"Don't Squander Your Gifts or Sell Your Soul" | Eastern North Carolina Now

    My friend Chris Dresp recently started a blogsite, "Return to Honor," as a forum where she can vent her frustrations through discussion. She initiated a blog called "It Just Does Not Compute" in which asked: "When was it decided that the terms 'Conservative' or 'Republican' automatically equated to greedy, racist bigots?" She went on to describe how it was the Republican party which finally stood for the abolition of slavery (in fact the party emerged specifically to address the issue of slavery and bring about its demise) and how it was the Democratic party which supported segregation. After federal troops were finally withdrawn from the South following the Civil War and Reconstruction era, Democrats regained power in every state in the South and legislated Jim Crow laws which segregated black people from the state's white population. Yet people have forgotten their history and the party that pushed for abolition and equal rights are somehow now the party of "racists"? Chris wants to know when minorities will finally realize that Democrats are using and will continue to use them as pawns to advance their political agenda.

    Chris asks: "It wasn't until the mid 1960that the Democratic party realized the value of the black community and that was only the value of their VOTE and nothing more. Ever since that time, the Democratic party has done everything in their power to re-enslave the black community to the financial dependence on the government. As long as the black folk acted right (voted democrat) the money and entitlements would continue to flow. Keeping them physically, mentally, financially and spiritually attached to the hind tit of the government. Explain to me just how that can in any way be considered fair or equal. The Republicans have never catered to any one group of people because all people are to be treated as equal, period.

    The liberals have turned the government into a drug. They went into the neighborhoods and began handing out free, small samples of entitlements and have eventually gotten the entire community so badly addicted that they can't even think for themselves. They have fallen for the promise of free money, services, etc. when if they were to look back on it they have fallen woefully short of the rosy wonderland they were painted. NOTHING IS EVER FREE!!! They have sold their souls (votes) for a meager sum by believing the LIE that they are somehow entitled or owed a living by the government. Do they really live well? Have the Democrats truly helped them achieve the status they hoped to achieve after the end of slavery?" Talk about a corrupt value system and an exploitation of human beings.

    Although I can never truly understand racial issues because I've never known what it was like to be in another's shoes, I wanted to respond to Chris's blog.

    I am sorry, but I don't understand the entitlement mentality. My family came over from Italy in the 1920's, with nothing but the skills they learned from their families back home. As soon as they arrived on American shores, they made sure they lost their Italian accents and dared never to be heard speaking their native language again. They didn't want to be looked at differently. They began to practice the trades of their fathers. They needed to provide for their families. My father's parents, young immigrants, died early and my father left high school without graduating so he could support himself. Then he volunteered to serve this country. My mother was the only one to finish high school out of her family. But her siblings worked with her father, as plumbers and masons. They all worked hard. My one uncle worked up until the day he died (about 75 years old) and my own father, at age 79, still wants to drive a bus. The work ethic in my family and in my ancestry is very great.

    I myself came from a very humble home. We had very little money and my clothes were hand-me-downs (male cousins). We lived by restraint and within our means, and certainly from paycheck to paycheck. I was a shy child and that was because I was always ashamed of how I dressed and I had nothing much to offer friends who would come to my house. But my church was my sanctuary. God was my strength and my foundation. All that I have today and all that I am today, both in spirit and in mind, is from my faith in God and my desire to serve him in any way I could. And for most of my impoverished life, that was by setting a good example and being of good character. I have worked since I was in high school, I worked all through college, I worked night shifts in grad school, and I worked 3 jobs when I was single. The thought of taking something I didn't earn was offensive to me. The thought of not contributing while everyone around me was contributing was offensive to me. It was just not part of my character. I was not disabled and I was not intellectually deficient. Society expected me to go to school and learn, and that's exactly what I did. But I didn't excel in school because that's what society or my parents wanted; It's because of a little lesson I learned in Bible school: "What you have (health, a mind) is God's gift to you. What you do with them is your gift to God." And believe me, I worked very hard at my education. Too many all-nighters, days and weeks that merged together in a blurry existence... ignoring my friends and losing my boyfriend of 5 years when he wasnft willing to wait around for me to finish school.

    I guess I'm trying to say that religion is most powerful when you allow it to take an active role in your life rather than a passive one. When you allow it to mold your character and give you strength to set goals and set them through.

    This brings to mind The Parable of the Ten Minas (gold coins), found in the Bible, in Luke 19:11-26; (King James version): 11 And as they heard these things, he added and spoke a parable, because he was nigh to Jerusalem, and because they thought that the kingdom of God should immediately appear. 12 He said therefore, a certain nobleman went into a far country to receive for himself a kingdom, and to return. 13 And he called his ten servants, and delivered them ten pounds, and said unto them, Occupy till I come. 14 But his citizens hated him, and sent a message after him, saying, We will not have this man to reign over us. 15 And it came to pass, that when he was returned, having received the kingdom, then he commanded these servants to be called unto him, to whom he had given the money, that he might know how much every man had gained by trading. 16 Then came the first, saying, Lord, thy pound hath gained ten pounds. 17 And he said unto him, Well, thou good servant: because thou hast been faithful in a very little, have thou authority over ten cities.

    18 And the second came, saying, Lord, thy pound hath gained five pounds. 19 And he said likewise to him, Be thou also over five cities.

20 And another came, saying, Lord, behold, here is thy pound, which I have kept laid up in a napkin: 21 For I feared thee, because thou art an austere man: thou takest up that thou layedst not down, and reapest that thou didst not sow. 22 And he saith unto him, Out of thine own mouth will I judge thee, thou wicked servant. Thou knewest that I was an austere man, taking up that I laid not down, and reaping that I did not sow: 23 Wherefore then gavest not thou my money into the bank, that at my coming I might have required mine own with usury?

    24 And he said unto them that stood by, Take from him the pound, and give it to him that hath ten pounds. 25 (And they said unto him, Lord, he hath ten pounds.) 26 For I say unto you, That unto every one which hath shall be given; and from him that hath not, even that he hath shall be taken away from him.

    The servants represent us. The God we serve notices both the quality and quantity of what we do for Him. God has given us abilities and truth to use and develop, and he hopes that we multiply both in service of him. He certainly doesn't want us to ignore the development of our minds and to wallow in sloth. He doesn't want us to be beholden to an entitlement mentality that robs us of self-worth, dignity, and ambition. He doesn't want us to decay morally, ethically, socially, and ethically and even physically.

    How have all of us used the gifts that God has given us?

    Republicans are the party of personal responsibility and reward for ambition. God teaches us personal responsibility and personal development. For those who decry prayer or acknowledgement of religious principles in school or public life, please think again. Christian values are more important to society than you can ever imagine.