Ask Not What Your Country Can do for You

 ב"ה

My BFF and I were talking tonight and she, as she often does, revealed to me something I had never thought of before. She's a few years younger than I (I'm a Baby Boomer and she is sort of on the cusp between the Baby Boom generation and Gen X) and she and I were talking about a Dennis Prager video I saw today where Dennis talked about ingratitude.

 I remember when I was "little" -- My Mom was very specific whenever we wanted something, we always needed to say "the magic words" -- Please and Thank You. There were times when our parents wouldn't give us what we asked for if we didn't say Please (or they would concatenate the word Please onto our request or remind us to say Thank You when we got what we asked for).

That is how we all were raised back then. I find myself, these days, trying to get other people's children to say "please" and "thank you". We need to raise our children to be grateful, to understand that food comes from G-d, from farmers and their hard work and sweat, the truckers who drive the cases of food to the stores and the workers in the grocery stores who stack and stock the stores so we can buy the food. 

As long as we are able to work together as a country and a people, Americans can pull just about anything together. We need to be grateful for what this country has given us. And, because of that, we need to give back. We need to stop pushing the government to feed us when we are totally capable of feeding ourselves (and our families). 

Earn your place in the world. Whether you are a farmer, or a steel worker, or a journalist, or an oil worker; whether you  are an engineer or a miner, or a teacher, or a garbage worker, if you earn your food and your car and your house you can feel proud of yourself (and your contribution to our people and our country). 

This country is strong and will stay strong as long as we stand up to internal tyranny. As long as we fight the people who are trying to bring marxism/socialism/communism, or, more succinctly, ruination.

Teach your children gratitude. Express gratitude yourself, including to your children -- thank them if/when they do their chores (even if they don't do it perfectly -- they will learn). Make them feel loved and wanted.  And make sure you thank people in your life. 

If you can, keep a gratitude journal. And encourage your kids to also. To paraphrase Dennis Prager, a grateful person is a happy and good person and an ungrateful person who believes that (s)he is due everything will always be a bad and sad person.