We get so used to being in our own little "comfort zone" that we're hesitant to try anything new. The French writer, André Gide puts it this way: "Man cannot discover new oceans unless he has the courage to lose sight of the shore." So, try something new today, step out, move on and live life.

There was an article about self-reliance, a parable that offers valuable lessons for parents, guardians and leaders that when we pamper others too much, they become parasites and get spoiled. And they refuse to grow up.
There was a Chemistry professor in a large college that had some exchange students in the class. One day while the class was in the lab the professor noticed one young man (exchange student) who kept rubbing his back and stretching as if his back hurt.

The professor asked the young man what was the matter. The student told him he had a bullet lodged in his back. He had been shot while fighting communists in his native country who were trying to overthrow his country's government and install a new communist government. 

In the midst of his story he looked at the professor and asked a strange question. He asked, "Do you know how to catch wild pigs?"  The professor thought it was a joke and asked for the punch line.

The young man said this was no joke. "You catch wild pigs by finding a suitable place in the woods and putting corn on the ground. The pigs find it and begin to come everyday to eat the free corn. When they are used to coming every day, you put a fence down one side of the place where they are used to coming. When they get used to the fence, they begin to eat the corn again and you put up another side of the fence. 

They get used to that and start to eat, again you continue until you have all four sides of the fence up with a gate in the last side. The pigs, that are used to the free corn, start to come through the gate to  eat, you slam the gate on them and catch the whole herd. 

Suddenly the wild pigs have lost their freedom. They run around and around inside the fence, but they are caught. Soon they go back to eating the free corn. They are so used to it that they have forgotten how to look for food in the woods for themselves, so they accept their captivity. 

The young man then told the professor that is exactly what he sees happening to America. The government keeps spreading the free corn out in the form of programs such supplemental income, tax credit for unearned income, tobacco subsidies, dairy subsidies, payments not to plant crops (CRP), welfare, medicine drugs, etc. while we continually lose our freedoms just a little at a time. 

One should always remember that 'There is no such thing as a free lunch!!' also 'You can never hire someone to provide a service for you cheaper then you can do it yourself.'

Do you think that all of these wonderful government subsidies are the problems confronting the future of democracy in America?  Or do you think,the free ride is essential to our way of life? Let's seriously think about it before the gate slams shut on.

By Tim Pedrosa

 

Destiny is not a matter of chance. It is a matter of choice: It is not a thing to be waited for, it is a thing to be achieved. ~William Jennings Bryan