That's socialism and that's now what this country is all about. I wrote a tribute to my own hardworking father a month or so back for my blog and I hope you don't mind if I share it with you (
US Fears Shortages of Gumption « That’s Right Nate)
If the recent Subprime crisis has taught me anything it is that the American people are suffering near record lows in gumption. Following Katherine Kersten’s moving stories of her family which I quoted (
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John Peele was not born to money. His parents were upper middle class at best. Born in 1934 John was part of what they call the greatest generation. Though he was too young for World War II and Korea and too old for Vietnam, John remained always a patriot and a member of several public minded organizations. When Martin Luther King marched in Chicago, it was my dad and his friends who helped make sure that the our neighborhood remained calm and safe by starting a citizen’s patrol.
My dad didn’t start off with a great job. He worked as a locksmith. He would go to houses that were foreclosed on and change the locks when the owners were away. Still my dad knew there must be some way to help those people even as he was changing their locks. He started helping people out by finding businesses that were about to go into foreclosure and buying them from the families that lived there. By doing this the banks got their money, the families didn’t lose everything and my dad made a tidy profit.
Because helping people is good business, my dad made a lot of money in a short time. He openned up a self-storage business for those people who needed a place to store their stuff when they lost their homes and the business took off. He made quite a bit of money, but he was always a man of conviction.
When my sister broke his heart by marrying a papist he let her know that she wouldn’t see a dime of his money. While it was a sad time for our family, that was just my dad’s way. He had strong beliefs and those beliefs got him through many tough times growing up in the depression.
My dad was a stern father, but a good one and a strong and supporting husband. He married his high school sweetheart when the loser she was dating couldn’t get the money together to ask my mom to marry him. He always treated her as a lady never making her work out of the home or even drive. They never socialized much as they were each other’s best friend. When my mom got hooked on tranquilizers it was my dad who helped her recover using tough love.
My dad finally died in 2004. When he passed away, he left me his business which I continue to run today. I look at my dad and how his desire to help people took him from locksmith to realtor to business owner and I wish I saw more of that gumption in today’s Americans. We are the greatest country in the world because of people like my dad.