Soap Box

Some time ago I got a tweet from a young lady who informed me that she was sure that I was not paying my "fair share" and although she could neither tell me what my fair share would consist of or knew anything about the amount of tax and other state and federal assessments I pay, she was sure it was not enough and I should be forced to pay more.

She said she had a hard time getting ahead and she seemed to think that part of the reason for that was because people like me did not pay their fair share of taxes so that people like her could get the government aid they were entitled to, to level the playing field, she also informed me not to tell her to "try harder" because she had done that and it simply didn't work.

At this point I gave up even trying to reason with her, even though I wanted to tell her that with the attitude she had she was never going to achieve any higher position in life than she already had, for the simple reason that she had swallowed the one size fits all, you didn't build that, somebody helped you, the reason you don't prosper is because somebody else is unfairly taking your piece of the pie, socialistic crap.

Consigning your future to the whims and excesses of a government with movable parts and politicians who will tell you anything you want to hear just to get your vote is like sealing a list of your dreams in a bottle and setting it adrift on the ocean, in hopes it lands in the good fairy's home port.

It seems to me that one of the major problems in America today is that so many young people think if they get a college degree they have the right to start at the front of the line with a big salary, benefits and automatic promotions.

The other major problem is that many - like the aforementioned young lady - feel that what they lack in work ethic, tenacity and determination should be made up with government programs that guarantee them cradle to grave employment, health insurance and retirement.

In the first instance, your college degree doesn't mean a thing if you don't apply yourself and prove your worth to your employer.

See, the very obvious secret is that quite frequently, the people who have the best jobs and make the big bucks are the people who take the bull by the horns and get the job done, taking responsibility for whatever is assigned to them, seeing it through to the finish, burning whatever midnight oil and traveling whatever extra miles are required to accomplish it.

Proving themselves to be reliable and trustworthy to handle sensitive situations with kid gloves and those that require a sledgehammer and the savvy to know the difference.

And even those kinds of people don't start out with a key to the executive washroom. Nobody assigns major responsibilities to an unknown quantity, it starts small and expands as you prove yourself by being the first one to get there and the last one to leave and not hiding when a difficult task is about to be handed out.

Unfortunately in the case of the young lady who accused me of not paying my fair share and those like her, there is no hope at all without an attitude transplant. She is trapped in a whirlpool of thinking that everything in her life is controlled by outside influences, that the people who go farther in life than she has, have done so by taking what rightfully belongs to her, not because she earned it, but because she is entitled to it.

Just as the world's second highest corporate tax rates and silly, stifling federal regulations have chased major portions of American industry off shore, leaders who buy votes by expanding the entitlement and disability rolls and preaching the line that successful people are the culprits because they take all the gravy leaving just the crumbs for others weaken this nation with every passing year.

Lowering the standards for graduation to keep from hurting the feelings of those too lazy to study and turning the education system into a political cabal more concerned with getting politicians elected who are sympathetic to their union causes than they are in educating the children has already moved American students far behind many less prosperous countries in math and the sciences.

If you want to see who can affect your future, go look in the mirror. God created only one you. You are the only person in the world who has your fingerprints, your unique combination of emotions and abilities. He created you with a talent of some kind.

Identify it, roll your sleeves up, decide you're going to accomplish what you want out of life even if you have to work twice as hard as anybody else, attack it, subdue it and enjoy it.

Your dream awaits you, how badly do you want it?

What do you think?

Pray for our troops and the peace of Jerusalem.

God Bless America

Charlie Daniels​