Entitlement Mindset

Remember the old time Christmas tree lights, where if one bulb burned out they all went out, keep that thought in mind. Growing up around a bunch of western NY Scots Highlanders I developed a different perspective on life. Those bonds of clanship remain strong today. Your familial clan is important but even more important than birthright is what you have done with your life and how you live it. Arrogance is looked down upon, but pride is considered a positive and valuable trait. Pride in your lineage, pride in your work, and blended with a certain amount of humility, pride in who you are. Now this has little or nothing to do with what you might own or how much wealth you have accumulated. In fact, you are more respected for what you have built than what you have bought. Amongst our people virtues come mostly from sweat and tired muscles, not bundles of cash or government handouts. The movie “Rob Roy” with Liam Neeson will give you some sense of what I mean.

It is with a great sense of relief that I saw the one trillion dollar plus omnibus bill go down in flames. I think if the budget isn’t passed then the congressional paychecks ought to just stop. If they load the bill up with pork again I think we need to have a referendum and remove from office every person whose name is attached to an ear-mark. Yes I know that is cold hearted, and people will be dying in the streets for lack of medical care and food. We all know that’s liberal left wing BS. When was the last time you heard of anyone in this country being denied life saving services? Do you know that a high percentage of the people sleeping on the streets are armed forces veterans whose service a nation has forgotten while catering to the never employed?

This is the season to be charitable but I want you to think for a moment about the difference between charity and entitlement. Someone asked me, “Don’t you get money from HEAP to help pay your heating bills?” They were dumbfounded that I had not applied for it. When for most of your life you receive assistance to pay for your food, heat, housing, free cell phones, medical assistance, unemployment, welfare, or disability payments, I suppose it is hard to understand the concept of working for everything you have. I am not opposed to giving a helping hand, God only knows how many charities my wife sends donations to. I am OK with that, except, when it turns into a way of life, and the recipients forget to be thankful and instead begin to demand what is “rightfully theirs.”

Call me Ebeneezer if you will, but when there are three people on the government payroll or welfare dole for every single working person, it is like a pack of wolves shredding a lone sheep. In the end the sheep is dead and there is not enough meat to feed all of the wolves. And that my friends, is how the lights flicker and slowly go out, in a dying civilization. The light in Greece is going out, the light in Ireland, Portugal, and Britain is flickering.