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Politics : PRESIDENT GEORGE W. BUSH -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Frank Griffin who wrote (11341)	2/14/2000 1:28:00 AM
From: chalu2	Respond to of 769670

By who? You mean self-motivated? No, not everyone. But in my experience, those who simply refuse to work are a very small portion of our 275 million people. I know many people who work hard, are paid little, and complain far less than some multi-millionaires I know (and I know many of those too). I'm having a hard time distinguishing between those who rightly espouse self-reliance from those who are simply greedy or mean. How would you distinguish between these two groups? How many of thiose who say "I want less government", are really thinking: "I want more money, and I don't really care about anyone who falls on hard times through no fault of their own"? How many are using "principle" to mask shameless self-interest? I am serious in asking these questions, because they trouble me. I, too, flinch at high taxes, but would hate to turn away a "neighbor" who needed bread.

To: Frank Griffin who wrote (11341)	2/14/2000 2:20:00 AM
From: chalu2	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 769670

I just saw a Dateline repeat about a white couple, Frank and Shirley Hughes, who took in 10 mixed-race foster children, and eventually adopted them. They are a middle class couple, and did this at great personal sacrifice. The children were in a miserable existence (mother & aunt, both alcoholics, housing 17 starving, ragged children in a one room shack). If the Hughes family hadn't taken in these neglected children, the job would have fallen to a governmental agency. Would you adopt a mixed race child in need? I know I haven't done this. Have many on this thread would even consider it for a fleeting second? It's a good question to ask ourselves. Why, really, wouldn't we do this? Aren't we commanded to be our brother's keepers? Are so many of the things that we think we believe on "principle" really motivated by a desire not to part with money, and not motivated by real caring about the poor? Are we deluding ourselves into thinking that we are not serving mammon when the policies we advocate hurt both the lazy and the truly helpless? Can every person earn a high wage? Aren't half the people in the world ordained by nature to be below average IQ, and half above? Aren't there people who work as gas station attendants who have achieved all they can possibly achieve based on their God-given abilities? Are these lesser beings? Are those of modest intelligence at fault for not earning law or medical degrees, or not pursuing jobs as software engineers? I have seen too much not to recognize that selfishness predominates far above selflessness in human behavior. Ask yourselves: would I adopt a mixed race (or any) child in need? If not, what is the reason other than selfishness?