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What's So Special About You?

Guest post by: Michael Hume

Article Overview: The fact is, our only hope is that the home-gaming generation wakes up and realizes that freedom isn't free, the future isn't certain, and the Constitution of the United States that we celebrate today is the only thing that really makes us special. It isn't "us." It's only us if we get back to being the ballast of the world that our Founding Fathers designed our nation to be.

What's So Special About You?

You're Exceptional, But Not By Entitlement Years ago I started a home business running a contemporary acappella group. It was rewarding! I got to craft the group's "brand," matching everything from the type of music we did (mostly original stuff I got to write and arrange), to our promotional materials, to our costumes. And, of course, the most rewarding thing was that I got to work with some wonderfully talented singers, people I really loved and all of whom I miss these days.

The idea behind the "brand" was to distinguish our group from the dozen-or-so other acappella groups doing business in our market. I have to say we did a pretty good job of standing out from the crowd, generally. Toward the end of the experience, though, I had a disagreement with one of my fellow singers who had developed a different view. The whole discussion started because I had invested in some blue-and-silver costumes, and my colleague thought we would look good in black-and-white. We would, I agreed, but I pointed out that we had a lot invested in our brand and in looking different from all the other groups, almost all of which used the black-and-white costume theme.

"It will be different," she said. "It'll be different, because it'll be us."

Hmm.

I was reflecting on the distant memory of that discussion today, a day which has been designated as "Constitution Day" in the U.S. I was thinking that the generation of young adults in this country these days seem to have some of that type of attitude. I've heard some of my kids' friends talk about how they get that socialism has never worked, and that communism and redistributive policies have generally failed, but that it'll be different this time "because it'll be us." It'll be us Americans, and we never fail! We can make it work! Yes, We Can!

Oh, boy.

Meanwhile, I read an article about the difference between high school in the U.S. and high school in South Korea. Korean kids go to school morning, noon, and night, and they work on learning through the weekend. They don't have "cheerleaders" or "glee clubs" or, of course, "acappella groups." They don't have time for that. In contrast, how many young American adults, from high school age through their twenties, seem to have centered their entire existence around entertaining themselves?

In this country, we have become complacent, forgetful, perhaps even lazy. I've said many times there are two types of people - The Victim and The Entrepreneur - and we've been acting like a nation of Victims for the last few years. Entrepreneurs figure on taking care of themselves, and others... they might go to high school morning, noon, and night to get a chance to get ahead. Victims expect to be taken care of, and feel entitled to an easy existence... they might care more about their home gaming systems than about their country, and might be very vulnerable to electing a government that says it will make the redistribution thing work for the first time in history. "You don't have to work, at least not very hard - we can "reform" industry to put your union in charge of your company. Yes, we can! You don't have to worry about the future - we can "reform" Wall Street so that everybody gets an equal share (pittance) of the wealth. Yes, we can! You don't even have to work out or eat right or do anything to keep yourself healthy - we can "reform" health care so that no one is allowed to be healthier than the plumpest avid-gaming couch potato. Yes, we can! All you have to do is... nothing. We can take care of you."

Oh, yeah. We have allowed people to gain power in our country who are certainly "taking care of" America. But it's OK, we're told. It's still America. It'll be different this time because it'll be us.

The fact is, our only hope is that the home-gaming generation wakes up and realizes that freedom isn't free, the future isn't certain, and the Constitution of the United States that we celebrate today is the only thing that really makes us special. It isn't "us." It's only us if we get back to being the ballast of the world that our Founding Fathers designed our nation to be.

Luckily, many of my kids and their friends are already wide-awake to this truth.

Think a totalitarian collectivist state can't be formed in America? Think again. While we focus on getting to the next level on our auto theft game, the current government is pushing full-bore toward exactly that. Unless you want to see your children and grandchildren wearing state-provided uniforms and singing the same "patriotic" state-mandated tunes in their schools, you're going to have to wake up, pay attention to what's happening, and make some changes. It's your ability to do that which makes you, as a nation, special... and that's the black-and-white truth.

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Article Tags: economic reform, government takeover, health wealth and happiness, personal responsibility



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