America Owes You Nothing

We are endowed by our creator with certain inalienable rights, life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness.  Maybe it’s just a Southern, country-boy thing but it seems to me that for the past sixty years people have misread the Bill of Rights.  Notice, if you will, it says ‘the pursuit of happiness’, not ‘happiness’.  This may come as a shock but the mere fact that one might be an ‘American’ does not guarantee one’s right to happiness, only that one has the inalienable right to pursue happiness free of government prohibition.  For example, if becoming a doctor would make me extremely happy, I have every right to pursue that goal and the government may not prohibit my pursuit of that goal because I may be black, Irish, a woman or short.  We are guaranteed the pursuit, not the goal.  Somewhere along the line we have fogged over the massive difference between rights, wants, needs, desires and demands.

I dare say many, if not most, of the current generation cannot define the term inalienable as it applies to the rights bestowed on us as set forth in the Bill of Rights.  Inalienable rights: those rights accorded to man that are incapable of being alienated, surrendered or transferred.  When did we forgo our individual pursuit of happiness for government supplied happiness?  At what point did we as a nation determine that only the government could provide for our needs?  I’m quite sure you’ve heard the facts and the figures, on the news or in your local paper but just for a moment consider this; over 50% of the citizens of the United States of America depend on the federal government for their wellbeing.  Over 50%.  Food stamps, welfare payments, unemployment benefits, social security and a host of other social programs.  Before you conclude that I am anti-government intervention of any sort, I believe social programs administered by the government to be a vital necessity.  In this country, as in all others, there will always be a certain portion of the population incapable of caring for themselves.  It is our obligation as a nation to see to their needs however, we have extended and misrepresented compassion to the point of crippling society. 

One of our local television stations recently conducted a ‘man on the street’ type poll to determine to what extent individuals understood the difference between ‘rights’ and ‘wants’.  The shocking results were presented in a one hour documentary highlighting the extent of the problem we’ve created.  The poll was made up of ten simple questions, each beginning with ‘Should the government….’  As a sample here are the five that shocked me the most.

Should the government provide individuals a means of livelihood?  57% Yes.  40% No.

Should the government provide free child care?  61% Yes.  32% No.

Should the government provide individuals a college education?  59% Yes.  37% No.

Should the government provide homes for its citizens?  48% Yes.  51% No.

Should the government assure life, liberty and happiness?  78% Yes.  20% No.

The most startling response of the five is the last.  Should the government assure, assure life, liberty and happiness?  Not the pursuit of happiness but happiness.  78% of those responding believe it is the government’s duty to assure happiness.  Without realizing we have abrogated personal responsibility in order to feed at the government table.  By our own hand we have planted and are harvesting a creeping for of socialism, the very socialism we rail against.

The ‘Tea Party’ movement, and I hate using that terminology, is nothing more than likeminded individuals espousing their belief that an ever intrusive government has overstepped its bounds and needs to be reined in.  Though I do not consider myself a member I do agree with the sentiment.  I do not need the government deciding what I eat.  I do not need the government to determine my ideal weight.  I do not need the government mandating what automobile I am allowed to drive.  I do not need the government determining which doctor I use or whether or not I purchase insurance.  Such is not the government’s task.  These are my responsibilities and as such, if I shirk my personal responsibility, I personally must pay the price.  Sadly, yet realistically, there are winners and losers in life.  There always have been.  There always will be regardless of governmental efforts to eliminate the highs and lows of earthly existence.

My father used to say that winning means nothing without having lost and losing means nothing without having something to lose.  Our President said recently “Part of the reason that our politics seems so tough right now and facts and science and argument do not seem to be winning the day all the time is because we're hard-wired not to always think clearly when we're scared. And the country is scared."  I disagree.  A majority of the citizens of this nation are not scared.  They have awakened.  They have awakened to the fact that their country is heading down a path they do not wish to travel and have decided to apply the brakes.  If we’re lucky it might not be too late.