GENEROSITY vs SYMPATHY

   

Wanted to explore an idea with you. That is, if you would be kind enough to travel with me for a bit. As we look around this world we live in, it is easy to find those in very difficult, if not utterly desperate, situations. As the internet has matured and spread to many many countries more and more people are exposed to this great need. If I live in Cuba and am a doctor receiving $35 a month I can do little but pray for those in these various hopeless places. If I live in India and make just enough to buy food for one meal a day for my family and me then, again, I am able only to "feel sorry" for the hurting and the hungry around the world. 
    A few days ago I was fixing a problem in a toll booth at one of the Turnpike plazas in my area. While visiting with the collector he mentioned that he was only working part-time and was retired from another job. He went on to say that his son ran an orphanage in Haiti and they didn't have enough money coming in to cover all of their needs.  So this gentleman decided to take on this part-time job which allows him to send more money to his son and the orphans he was trying to help. Another co-worker has spent untold thousands of dollars and thousands of hours setting up medical and teaching facilities in Guatemala. Several people from work went to the Mississippi coast to help clean up and rebuild after Katrina a few years back. I could spend hours talking about people I personally know who spend time and treasure serving others whether here or in other countries. 
    My great fear is that in another 50 years, if we continue down this Progressive road we are on, we will land in a place where our freedoms will not afford us the opportunity to serve others, individually, like we do now. Our movement toward centralized government and the necessary loss of individual freedoms that accompanies such a movement, will leave us with the shared poverty, administered in the name of fairness, that will impede, or stop, our ability to act on our compassion with generosity. On the other hand, it's a lot easier to do nothing, when you haven't the resources to help, which allows for a selfish, and lazy citizenry to be cared for by an all powerful, ostensibly benevolent ruling class. A country full of people living in the government's basement with a lifetime supply of condoms and cannabis. WOW! That's a lot better than having the responsibility of trying to use your resources to help others. 

   " ......Until every nation is reduced to nothing better than a flock of timid and industrious animals, of which the government is the shepherd."
 Alexis de Tocqueville

TRUMP APPEAL

    One of my recent endeavors has been to try to understand the attraction between ostensibly conservative leaders and Donald Trump. The journey continues. It is easy to see the general attractiveness of a successful business man, (that would be wildly successful), who is willing to jump into the political arena to try and influence a "come-back" of sorts for our floundering country. In fact, if he were sitting in the room here with me I would shake his hand and offer a sincere "Thank You". A man who could buy several islands to retire to and just take life easy is opening himself up to the slime and mire of the American political system. I think this is commendable and is very much worth noting. My frustration is not in the person of Donald Trump, though he has shown an unfortunate bent toward political games, but with the endless line of alleged conservative leaders who have endorsed him. Those who I had understood to be intensely interested in furthering conservative principles and policies. Are they all just hoping he will turn out to be a conservative? Are they hoping he can be steered in a conservative direction once he is president? Is he the Republicans' version of the empty suit? (Just add your hopes and dreams to this suit and stir) There are unflattering comparisons to be made with Barack Obama if you consider the fact that Trump has promised to change the State-based nominating process to be more fair. Which I guess means he would give the front runner even more of an advantage than he has enjoyed. 
    There is not a solid conservative record in his past nor are his vague, redundant and sometimes contradictory comments easily interpreted in a conservative light. In fact, he seems to have thought little about important issues and seems, too, to be lacking a principled anchor to which he is committed. He constantly bemoans the primary process as unfair and weighted against him all the while amassing a delegate count that exceeds the percentage of the popular vote he is getting. He's counting on us all forgetting that this all started with 16 candidates and has left many an establishment, and outsider, in the dust. I will vote for Donald Trump if he is the Republican nominee. But if he wants me to be a Trump supporter now he needs to debate Ted Cruz one-on-one so I can compare policy concerns as expressed by both candidates.
For now, as a conservative, I have no choice but to vote for Ted Cruz.