Two steps forward, three steps back.

“When life gives you lemons, make lemonade”.   Well, I’m sorry to say this but, either way you end up with a very sour face!

That’s the issue.  We all know that life can be hard, with its ups and downs and its round and rounds, but is there ever a break?  I can honestly say that in so many circumstances, our choices and decisions will often weigh in on the outcomes of our life.  You choose to rob a bank, the outcome will not be pleasant.   You chose to cheat the system, you can be sure that at some point you will be caught and will lose out on the frills.  You play with fire, you get burned.  Simple. I think they call that cause and effect.  But what about the other side of that?  The side that has the negative effects without the cause?  The old ‘two steps forward, three steps back’ syndrome.

Throughout this world are millions of folks who try hard, work hard, play well with others,  and just generally are law-abiding citizens who pay their share of taxes and try to make ends meet.   These are the folks who strive to put food on the table, help a neighbor when they can, and contribute positive to society.  There isn’t room to grumble when the people up the street get a new car and they cannot afford to even keep theirs running smooth.  When you don’t try to keep up with the Jones’ to get the new this and that. Our common folks settle for what they have because it’s all they have.  Just keeping their heads above water and all the other nifty one-liners and sayings to describe our average Joe’s and Jane’s.

What’s missing in the picture of the “average” citizen is the darker maladies that perform their evil within.  “Two steps forward, three steps back”.  You work hard, but it will never be enough. You try to do right, but it bites you in the rear.  You follow the laws but will still be the first to suffer under them.  Try, try, try as hard as you will, but peace will not be afforded to you. Calm will ever elude you.  Gains will be stripped away.   Let’s face it, a backward slide into poverty is your only path.  You don’t have what it takes!

Well, now that the cheery thoughts are swaying back and forth in time to the demise that awaits, ask why do we even bother?  Let’s face it…..our system is made to slowly take from the average good folk and give to the over-greedy wealthy who don’t, but do, need more and more.  Or, give it over to the illegals, the law-breakers, the cheaters, and the undeserving.  “Two steps forward, three steps back”.  Let’s take from the struggling and strip away the remaining good….all in the name of social programs! After all, they are created to give others what the hardworking citizens were striving for but will never reach!  You don’t have to work! You don’t have to pay! You don’t need to read, write, or even speak the language! All  you have to do is be a non-contributing member of our U.S. of A. and we will take from the worker and give to you!

But wait! there’s more! If you do nothing now, we will continue to up the offer!  Now you don’t even need to be a member! Just show up and we’ll give you food, housing, money, loans to start businesses, cars, and the added bonus of free post secondary education! That’s right! Everyone around you that is a positive, hard-working, contributing member of our society and have been constantly striving for just such things will envy you immensely!  You will get what they want and you don’t have to work for it!  So, when you see your new neighbor stranded on the side of road with a broken-down car…remember, you could have ended up like him.. working hard everyday and still can’t make it! “Two steps forward, three steps back”.

I would say right about here is where the comments of exaggeration are getting to be too much…but there isn’t any exaggeration. You and I, average citizens that struggle to make ends meet, work an honest days work, follow the laws, pay our share of taxes and give to society, are being passed up.  Local, State, and Federal governments are giving away everything, including the kitchen sink, to illegals and thieves.  And if they can’t get it, then they will send overseas to other undeserving types.  Even places like the Land of Lincoln, Illinois, is going to give free college educations to illegal immigrants.  Why send them back or punish them!  Your hard-earned taxes are spent not on you, but non-contributing people who are getting the free handouts.

My car finally gave up the ghost this morning on my way to work.  I can’t afford to get it fixed.  I was doing many things wrong.  I was going to my job, making mediocre pay.  I’ve paid my taxes and dues.  I don’t cheat and lie to gain social programs that I don’t qualify for.  I work and honest days work.  I follow the laws of these United States of America.  I even have several applications out for additional part-time work.  I don’t live with excess or luxuries.  I contribute to society.  I’m doing everything wrong to get ahead.

A great song plays at the beginning of the classic television show “All In The Family” called  “Those were the days” by Charles Stouse and Lee Adams.  It plays in my head and in my heart…..

 Boy the way Glen Miller played
Songs that made the hit parade.
Guys like us we had it made,
Those were the days.

And you knew who you were then,
Girls were girls and men were men,
Mister we could use a man
Like Herbert Hoover again.

Didn’t need no welfare state,
Everybody pulled his weight.
Gee our old LaSalle ran great.
Those were the days.

I highlighted those two key lines on purpose. Common Sense says that everybody can pull their own weight. Worked fine before, why not now?  Oh, that’s right!  “Two steps forward, three steps back syndrome”.  Guess the times they are a-changin’.  It would seem that the negative effects to our hard work that we are experiencing has been created.  Created by our elected.

Check Please!