Showing posts with label greed. Show all posts
Showing posts with label greed. Show all posts

Sunday, March 29, 2009

Are You Paying Attention?


Back when the possibility of Barak Obama becoming President was a strong possibility I noticed a change occurring among the friends and people I associate with on a regular basis. There has always been a strong commitment with my friends towards God, family, patriotism, freedom, personal reliance and the belief that our forefathers new what they were doing when they founded the greatest country in the world.

But I found that many were "getting back to their roots". Now, an outsider looking at these families may say they were already checked out of normal society. They would see families of 6, 7, 8 or more kids, they would see parents homeschooling their children, stay at home mom's, a high proportion of business owners, a commitment to their church and a lack of material items. But I sensed something more than that was going on around me. Then Barak Obama became President Obama and he immediately began tearing down fibers that I believe hold this Country together; funding for worldwide abortion, rescinding the ban on stem cell research, government control of banks and financial institutions and the banning of guns just to mention a few.

It just happened that I was invited to several men's functions all in a short period of time, poker evenings, cigar get together and a dad's night out and I discovered these men are all on the move. They were either in the process of planning or some stage of completing things like, growing their own garden, moving their family out to more land or stocking up on guns. These are not a bunch of fanatics, these are smart men with great families. A group of guys I was honored to be associated with, whose opinions I trust and give much thought to and they were voicing concerns about issues happening in this country and how to handle them.

My family is moving forward with many of the suggestions I heard during these get together's and one of them was getting firearms. Something I haven't had around the house since my first child was born but something I felt was needed now more than before. I went to a gun show to get reacquainted with the industry and the products available. The entire time I was there I felt welcomed and among people with similar concerns, ideas and values, these were my people. Just regular dad's, some with their sons and a few with their entire family. I also noticed it was packed, wall to wall people. This wasn't a surprise since I have read how gun permits were up 40%, gun producers are up to 8 months behind on orders and some types of ammunition are jumping off the shelf. So my wife and I decided to buy some guns and start a program to get our whole family to learn to hunt, and protect oneself.

While at a local gun store I ran into the same quality of persons I did at the gun show. One of them who was a retired police officer from the great state of Texas. I began telling him my story of why I am now purchasing a hand gun and the reason why I feel my family needs this protection. He then retold a story of where he was involved in trying to bring order to the Hurricane Katrina area. He reminded me of how easy it was for some people once they became hungry to turn to violence. That if you did not poses a firearm at that time you were at a high risk of a home invasion, being robbed or even raped. He said that even though people knew they were being rescued at some point still resorted to violence. He told me that under duress there will always be some sizable portion of people who would turn to violence for their own survival.

This was my wake up call. Our Country is in economic duress, certainly not by any measure as bad as the great Depression but you wouldn't know it listening to our President. President Obama is and continues to feed the message that we are in for a whole lot more hurting. What if he's right? What if more people start having a harder time feeding their families? What if people who don't have any skills to provide for themselves or moral character decide they will just take it from me? My family isn't going to wait for that time to come before we are prepared and neither should you.

Thursday, March 19, 2009

Who is Responsible?


One thing that has dominated the airwaves of late and has been fodder for water cooler conversations from Coast to Coast has been the Madoff scandal. There is no need to rehash the specifics since it has been done ad nauseam over the last several weeks. We all agree that Madoff is pond scum and should rot in jail for what he did but I want to address a different take on this as well as a broader examination on something that is far too common these days – lack of personal responsibility.

When did America become the “it wasn’t me” or “it’s not my fault” nation? Regardless of the topic whether it is finances, education, job status etc, people are always quick to point the finger at others. This point has never been more prevalent then in the instances surrounding the Madoff scam.

First, what Madoff did was wrong. His Ponzi scam was illegal and he used deception to fraudulently “invest” money for the rich and famous. People involved in the scheme have lost millions of dollars. Many have lost “everything” and are left wondering how they will survive. Every television station has reported on these poor individuals and their plight often times fighting for ways for them to recoup their losses in some way. Madoff should pay or The government should bail them out etc.

Really? Let me offer a dissenting opinion. How about each one of these people recognize that they ALL made a bad financial decision. They ALL invested their money on their own free will and that investment went to Zero. To those that say that it wasn’t their fault as an advisor made the decision to invest with Madoff…those individuals still made the choice to invest with that advisor. Any way you try to deflect it, it still comes down to the decision that the individual made on what to do with their money. Trust me, when these people were making millions on other investments over the years, I will assure you they were bragging at cocktail parties as to how smart they were or how great their investment “team” was. It is typical how when things go bad, everyone else is to blame.

I would love to see the ONE individual step forward and say “you know what, I made a bad decision and now I have to live with it and move forward”. Taking responsibility for ones actions either good or bad WAS a cornerstone of this great country. Somehow, greed, apathy and irresponsibility have become the NEW way of life. It’s alright, corporate America has been getting away with this for quite some time…can you say Bailout. Wake up people! The only bailout that is on the horizon will occur when you stand up and recognize that YOU must take care of YOU. You are responsible to you, your family and most importantly your actions and decision made on their behalf.