Soap Box

A few days ago my wife and myself were on a trip, it was early morning and we stopped at a well-known fast food chain to get breakfast. We pulled up to the drive through only to be greeted by a surly, unhelpful voice that seemed to be irritated and bothered by customers who help pay her salary.

Now I'll admit that working the pre-dawn hours at a fast food window is not my idea of the ideal job, but if it happens to be the only one you have at the time, shouldn't you do it to the best of your ability in hopes that the powers that be will notice your attitude and move you on up the ladder when there is an opening available?

There is an attitude amongst a significant segment of American society that the reason the �haves� have and the �have nots� have not is an inequitable social system whereby some people get all the perks and some people get none, that the ones who succeed do so on the backs of those floundering around at the bottom of the economic ladder.

Many feel they should have a piece of the pie, the fact that they never finished high school, started having children in their early teens and do just enough work on their jobs to squeak by notwithstanding.

Never going the extra mile, never showing initiative, never developing the capabilities nor the work ethic that catches the attention of an employer and makes them think "this person can handle more responsibility, I'm going to keep my eye on them" they slog on day after day doing just enough to get by and blaming all their problems on somebody else.

These people are ripe fruit for unscrupulous politicians who gladly exploit their attitude of discontent and agree with them that their birthright has been stolen and that they are entitled to a place at the public table receiving benefits to make up for the inequities, which will enable them to go on their merry way and continue blaming everybody, except the person they see in the mirror, for their plight.

One of the biggest mistakes our nation is making is allowing men to father children and not be held accountable for their welfare.

There are men who have walked away from scores of children they have fathered by different women and never paid a cent for their upbringing.

In my opinion, before a woman can draw federal or state benefits for a child she should have to reveal the name of the child's father and that man would be forced to pay child support until the child reaches the age of majority and with modern DNA technology it's doable.

If he has fathered multiple children, let him get multiple jobs, pay up or go to jail. 

You see, this whole thing boils down to one thing, accepting responsibility, responsibility for seeing that your children finish school, responsibility for being at work on time and doing the best job you can, responsibility for not becoming pregnant at 12 years old, responsibility for staying out of trouble, shunning drugs and developing a "let me do it" attitude that pushes you up the ladder.

Take responsibility for your own life.

One of the best examples of what has happened in America and the loss of initiative and responsibility is what happened in New Orleans in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina.

In New Orleans, thousands of people just sat there figuring that the government will "come get me.� They had become so dependent on public assistance that when the storm hit, instead of doing the practical thing and heading for higher ground they waited for somebody to come and rescue them. It was literally pitiful.

Next door on the Mississippi Gulf Coast, as soon as the storm was over the people were out with chainsaws and bulldozers, cleaning up the damage the storm had left and getting ready to rebuild.

Unfortunately, President Obama encourages this kind of �depend on government� attitude with statements like, �You didn't build that, somebody else made that happen." basically inferring that the "somebody" is the federal government, and downplaying the private sector�s relevance.

This kind of rhetoric is untrue, harmful and discourages initiative and proliferates the kind of "I've been robbed" attitude.

America needs leaders who will tell the truth, that if you want to make something out of yourself you can't depend on somebody else to do it for you. Take responsibility for your own life, for your own family, for your own well being.

Nobody else is going to do it for you, no matter what some sleazy politician tells you.

What do you think?

Pray for our troops and the peace of Jerusalem.

God Bless America

Charlie Daniels​