It's George Bush's fault

Written by Kevin Bryant, a blog reader

It’s George Bush’s fault. How many times have we heard this in the past 7 years? For me, it’s impossible to track the number of times.

We have become a nation that is willing to blame anyone but ourselves for our own shortcomings. We blame Bush for radical Islamist killing innocent people throughout the world. We blame the oil companies for the rising price of gasoline. We blame the lenders for foreclosures on homes. We confuse greed with success and blame the successful for our own lack of success.

What ever happened to the idea of personal responsibility and personal accountability? These were the driving principals that this country was founded on. Now people want their freedoms and liberties yet they do not accept the responsibilities that go with them.

When my wife & I bought our house, we didn’t go out and buy the biggest and most expensive house we could get a loan for. We based our decision on what could we afford in the event that one of us became disabled or otherwise could no longer work. We then set out to find a match for what we were looking for in affordability and location.

We both have credit cards but refuse to use them. If we can not afford to buy something, then we do without it. We don’t buy things on credit other than vehicles and our house. It’s alarming just how many Americans are $20,000 or more in debt just from credit cards. Last I heard, it was over 15% of American households.

A report this morning said that the unemployment rate in the U.S was 5.1%. In the Kansas City Star, there are over 200 help wanted ads listed. Many more on websites like careerbuilder and monster, yet many of that 5.1% refuse to have a job. It’s easier to live off the taxes that others pay into the system by way of unemployment checks, food stamps and other social programs that do nothing but add to the economic burden this country is experiencing.

We have become a nation that elects it’s leaders based not on their principals and beliefs, but by how willing are they to give me something in return for my vote. This person wants to up my welfare checks, I’m voting for him. This person wants to give amnesty to all my cousins that are here illegally, I’m voting for that person.

Thousands of gallons of blood has been spilled over the course of the past couple of centuries by men and now women who have held a belief that this country as a whole is greater than any of it’s citizens. Millions more with that same belief has served in it’s defense so that all of us can enjoy the freedoms and liberties that our forefathers fought for and sacrificed their lives for because they believed in them and they believed in this nation.

Without being accountable for our own actions and relying on government to bail us out of our own stupidity, we are destroying this nation one freedom at a time.

A great civilization is not conquered from without until it has destroyed itself from within. – Ariel Durant