I'm Enjoying My Old Age

This past Sunday, just a few weeks late, my birthday was celebrated during Young Women's. I stood at the front of the room, with two very grown up looking 15-year old girls next to me, realized that I was more than twice their age, and thought, "I'm old." But the funny thing is, the thought that I was old did not bother me one bit.

Now, of course, you will be tempted to tell me that I am not old. Well, certainly I am not old compared to many billions on the planet. I do grasp that. And I certainly intend to live for a much longer time, so I am not old in that sense, either. Rather, I am old because . . . well, because I am not young. I do not have that young mindset or spirit. You know, the whole, when I was a child, I spake as a child thing. Actually, that scripture makes me think of an interesting and important distinction -- the difference between being childish and childlike. Childish bad, childlike good. In my worst moments, I hold on to childish things, but as the years pass, I am letting more and more of them go, and I think I have let enough of them go to now consider myself old.

Now you'll have to forgive me if I offend you with what I am about to say; it certainly is not intended. But one of the childish things I have given up (gave up quite a while ago, actually) is the belief that socialized medicine is a good thing. When I was a teenager with a sick dad, socialized medicine seemed like a great idea. We didn't need it; we had health insurance. But I felt bad for all those who didn't. Feeling compassion for others is not a childish thing. That is an important, eternal thing. Forfeiting responsibility for ourselves and our fellow man and calling it compassion is a childish thing, as is using compassion as an excuse to ignore facts.

I am old enough now to realize that a government whose stated goals are to make everyone equal and give everyone a warm, fuzzy feeling is a bad government. It is not the role of government to attempt to make us equal (which is impossible for it to do, by the way). Government should recognize that God created us as equals and what happens after that is up to us. And a good government lets it be up to us and stays out of our way as much as possible. I am also old enough to realize that a government who says they want to make us all equal is actually just manipulating us to grow government and gain more power.

A good government is founded on sound principles. A good government protects the rights of its citizenry. A good government is not charitable, but through its protection of liberties allows its citizens to be charitable. A good government looks at facts, takes time to make major decisions and does not pass bills that do not even yet exist in physical form.

As has been said, facts are tricky things. Here are a few facts: where the United States government has gotten involved in health care, it has made a mess of things; socialized medicine in other countries has not led to lower costs or to better health; the numbers of how many uninsured there are in this country include those who can afford insurance, but choose not to be insured, and illegal immigrants. Here's another fact: the rich among us (which includes many more of us than you probably realize) should not have to pay 60% of their hard-earned money in taxes to support bloated and inefficient government programs, including a socialized health care system. Are there so many millions of us who are still childish enough to believe in the Robin Hood principle of stealing from the rich to give to the poor? Is stealing ever okay? Do the ends justify the means?

Alleviating suffering is not the role of government; that is the responsibility of each capable person. We are all called upon to bear one another's burdens, to lift up the hands that hang down, to look after the sick and afflicted, the poor and the needy, the widows and the fatherless. These are the duties that each person who strives to be called a decent human being must undertake. And it is the childlike among us who will undertake them. And it is the childish among us who will look at what others have and which they lack, stamp their feet and demand we hurt others so they can get their fair share.

More food for thought:

Thomas Sowell
David Kahane
Rich Lowry