Well, I need to get back to blowing off some political steam and I feel like re-affirming why I "lean to the right." Before I go on, have to say that I am NOT a republican, but it is unlikely that I will ever vote for a Democrat. How so? I am a small government, fiscal conservative, stay out of my business, socially 50% liberal kind of guy. Reason #1 comes down to
PERSONAL RESPONSIBILITY.
That doesn't mean that some people couldn't use help, but that's NOT what this is about. Obviously, some of my views have been formed through my personal experiences and while I don't admire everything my parents do or say, there is one component of their life that I find so amazing that it has literally shaped my life (and my wife hates them for it
). My parents have quite literally defined personal responsibility and persevered through hardships that even todays' "poor" do not have to face.
Here's the story (as brief as I can make it):
My mother was born in 1928 in a very small town in Italy, one of 9 children and the next to youngest. Her mother and father both died when she was ten and she basically spent a couple of years in the care of her older sibs until she basically couldn't take the abuse any longer. She had completed the first 3 grades of grammar school which would be her only formal education to this day. So in her early teens she resorted to begging for help and basically went from home to home over the next several years performing household and kitchen duties strictly for room and board. Once she was an adult, she was able to find a string of jobs in restaurant kitchens as a salad girl and such working for less than $5 a day. Long-story short, she met my father, working as a pastry chef, in a one of these restaurants (I'll give his story later) and they decided in 1960 to emigrate to the U.S. to pursue a dream of owning their own restaurant. With nothing more than the clothes on their back they made their way to New York.
Both of my parents learned the language on their own (they each speak 4) and found jobs, my mother as a housekeeper and my father working in a pastry shop. They barely made enough money to live on, saving little, but they continued to pursue the dream. I might add that they never requested nor received any government assistance, they lived within their meager means. It wasn't until 1970 that an opportunity came along where they might be able to open their own restaurant. After years of being turned down for loans and enduring not an insignificant amount of discrimination due to their immigrant status, they finally secured a loan and in addition to the small amount they were able to save opened their first restaurant in Virginia.
Well, my parents worked their butts off trying to make their business successful. They were NOT an overnight success. They were not business savvy per se. They just worked hard, lived within their means and ran the business with little or no waste. We lived modestly for the next 10 to 15 years: living in an apartment at first, driving older cars (the Olds Vista Cruiser was lovely though), having only 1 child (me), and sparing any and all extravagance (I was always the kid that went to other people's home to play with the cool toys - "Atari anyone"). My parents were ordinary in the sense that they did not have any particular luck, good fortune or skill that turned them into successes, rather it was just plain old hard work. The restaurant was open 6 days a week and my parents were there (as I was after school every day) before the place opened and after it closed every day - even on the one day a week the place was closed. I know it sounds boring and unglamorous - and it was - but they made it. They may not be Bill Gates, but they have enough money to retire on and enjoy the rest of their lives traveling and being grandparents.
Bottom Line:
If my parents can live the American Dream, there is not a damn reason why anyone in this country can't have the same thing. They could have come up with plenty of excuses, but that was not their mentality. Pure and simple, it was all about if you want to succeed you had to do it on your own. And they did.
And so, that is in a nutshell why I have little respect or empathy for anyone that expects and depends on government entitlement programs of any kind. I believe that if we made everyone sink or swim tomorrow, that a very high percentage of current welfare recipients would figure out a way to make it and would start to make better life decisions. Most of us that pay taxes are not rich and did not get what little we have because it was handed to us or because it was easy - we work hard every day. We are blessed, but we are not lucky and while I am all for helping people that truly need help I only want to help those that want to help themselves.
THE END!
. Looking forward to Friday's ride in that sweet Georgia sunshine.
