Soap Box

Somewhere between people fleeing the tyranny of monarchy and the class system and unfair practices it fostered, the folks looking for the freedom to practice their deeply held religious beliefs, ordinary human beings who only wanted a chance to control their own lives and fortunes with their wits and sweat and the adventurers who wanted to be a part of taming a new land, somewhere between this breed of men and women and the present day, America's train has jumped the track. 

There was a time when a mule and 40 acres was considered a sufficient starting place for a person to stand on their own two feet and begin to build his fortune, which by hard work and good planning, could result in a good lifestyle and a healthy nest egg to see him through his golden years.

There were no entitlements, no health insurance and no government subsidies for a failing crop or a bankrupt business venture. The only safety net available was the grace of God and what you could either grow, shoot or catch was all you had to live on.

Of course times have changed and modern man has modern problems and the relatively soft lives we live have weakened the independent, pioneer spirit that was once so necessarily prevalent in those who conquered and settled this land. 

Of course the rank and file can no longer be expected to go out and face a wilderness with only a plow and a gun. But, all things considered, should the scale of independence and self reliance have fallen to the point that so many of us think we can't make it without assistance from an intrusive and increasingly socialistic government?

There are people who seem to think that the entitlements they receive grow on trees, that the bureaucracies just go into the orchards and harvest what they need.

A lot of these same people seem to think that anybody who has accomplished and accumulated has done so by hook, crook or taking it away from people like them and that they deserve a piece of the American Pie for doing nothing more than breathing, that there needs to be a mass redistribution of wealth, never considering that even now the tax rates in America have chased American industry to foreign shores where the goods are manufactured and sold back to America without benefit of the jobs they provide. 

They look at Obamacare as if it were a gift from a benevolent president, a guarantee of affordable, quality health care for all, never realizing that the principle of "every action has an equal and opposite reaction" is very much in force, and will not realize it until the full ramifications of this deception reaches fruition and doctors start retiring, hospitals closing down and the development and production of new medicines slow to a snail's pace.

They look at "taxing the rich" - the perennial cry of the liberal politician- as the just way to settle our fiscal problems, never realizing that it is a farce, that even if the total wealth of every millionaire and billionaire in the United States of America were confiscated it would not be enough to even pay the National Debt. 

And the truly tragic part of that attitude is that they just don't realize that money printed without true value to back it up is worthless and that the entire monetary system of Planet Earth is in danger of imploding, that if, and maybe I should say when, America's currency becomes so devalued that the world will no longer accept it as the standard of international trade and America has to buy another nation's currency to pay for all imports, the game changes radically.

When the rabid inflation that is, unseen by most and hidden by the smoke and mirrors of politics, and is even now nipping at the heels of our tenuous fiscal debacle catches up and the Fed begins the interest rate climb and our devalued currency rate will require the entire GNP just to pay the interest on the National Debt, entitlements, health care, food stamps and every other government assistance will be severely reduced or cut out all together, the whole system of government dependence will fold like a house of cards and there will be confusion and violence in the streets that this country has never seen.

Because when the gravy train finally slows down and stops, many of the people who have ridden it for years simply won't understand why it stopped and will have become so dependent on government they won't have any idea how to carry on their lives without it. Look at what�s happening in Greece.

I'm certainly not smart enough to have the answers but I am smart enough to see that if drastic measures are not taken immediately, if America doesn't go back to work, if the politicians don't stop spending, if the coming generations aren't taught at least a modicum of self reliance, America is doomed to the trash heap of history along with all the other nations whose train came off the tracks. 

Maybe it's a good time to buy a garden hoe and a gun.

What do you think?

Pray for our troops and the peace of Jerusalem.

God Bless America

� Charlie Daniels

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