Monday, March 16, 2009

Damnit I'm an American!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Ya know...I've started this blog to express concerns about the direction our great nation is heading. But first I guess I should tell you a bit about where I am coming from.

I was born as an American citizen in Scarborough, Ontario, Canada to an American mother and a Danish father. At the age of 4 we packed up and moved to the Orlando, FL area. My dad, started a successful company that manufactured limousines. I started doing little odd jobs around the factory around my 10th year. I learned a strong work ethic from my father who has been my greatest inspiration in life. He was the first to get there in the morning and the last to leave at the end of the day (and he wasn't a "sit behind the desk" type of business man). He spent his days working in the factory right along side of his employees. Unfortunately for me, in 2000 he sold the business to a group of investors who had no idea what they were doing and two years later the business failed.

I am now an over the road trucker. I've been running 48 states for about six years now. Anyone who is not married to, a family member of, or a close friend of a trucker likely doesn't know exactly how hard the job really is. Most people look down on truckers as uneducated, dirty, and generally bottom of the barrel. Well..those people couldn't be more wrong. On the road, I've met retired doctors, lawyers, police, firefighters, teachers, and a whole host of other professions who have either lost their jobs, retired or just yearned for some adventure. The vast majority of truckers I meet are former military (including myself....349th Med. Det. U.S. Army Reserve).

I am married and have two sons (ok..technically stepsons, but to me and to them I am their dad). My wife is also a trucker. We drive separate trucks at the time because, to be blunt, we make more money that way. My oldest son is married and in the Marine Corps as is his wife. My youngest son lives in North Carolina.

Now to the reason for the blog. I was raised with the belief that you do whatever it takes to take care of your family and that you are not entitled to anything but national security form the government. Ive noticed for years the growing "entitlement mentality" in our nation. There are far too many people that feel that the government owes this or that to them. In response, we the voters (and don't blame me, I didn't vote for him) elected Barrac Hussein Obama to be our president. A community organizer in his years before entering politics, he championed the causes of those who seek to advance entitlements in America.

If I can't afford a college education, should the taxpayers pay for it? If I can't afford a house should the taxpayers provide me one? If I enter this country as an illegal alien, should I be entitled to the same constitutional rights that legal American citizens are granted? Hell no! any of these situations and more are occurring everyday in our country. I was always taught that America was the "land of opportunity." We have a federal government that is charged under the Constitution with very few rights. Those rights do not include providing welfare, housing, education, etc. But yet they do. And, thus, we have a federal government that has grown and continues to grow to monstrous proportions. The only thing that can come from bigger government is more intrusion into our personal lives. That, my friend, is gonna cause us the loss of freedom. Absolute power corrupts absolutely.

The only thing I want my government to provide to me personally is a clear path to success. In other words...get the hell out of my way and let me do what I need to do to be successful. It should be the dream of every human on this planet to be able to work their tail off to be the best they can be regardless of their chosen profession. The same should go for businesses. Please understand, I'm not saying that there should not be laws and regulations to prevent unsafe or unscrupulous businesses for hurting those who they work for or work for them. If you fail, then so be it. My hard earned tax dollars shouldn't be bailing out anyone! A smart person will take from their failures and build their next success.

To quote John McCain, our president and our congress have committed "generational theft" by passing these enormous pork barrel spending bills. Don't fool yourself. Those taxpayers alive today are not the only ones who will pay for this. Our children, grandchildren, and great grandchildren are all gonna see the effects of the out of control spending that has passed in the early part of this year. China is not gonna continue to buy our debt forever. When they finally wise up and realize that we're never going to be able to pay them back, they will stop. Then what? Do we open the treasury printing presses wide open and just keep printing more money, thus devaluing the dollar even further. Do this and eventually we'll be paying for a loaf of bread with a wheelbarrow full of cash due to hyperinflation. Don't think it can happen? Check out Zimbabwe where they have had to start printing billion dollar bills.

Let me know what you think. I'll post as often as I can. In the meantime, check out the website below.

http://www.the912project.com