The other day I was listening to a radio program that allowed for people to call in and receive advice regarding their lives and some of the difficulties related to intrapersonal relationships. One calling talked about her life and some things that her boyfriend was doing that, while they weren’t done in an attitude of hurt, were actually causing some pain to the young lady caller. The discussion then centered around what she could to do to approach her boyfriend and discuss the issue and solve her discomfort while still making sure that he understand what it was doing to her. As the caller hung up, one of the ladies that was co-hosting the program stated something to the effect that it was such a shame that in an era where are entitled to so much that people do not feel entitled to being without pain.
That last comment really struck with me. I kept thinking about the statement, why with so much entitlement, with so many claims of women’s rights and the freedom of morals and the body that exist in the world that there would be a lack of basic entitlement to being free from pain and suffering, suffering that this woman could have removed herself from at any moment. As I began to think on this I thought what would cause this condition to exist and what perpetuates it. There are programs to help unwed mothers, programs for those that don’t have jobs, for those that have disabilities, programs that help those that are behind on their luck, that need food, that need shelter, that have had a hard time, that leveraged too much, that overextended their credit, that didn’t make wise choices. So why did she feel that she didn’t deserve to live without pain and discomfort?
The real problem exists that she was never told through a program that it was ok for her to live without pain and discomfort. You say to me, we don’t need to be told that, that’s something that she should already know. But here is the problem, she didn’t know that. She didn’t know that it was ok to step up and support herself without relying on this boyfriend, without relying on someone else to tell her that it was ok to be herself and that she was worth something by herself, that she had a right to do something for herself. With all this entitlement how is this possible? I answer because it is exactly because of these entitlements that she was pushed into this condition.
As the push for entitlements and large government continues to smother us and all around us I look to those guiding principles of this nation that allowed this country to excel in such a quick time as no other country on Earth has ever been able to do. When this country first declared its independence, our Founding Fathers were told, you can’t do that. When this country stated the Founding Fathers stated that all men are created equal, equal under the law and equal to take upon their own responsibilities to better themselves, not equal to be given what others say we deserve, and they were told that the masses couldn’t think for themselves, that they wouldn’t have enough workers if they weren’t told exactly what to do.
We are facing the same problems once again. We are told, ‘Here are the things that you are entitled to and here is how you will get it, but do not hope to succeed more than this.’ I name this what it is, slavery. To be told how and what I may get and that I cannot do more than this I reach out in voice to my Maker and say, I was created in your image, I was given the right to Life, Liberty and the Pursuit of Happiness by you, not by these people that wish to be slaver over me, and I push ahead and do what I have been told I cannot. I do this because I am not entitled to anything other than the basic laws of Nature. The laws which were created and established not by men here, but by which the very universe was created and by which we are able to know our place before God, are those which our founding documents lay out those laws for the understand of all nations to strive to protect.
It is time that we reach out once again and take that which ours, Freedom. That we reach out again and see that Liberty is our birthright. We need to start again toward the pursuit of Happiness, in whatever form that may be. Those are the real entitlements that we have been born into and are the real American Dream, to which we are all entitled and to which we must all wake up to again.
