Sacrifice is the Answer

A few days ago, I got an email from my wife's uncle about Michelle Obama serving meals at a soup kitchen. It had an attached picture of a man (who appeared to be there for a meal) taking a picture of her on his cell phone camera. Now, I am not against soup kitchens by any means. And I am not against cell phones. I am not even against people in soup kitchens having cell phones (in fact, it is entirely possible that the individual taking the picture was not there for food at all, but could have understandably just come in off the street to see the First Lady). What I AM against is my generation's entitlement complex. For those of you who haven't seen the email, the text reads:

JUST TOO GOOD TO TRUE !First Lady Michelle Obama showed up Thursday as a surprise and welcome volunteer at Miriam's Kitchen, a soup kitchen for homeless poor people not far from the White House.If this unidentified meal recipient is too poor to buy his own food, how does he afford a cell phone?And if he is homeless, where do they send the cell phone bills?


If, in fact, we have homeless people in America who have cell phones, then doesn't that really mean that we are doing alright. I mean, the doom and gloom we hear sometimes about the "starving" and the "homeless" might be a little melodramatic if they (and by "they," I do mean the starving and homeless) have nicer technology then some of the housed and fed.

What it comes down to is that the real punch line of the joke is that the first question "how does he afford a cell phone?" is rhetorical... we all know how it works. That's a discussion for another day. I just don't like that people can be considered "poverty-stricken" when they drive nice cars, have cell phones, and satellite TV. Pisses me off, really. My wife has gone without a cell phone for 4 years... FOUR YEARS!!! One of the most social people I have ever known. We've been a 1 car family for the same amount of time (with the exception of the last 4 months). I could have bought her a phone, or updated my 3-year-old-been-dropped-so-many-times-it-hardly-works Razor (remember when those were "the thing"). We could have even afforded another car. But we made it work. Some days I needed it and my wife went without. Some days she needed it and I rode my bike or walked (and got in pretty good shape, too... hmmmm). We made it work not because we are better than anybody else, but because we have goals and we want to EARN(!) what we have. It took a lot of work, a lot of faith, and a ton of sacrifice. Sacrifice of the things we wanted at the moment (and still want, some of them): car, cell phones, trips, nice dinners at restaurants. Sacrifice of things we can't get back - time with each other.

Now our country is looking at very bleak economic times and the solutions being offered are bailouts and handouts and tax increases. I recognize that I am not a financial genius, or a history buff, but I know that America has faced similar challenges. And there are individuals still living who faced those challenges. If we were to ask those people how they got through those tough times, I bet the answer includes something our President has not really asked of us. Ask members of "the greatest generation" how they got through The Depression and they will tell you that it was because they went without. They sacrificed. I fear not that this is a crisis. I fear that our President doesn't have the cajones to ask for the one thing that is critical to its recovery; for this entitlement-minded generation to give. And give some more. And not to expect. To produce and not to drain. We will never get out of this mess if Americans (yes, even the "poor") are not asked to sacrifice heavily.