Free Stuff

I received this email today and thought I would pass it on. Don’t get me wrong, I’m all for lending a hand when a hand is really needed. But you know the truth about the waste, fraud and corruption – the extent is unbelievable. All the while the truly needy are not being helped as they should be. I know this from an old friend’s personal experience.

We all have personal experiences we can relate. The first that comes to mind is I’m standing in front of a building waiting for a friend. Up the driveway comes a PACE van – those vans for the disabled to help them visit doctors etc. – a free ride door to door. Out of the building comes a woman, I would say in her early forties dressed in a full length leather coat. Her gait is quick; she walks better than I do no signs of any disability. She gets in the van and they drive off. I called PACE to complain. First comes the phone menu system to wade through and then the switching from one department to another, passing the buck. I stayed with it. Finally got to someone and they were totally disinterested. You know my complaint would go nowhere.

Then the time I was going to offer to help at a food pantry, but didn’t as many of those people getting free food drove up in cars newer and more expensive than mine.

There was the day I was with the same friend mentioned above waiting in a government assistance office. Waiting and waiting for her turn. I couldn’t help but listen to the conversations around me. Most of the topics were how to ‘beat’ the system and how to get this or that – free of course.

I could go on and on. The point is, is that the email has so much truth in it. There are two types of people: the producers and the takers. The number of producers is dwindling while the numbers of takers are exponentially increasing. There is no more money – I can’t pay any more taxes. I’m already drastically limiting my entertainment and eating out budget. Our nation debt is so great our grandchildren and their children will be paying for the dollars we spend today.

It was just two generations ago that people had to rely on themselves, relatives, or charities. There was no government assistance. At the same time the government is doing all it can to stifle Catholic outreach efforts with the HHS Mandate – now law, and other efforts to cripple our church. You will recall in a number of states, including Illinois, the Catholic church has had to back away from adoption services.

As the takers now outnumber the producers it is going to be very hard to turn this around. Our only hope is in the upcoming elections. If the current administration is reelected you cannot imagine how bad it will get when re-election will not be a concern. If you think the last four years were bad, wait for the next four.

Here is the email – you can smile, but not for long – as this reflects reality:

I am forwarding this email that I received today to a few of the "thinkers" in my address book.   It reflects the feelings of a lot of people.

I have never heard this said as simply or as well.