - it is not pretty, nice, or neat. It requires men and women of character, people who put others before themselves, and are determined that the mistakes of the past will not be repeated. Today, look at what is left of that idea put into practice. You pointed out the massive numbers of people that are not responsible for themselves - and that number is growing. Church attendance is down and has been dropping for the past 20 years. The concept of personal responsibility has been utterly rejected by the left and by most on the supposed right - that notion is now "selfishness" and "greed". No politician talks about taking care of yourself, being responsible for your own life. I live in CA - it is a sad state by any measure. Yet, the allure of government paying the freight is so strong, even though the cost is unfathomable by most, these people continue to vote for leftist Democrats. The founders did not want this for us. They fully expected the nation to stop it when it began to happen. I think about the world my children will face, what "freedom" will they have left? How could people be so stupid, so blind to their own history as to let this government get so powerful at their own expense?
Well said, Randy. With regard to Mexifornia, just read the other day that the Dems in Sacramento have managed to rack up $175 billion in state pension debt in their 40 years of state house control. Sad. Damned Sad.
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