I was thinking as I was making the long trip from Gillette, Wyo., back home on Sunday, about Mothers Day and the thoughts and wishes we all receive and give on this day. Special gifts and special hugs from our children, grandchildren and great-grandchildren mean so much, and are treasured. As a mother of four, and a grandmother of many, I am so grateful they are all productive, ambitious, intelligent people who can achieve their greatest dreams through hard work and discipline. Tenets they have been taught by their parents and grandparents, making life so much more enjoyable, achievable and fun.
We all groan at the thought of crawling out of bed, day after day, to put in 10, 12 and even 16 hours a day to make enough money to pay for houses, cars, food and medical help. Yet, in the long run, the effort put forth in those 40 or 50 years of plowing that field every single day is a great achievement and rewards are great. We are made to work. We are made to be useful. What else would you have done with your life (perhaps one of the “idle rich”) if you could not have accomplished all you did by your own hand and mind? Nothing is more satisfying than a job well done, and completed.
Our American way of life seems to be teetering on the edge of chaos, when people are handed money, food and shelter without any effort on their part. Enabling is not helping. Handouts are not hand-ups. Giving is admirable, but not when the receiver expects ever more for no response other than “thank you,” if they even remember to say that. We cannot continue to pay unproductive people with the hard-earned tax money of those who do go to work every day, work hard, think harder and achieve the goal of satisfaction in whatever field they have chosen. They also are required to pay the taxes due on any money they have earned, which is supposed to go for federal highways, veteran benefits, social security, monuments to our past, as well as other general and universal costs of running this country.
I hope we will learn from this terrible experiment (Covid-19) and the immigrant policies that seem to be overturning every aspect of life for those who are responsible for the income of the government. We do not have the option of saying, “I do not consent to pay for those who will not work!” We are a generous and caring country. We want to help our elderly, sick and developmentally disabled citizens who need help because they cannot help themselves. But supporting able bodied, healthy and capable people is not our idea of being generous nor smart. There is also a problem with enabling non-citizens, who do not speak English.
On this May day, in 2021, we are asked to get a vaccination (which is a biological experiment), we are required to adhere to rules and regulations put out by the Health Department. We cannot gather as we wish nor speak out in a civilized manner, because the “peaceful protest” has been convoluted by those who are not peaceful, do not protest, but riot, and have no regard for personal nor public property. The government says the veterans of Vietnam cannot ride to the Capitol in commemoration of those dead, injured and forgotten in that terrible conflict, which has been a tradition for several years. They wished to honor their comrades in a peaceful and memorable way. Wonder when they will tear down the “wall” that also commemorates those deaths?
One more gripe: The National Parks Service sent out a questionnaire about the availability, desirability and advisability of creating a Pike National Trail across this Louisiana Purchase property. I answered all the questions as best I could, being involved for the last 12 years in the effort here in Fremont County. Only one thing, each of their survey questions were written in English and in Spanish. Our national language is English. If they want to speak another language in their homes, or privately, fine, but I opt to have our government always and only use our national language to communicate with the citizens of this nation.