Time to make big decisions
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In My Humble Opinion
Jodi McDade
With the Democratic National Convention going on this week in Chicago, I have been thinking back to their convention there in 1968.
I was in high school and knew little (if anything) about politics. Being something of a rebel and supporter of the underdogs while watching boys not much older than me be drafted to go to a foreign country I’d never heard of, I was not a supporter of the Vietnam Conflict. I also was not a supporter of the racist environment of our country at that time. Now looking back I realize I was somewhat supporting the very people who were behind both of those situations.
While studying world history in high school I read a good bit about the USSR and the communist/socialist policies they had. Sounded great! The government took care of all the people; they provided them with housing, food and even a job. Communes were beginning to spring up here in the U.S.A. based on those same ideas, and I thought that was what I wanted to do after I graduated. Living with a group of like-minded people who wanted to live off the land with no one in control and everyone doing their fair share. Sounded just wonderful, but the reality was the workers versus the non-workers.
I started realizing that, yes, you were provided with a home. But it would be what the government wanted you to have, not what YOU wanted. Food would be provided but, again, it would only be what the government wanted to provide. And the same for a job – you would be assigned a job that the government wanted you to have. There would be no individual choices allowed or granted. So it wasn’t sounding quite as grand as it had originally.
For several years I continued to lean towards the radical agendas of anti-war, anti-poverty, pro-abortion, and all the women’s programs. Let me be clear – I was not against our soldiers who were being forced into a conflict not of our making! I was not part of protests against our military, but I did protest the conflict itself. I had several friends who went to southeast Asia and came home with devastating injuries.
I became a single parent and spent years concentrating on my own life raising a child. I moved back in with my parents because I realized I could do more for my child by doing that than if I went into government housing and assistance. Looking back I don’t think I understood that these were the first steps into moving our country towards socialism and communism.
It took me a long time to admit that most of the beliefs I had held since high school and early adulthood were wrong. I watched as the government destroyed the family unit predominantly in the Black communities by giving low-income subsidized housing and food stamps if there was not a man living there. But it wasn’t JUST the Black communities. I had friends without support from their families who fell into these government handouts just to get by with their children. The housing they were given would fall into disrepair, and the food stamps had guidelines for what food they could buy. And if they wanted to get married they had to give up all the government benefits.
Fast forward and I am seeing all these same things still in existence, but also gaining speed into the everyday lives of all Americans. Free stuff buys votes. Free sounds like a wonderful thing. And I am seeing so much of this in the current policies (or lack thereof) being used by the Democratic Party – the very same party that started it all in the 1960s.
Their government wants to give first time homebuyers $25,000 for a down payment, but are they going to have stipulations on what kind of house you can buy, and where will that money come from? Their government wants to stop price “gauging” (gouging) by grocery stores and big business that doesn’t really exist. The cost of goods is a direct consequence of the costs of operating a business – fuel costs, product supplies, cost of power and utilities, wages and benefits, etc.
No one starts a business to break even or be a charitable organization. If you work, do you want to just break even and not have money left to save or buy any non-necessities? I don’t think so. So why should you expect the people who provide you with the services and goods to do that?
And then is the biggest bad idea of all. Even now illegal aliens who are allowed into our country are being provided with FREE (not reduced) housing, as well as free healthcare, free education, plus so much more. Are Americans being treated this well? No. Americans are footing the bill for all these things so that more illegal immigrants can get into our country where they are given all the benefits, drivers licenses and, in some areas, the ability to vote in OUR elections. And how would you expect them to vote? For the ones giving them the free stuff! Even the legal immigrants who have spent years and much money following the rules are upset by this.
Big decisions need to be made. Do we want to live under socialist or communist control, or do we want to return to the freedom we were granted and guaranteed in our Constitution and Bill of Rights?
Think carefully, my friends.