Let Me Help Myself

We have a tradition in this country of trust in the individual. We are a country shaped by the rugged individual. We look back fondly on cowboys, ranchers, gold miners, and Rockefellers. Men who headed out into the world to make it big without the help of anyone, especially the government. Men who took control of their destiny and won.

But now, we have begun to turn away from that model of society. We have begun to look to the government to solve our problems. We are looking for the government to take care of us as though they are lords of the manor and we are the serfs. We are voluntarily giving up ourselves and becoming serfs. We are saying, by choice, that we cannot care for ourselves and that another must look to our needs. We are saying the essential elements of democracy no longer exist in this country. We are no longer holding our elected leaders responsible or requiring that they listen to their constituents.

Now Europe easily took up this type of motto. They are after all a continent steeped in the history of monarchies and serfs. We, however, are not. We are a country that revolted against taxation without representation. Now we are saying, “Hey, government, if you don’t want to listen and spend like there’s no tomorrow ensuring that everyone in this country will have to pay drastically higher taxes in the future, that’s ok.”

We in the U.S. have always reveled in facing challenges and overcoming. We have always distrusted the government. We joke daily about how the government can screw up anything. Yet now, we are quietly acquiescing to government control of our lives. It is as though the American spirit has finally been crushed.

Well, in honor of Tea Party Day, I say no. I say my spirit still survives. I believe in the individual. I believe the government should be limited. I believe in state’s rights. I believe that all of us should look to ourselves for hope in the future and positive change. Do not believe the hype. You can help yourself. You don’t need to government.So reach out to your neighbor and offer those in need your help, without assistance of the government. Look around your neighborhood, reach out and help. Look to yourself and reach out and help yourself.

You are your own hope and change. The government isn’t.