A fair shot!

So much rhetoric today about the state of our country.  Things such as the violence that surrounds us.  Or the lack of quality education.  The vicious conversations on the redistribution of wealth. The beliefs that we are headlong into a socialist nation.  All these negative things are causing these fierce philosophical debates.  We've become a nation of polarized debaters.  And we are getting very good at it.  We can quote the Constitution and the Bill of Rights.  We can discuss conspiracy theories till the break of dawn.  All are experts on political parties, debt to citizen ratios, electoral colleges, states rights's, military support,  lobbyist, grass roots movements, and seven other ideological things.  All in the name of America?  Not so fast!

What happened to a land of opportunity?  What happened to a country that prided itself on watching it's children have a better life?  What happened to the believe that everyone was on a playing field that gave a fair shot to our kids?  Does it really benefit our children to have political parties claim that the other is anti family?  I'm thinking if your considering being a leader in this country, kids and family support should be a foregone conclusion.  Does arguing over who supports the military more do an ounce of good for our sons and daughters overseas?  All these arguments, and I mean all, are motivated by selfishness.  If your intention is to gain anything by denying others your are a selfish pig.  If you intend to reroute a school district to benefit some kids but not others, you stand against the principles this nation was founded on.  If you plan to teach your spouse a lesson by packing up and heading out, then you've put your self preservation far, far ahead of your spouse and children's well being.  Would you severe a friendship because it benefited your child an not yourself?  Don't act shocked at the question, with a sixty percent divorce rate, it happens everyday. Do you lie about your income to avoid taxes?  Then you are no friend of this country and don't deserve any of it's liberties.  Do you falsify records to get food stamps?  Then your selfishness takes food out of the mouths of babes.  Do you tell your kids to lie to school officials about your marital status or correct address?  Then you've sacrificed their dignity for your own selfish gain. So right about now is when you take out your, "everybody is doing it" sign?  I suggestion you polish up that sign for the day you stand before your maker.    I know this is controversial, but you must realize we are leaving the well being of our kids in the ideological dust.  

There are so many needs of our future generation just being ignored while we fight head long into our conquest to win some argument or some temporary gain.  And before you scream that you did not get a fair shot, consider the voyage of the founders of this country.  If they would have played the woe is me card where would we be?  (woe is me is just another form of selfishness)  These people left everything behind, crossed a raging ocean, and started from nothing.  All in the name of a better life for their children.  They just wanted for their descendants to have a fair shot at success.  So I ask, are your arguments, party affiliation, marital status, belief system, government handouts, or position on anything more important than your children's future?  If yes to any, then you have made that thing more important than your child's shot at a good life.  The discipline, selflessness, and commitment in your own life will go farther at giving your child a fair shot in life than any argument ever could.

Selfishness is the only real atheism; aspiration, unselfishness, the only real religion.
Franklin D. Roosevelt