"With No Malice"©2012
A General Interest Opinion Column by an opinionated person.
Vic Topmiller Jr.
11/19/12 (48)

WORDS
"All words are pegs to hang ideas on."
Henry ward Beecher.

Do we really bash the government?

You and I, we sure like to bash the government. "For good reason I'm sure," we'd tell each other. But I think bash is a strong term. After all, the government is a creation of our own making. Where we have failed is to monitor the government in such a way as to make it and maintain it as a tool for our purposes. You know what I mean? C'mon, sure you do. Because what has happened is surely the result of our human frailty that resists accepting responsibility for our own shortcomings. You know, I like to find someone else to blame if I get caught out of school. If I'm not as wealthy as the next guy, if I can't kick the cigarette habit, if I get caught driving with one too many. (not me) Get it? And so, we thought that once we finished high school history we didn't need to study or even be aware of what government was doing or who or what class was planting seeds everyday for the sole purpose of taking from you and me the right to determine what government should be and how it should operate to serve our purposes. I thought, whew, history is over, now erase the data. Later, for whatever reason, I decided to make another run at history. I was lucky, as were so many students in this area, to have had Dale Geise and Phil Cook as my professors. They renewed my interest in pertinent things of the past. So, because of this study of history I can see and better understand the problems of the present because of the results of the past.

I was recently having a conversation with Dona. We were talking about kids. You didn't know that grandparents talked about kids? We were discussing how kids raised so absolutely the same can turn out to be so absolutely different. And how good parents using all of the right tools can still have kids that turn out bad. Who's to blame? Ever had that discussion? Well, I screwed up. I said, "Well, you have to blame the parents." Shouldn't have said that. Actually, should have known not to have said that because I've said it before and it evoked similar reactions. But, I don't back off, I just try to explain. I don't believe that bad kids are necessarily the result of bad parents, heavens no. I know some great people and friends who have had a kid go off the deep end. I just know that we can't and shouldn't try to find someone else to blame our problems on. Heck, I know parents that have accepted that something went wrong years ago and they are still working daily to fix the problem. While on the other hand, I know some parents that pushed their kids out the door as soon as possible and sent them to the government to raise. Heck again, I know some parents who never took responsibility for their kids and if Grandma didn't raise them then they raised themselves.

The point is – How a kid turns out is the responsibility of the parents.

The other point is – If the government hasn't turned out like we think it should have, who is responsible? Blame me and thee.

Yes, I know, in a country of several billion people I shouldn't hold you responsible for the slide, but should I first blame myself? OK.

But you see, what makes this discussion (blaming if you will) difficult is that we really don't have anything to complain about as far as our standard of living is concerned. My Great grandparents came to USA with their hats in their hands. Think life wasn't hard for them? You bet it was, along with many others on the same boat. Think they weren't taken advantage of by the country and the citizens? You bet they were. Were they unhappy? Not a chance, they knew they had it better than their parents.

And every generation has to accept that they in many ways had it better than their parents and even me. So, you see, it isn't that we are so depressed and downtrodden in this country, that we are slaves to government and a Hierarchy of dictators. It wouldn't be true to say that life is hard and miserable, and we slave from dawn to dusk for meager wages. I'm not hungry, are you?

So what's the beef??

The beef is simply this-government is our responsibility-no one else's. If we want to pass on the tradition of government of the people and for the people along with the prosperity of our day to our kids and their kids we must "gird up the loins of our minds" 1 Peter:1-13 and accept nothing less than governmental reverence of the people. Think we have that now?

So today, I am thankful, I am thankful for what God has given me and blessed me with. Food, I'm never short of food. Clothes, I'm never in rags. Heck, sometimes clothes become a logistical problem. Warmth, I'm not cold. As a matter of fact I have thermostats and heaters everywhere and that's not to mention air conditioners. Shelter, let it rain and I'm in the house watching TV. Health, if my health care were no better than my parents or grandparents I'd probably not be writing this.

So, what's the beef? Simple, If I don't accept that government is my responsibility, and I don't make the effort (whatever that is) to sustain it for the people, then when I look at my kids and their kids and they want to know who is at fault that the country fell down around them, who will I find to blame?

"Thanksgiving Day, the only day that is purely American." O. Henry.

That's My Opinion.


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