Don't like entitlements? Don't take them!

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July 23, 2010

Anonymous staff The Tahlequah Daily Press Fri Jul 23, 2010, 01:33 PM CDT

TAHLEQUAH — It’s quite simple: If you don’t like government entitlements and want to complain loudly and indiscriminately about them, don’t take any yourself.

During this off-year election season, as usual, government spending is the buzz phrase heating up the airwaves and printing presses. The “party in charge” is accused of engaging in wasteful spending. True enough, but the party in charge a few years ago – not the same party! – was pursuing the same improvident policies. As has always been the case and always will be, ad nauseam and ad infinitum.

In politics, memories tend to be short, and elected officials are good at implanting false recollections in the public mind. The same people who are blaming the current administration for the BP oil spill brouhaha were outraged when others blamed the administration of the early 2000s for the Katrina fiasco.

That’s typical conduct on the national level, but does the atmosphere have to be this acrimonious on the local scene, too, where some of us might actually yearn to get along with our neighbors?

In a rather public setting last week, a local man was heard to grumble about veterans’ benefits: “They’re a bunch of whiners. Why should they get all this stuff? They volunteered for the military!” Though no one openly pointed it out, the complaining party has been getting farm subsidies for years. Did he not “volunteer” to be a farmer, or was he drafted into that profession? And he appears to have all his limbs and the use of both eyes, unlike some of the soldiers seeking recompense for injuries they suffered in Afghanistan or Iraq.

Just days later, at a similar function, another fellow began braying about “welfare queens getting my tax money!” Though there may be some veracity to his observation, it’s an odd one for him, considering he has for years been on disability (and rightfully so, as his body was decimated by exposure to Agent Orange in Vietnam).

Merriam Webster defines such people as “hypocrites.” So does the holy scripture. Something about motes and timbers in eyes that we won’t go into here.

No one would argue the system is fraught with many abuses, and that politicians, and those with government jobs, should work to stop the fraud. The lack of the ability or the will to do so is what frustrates most voters.

But by the same token, no one should argue that a key government function ought to be helping Americans who really do need help. To do otherwise is to engage in hypocrisy as an entire country. When we spend billions to assist people in other countries defend their borders, pull themselves out of poverty, establish education systems, set up successful businesses and gain access to good health care, and fail to do so for our own citizens, what does that say about us as Americans?

We don’t want to hear that, but it’s time we did. And it’s time we took a good, long look at ourselves and decide who and what we stand for, and whether we really care about other people, or just claim to. And before we clamor for anarchy, we also need to remind ourselves how many of our own loved ones make their livings honorably in the government sector.

We need to do that before we shuffle into the voting booth in a few weeks.

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Editorials

Cancelling class complicated call
The decision by Tahlequah Public Schools officials to hold classes Monday, despite the threat of a snowstorm, sparked a bit more controversy than similar cases in the past. Perhaps the reaction was related to the looming school board election, or it may have been a culmination of years of frustration on the part of parents and patrons.

February 15, 2012
Banning inside trading was the only way to go
Though the action was a no-brainer where the public is concerned, the U.S. Senate made the right move last week when it approved a bill clarifying that it’s illegal for members of Congress, their staffs and many executive-branch employees to use insider information to get a leg up on stock trading.

February 13, 2012
Earmarks by Inhofe, others aren’t right
That smell in the air might not be bacon frying in your kitchen, but the unfolding of another porky project for an Oklahoma politician.

February 10, 2012
Press release deadlines for candidates
If you are running for a political office for which Cherokee County voters can cast ballots, it’s not too early to be thinking about a press release announcing your candidacy. Indeed, some have announcements already appeared in the Daily Press.

February 8, 2012
Superintendent pay: Freeze it
Rep. Jason Nelson, R-Oklahoma City, may not have planned to seek hero status; perhaps his action was even designed to make up for past legislative offenses. Either way, he’s about to become the darling of the moment for many Oklahomans who believe certain public school superintendents make far too much money.
Nelson is calling for a freeze on superintendents’ salaries, and rightly so.

February 6, 2012
Is your stuff not getting published?
If you’re a regular contributor to the “news” side of the Daily Press, we hope you haven’t noticed anything missing lately – like copy or photos you’ve submitted to us for publication. But if you have, there’s a good reason why, and there’s something you can do about it.

February 2, 2012
Cast your ballot, for children’s sake
As the old saying goes, if you don’t vote, you don’t have a right to complain about what you get.

January 18, 2012
Do your part to help THS senior party
Graduation from high school is a rite of passage – for many young people, the first major milestone in their lives. It signifies the end of childhood, and the crossing of the threshold into adulthood, although the newly minted adults still won’t be old enough to drink for another couple of years.

January 14, 2012
Drivers must stop for all school buses
Earlier this week, an 11-year-old boy was struck by a car after he got off a school bus on Downing Street. Fortunately, the boy wasn’t gravely injured, but he could have been.

January 13, 2012
Service unappreciated
It has become evident that the sentiment, “thank you for your service,” is an empty one when it comes to the medical profession.

January 13, 2012
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This question is not for people who have never attended church, nor those who still attend the same church they always did. It's for those who no longer attend their original church of choice. Why did you stop attending your original church?

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Don't like entitlements? Don't take them!

This question is not for people who have never attended church, nor those who still attend the same church they always did. It's for those who no longer attend their original church of choice. Why did you stop attending your original church?

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