Richard Martin: Since when should we depend on government

As a nation we take great pride in our sense of independence, our sense of freedom. Yet every day the reality is we as a nation have become more dependent on our government and possess less freedom than we ever have. The irony is there’s such prolific publicity about our forward thinking progressive society and our great gains in civil liberties; we ignore the clear actuality we as Americans are having our liberty systematically stripped away from us as we plunge headlong from a respected free society into a non-functional socialist tragedy.

Speaking of since, since when is it the responsibility of our government to provide health insurance, higher education, and free abortions? Historically none of these things were the responsibility of our government and they shouldn’t be now! Our founding fathers, our Constitution and our American heritage have never endorsed or espoused the government has any responsibility to provide or force its citizens to have health insurance, to pay for higher education of its citizens or to pay for abortions for individuals who can’t control themselves or make good choices.

Certainly health insurance and higher education are things that can be of great benefit; however they’re not the responsibility of government to provide to the populace. We’ve been coerced into believing providing such things has somehow become the mission of government and we’re entitled to them. Not true! But like so many other presumed entitlements, far too many citizens now expect the government to hand out such privileges and programs. As a nation and as a people we seem to have lost all sense of personal responsibility or accountability.

Since Mr. Obama took office, there has been an ever increasing trend to abandon the true responsibility of government to care for the aged of our land and give our military veterans the care they earned and most certainly deserve, and instead our government gives unearned and in so many cases undeserved social benefits to a seemingly unending array of supposed needy folks. Churches have in many cases abandoned their historical social function as providers and extended families that in past generations would care for their own elderly or disadvantaged, now line up so the government can assume a role it was never designed for.

We should and must be a caring nation. We ought to reach out and do whatever we can for those who truly need a helping hand up, but the hand-outs must stop. We must stop assigning the role of universal provider for all things to a government that doesn’t have that capacity and can’t even find its way clear to make sound decisions about the multitude of failed social programs of this so called progressive society.

Grow up America! Take responsibility for yourself. Realize if you want higher education, you will have to work for it and even struggle to get it. Accept health insurance and our health care system needs fixing, but the solution isn’t for the government to pay for it, we can’t afford that failed fix. And lastly, how about each of us seeing what we individually can do to help our family and our neighbors, instead of echoing the cry the government is the solution to all our needs. The Declaration of Independence states in profoundly simple language we have the inalienable right to “life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness.” Pursue it to your hearts content and God bless you when you find it. Just remember that Declaration of Independence makes no guarantee of happiness and it most definitely doesn’t guarantee the government will provide all your desires or perceived needs.

Richard Martin is a Carson City resident.