Here's Washington's Problem

If you bother looking at my sidebar you can see what I'm reading. Right now one of the books is More Than Enough by Dave Ramsey. I know that people who just "aren't there yet" really don;t like Dave. Unfortunately that is a lot of people. Especially right now.

You know what I've noticed? Those who "do Dave" aren't all that worried about this "crisis" Washington has put us in. And do you know why? Because borrowing money is not something we plan to do. Credit is in our past and as we pay off our debt we are saying "goodbye and good riddance" to being slave to the lender (Proverbs 22:7).

So, I was reading and this bit stuck with me and I wanted to share it: (empahsis mine)

Responsibility is Personal

I am not a licensed or degreed psychologist, but I believe that traditional Freudian views of psychotherapy have done more harm to our nation's values than any good philosophy to come along in years. The concept of digging in to the graveyard of your past to find what caused your faults has some merit when used to identify your wounds and heal them, but too often we are taught to blame our lot in life on others. It was our mean, nasty old parents; it was that we weren't firstborn, it was our brother who tortured us; it was our sister who got all the attention. Bull! Thousands and thousands of people who had horrible childhoods thrive and even prosper in relationships and wealth. Why do they prosper? Because they made a decision that their fate is up to them, that it is their own personal responsibility.

Albert Schweitzer said it well: "Man must ceast attributing his problems to his environment, and learn again to ecercise his will, his personal responsibility." Enough whining, I am sick of whining, whining by every special interest group, whining against our upbringing, whining against the mean old boss, whining against your pastor, whining about your spouse- especially if it's an ex-spouse- just whining. Whining is a lack of character on your part. If you don't like the way something is, do something about it. Finger-pointing, blame shifting, and whining, while they appear to have merit, are not doing something. There is tremendous energy in positive activity and in providing a solution. That activity, while it may not solve the problem, moves you from being self-centered to solution-centered.

Now... Think about all the blame being thrown around the beltway. "It the fault of the Democrats." "No, the Republicans got you in this mess." No, people, the fault is ours. It is our fault for giving the government so much control and for letting them play with our money like it's a nationwide Monoploy board. No one has had to be responsible for a couple decades now. This crisis has been forcast; it's amazing it didn't happen before now.

The "free ride" has to end. We have to be responsible for ourselves because, honestly, no one looks out for you and yours as well as you do yourself. All we are entitled to, as Americans, is "Life, Liberty and the pursuit of happiness". Everything else needs to go. Noone should be entitled to more than anyone else because noone should be entitled to anything. Period.