Federal Dependency

This subject is hard to write about, but I will give it my best shot. On one hand, the Federal Government deserves a gold medal for the efforts to remove the population from the path of hurricane Gustav. But on the other hand, the government is providing justification for a mindset of governmental dependence.

Before you read these next words, I want you to understand that the heroic effort to salvage every life in the path of that storm has become a necessary function of the central federal government. What is lamentable however, is the creation of expectancy by our citizens for the central government to solve all problems. The problem today is a hurricane, but then there is the health care issue, social security, and other issues that impact our daily lives so that we are becoming more and more dependent on the government to solve.

These issues threaten to erase the self-reliant character from our social makeup. By allowing the government to absorb more and more of our daily responsibility, we begin to lose that ability to solve problems. The old saying is true, "Necessity is the mother of invention." Removing the necessity of worry about our next meal for instance, takes away that incentive for providing for ourselves.

There should be an acceptance of the fact that a segment of our population does not put forth the effort necessary for self-sufficiency. Our society will always have a number of these individuals, but the government should not be in the business of propagating them. That is what these central government programs do. When there is a program to 'feed the needy', the biggest beneficiaries of such programs are the sponsors of them. It is a feel good exercise for the proponents of such programs and the continuation of such programs guarantee the destruction of one of the greatest motivators known to man, hunger!

I was privileged to have a firsthand look at the results of such social tinkering. I was a part of a navy team that delivered staple goods to different missions in Africa. The program, known as the People-to-People project delivered sacks of flour, books, toys, and other necessities to the drought stricken natives of French Somali land (Known today as Somalia). There, groups of well-meaning and heroic missionaries opened missions in the dry back country in an effort to help these destitute people. No one with a heart could criticize that effort. My statement is about the consequences of the actions by these missionaries.

Reality is sometimes harsh. But the condensed version goes like this. Whenever they established a mission, over time, the poverty-stricken and hungry natives built a village around that mission. The missionaries fed and gave rudimentary health care to the natives. The indigenous native population became totally dependent on the missions for sustenance. Compounding the problem, the native population, now with some security, expanded. The children born in the mission enclaves were not taught self-sustenance. The natives had no need to teach farming and other skills for self-sustenance to their children. The first generation, hungry and destitute benefited from the generosity of the missions and their providers. But they lost the desire to return to being their own providers. The second and subsequent generations would perish outside of the mission setting.

The question posed in this narrative is, "Where is the morality of destroying a person's inner motivation?"

We can and should help those in need but we need to constantly be on guard to realize that help cannot become dependency. What should be the government's role in helping people through a hurricane? New Orleans is a very special case because of the dependent nature of its residents. The liberals, like those missionaries in Africa, have suppressed those people's instincts for being self-reliant, and dependency is so ingrained into them that they would surely perish if the government did not step in and save them. After the weather service distributes the information about the danger posed by an approaching hurricane, you would think a person would react to it by figuring out how to get out of harm's way. At least that is how a normal person reacts to approaching danger.

The average New Orleans resident is so dependent on others, that the skill for self-reliance is lost. A large portion of the citizenry of New Orleans and those of so many cities controlled by liberals surrender their independence for a pittance. In return for their vote, they receive minimum housing, food stamps, and various other welfare programs that make life just marginally survivable. For surrendering their independence for a few paltry baubles, those citizens lose the most valuable ability one can possess, that drive and determination to rise above the tests of life.

Cheers,

-Robert-