I am a child of the 60’s, but not like you think. I watched TV shows like Gilligan’s Island, I dream of Genie, I Love Lucy and The Honeymooners. Watching the Skipper, Gilligan, the millianair and his wife, the movie star, the profesor and the ever lovely Mary Ann living on a deserted Island alway made me chuckle as a child. How in the world was the professor able to take coconuts and vines and other stuff found on the island and fashion new batteries for that old, janky radio? And everyone had their own hut, the skipper and gilligan had one, Thurston Howle and his wife had one, Ginger and Mary Ann had one and the professor had his own. Now, these huts were made of thicket that reminded me of huts you would see pictured in Time magazine from places like villiges in Africa or Borneo. We don’t see huts fashioned like that here in America and I certainly did not see any growing up in Los Angeles.

Years later, my wife and I were been blessed in that we were allowed to participate in our church’s outreach program. We were commissioned to goto Mandalay Myanmar, Yangoon Myanmar and a village named Porta de Mango in Nyarit Mexico in short term missionary trips. Even though it has been over ten years, those trips changed our lives forever. We witnessed many things that let us know God was ever present with us.

I believe Christians that are active in their church are more grounded than the liberals in our government. When you see people living in the street, washing in the pool of water in a pothole in the street, that is true poverty. When a man builds his house with a teak foundation but still has a thicket walls and roof…with only one chair for the patriarch of the family and everyone else has a grass mat to sit on and lie on, and he is concidered working class, you have a clearer perspective on what is truely poor. When the poor chew on a red pod to reduce hunger cravings that turns their teeth red, and yet the poor people in America still get government assistance like reduced cost apartments with air conditioning, color TV and a government cell phone with government cheese and food from the food bank, you have a better understanding of what true poverty is. I saw people building a small hut made of discarded cardboard and tape. I saw villages of huts that looked like a set of  Gilligans Island. When a person witnesses true poverty, you can’t see the poor in America the same. When you witness true hunger, you have a better appreciation for what you have back here in America.

I am thankful to God for what I have. I grew up in a loving family. I recieved a good education. My parents sacrificed for my sister and myself so that we had everything we needed, and alot of what we wanted. I have been blessed with good health so far. I have two grown children that are productive members of society with lives and families of their own. And I am blessed to be a grandpa. And I still have a great relationship with my family. I recognise the blessings of God and what I have. But remember, what I have, I had to earn. I have a good education but I still had to study. I have a car, but I had to earn the money for it. I have a house that my wife and I work hard for.

With the condition of our country and the contentious political environment, it makes me mad to see Americans still claiming how poorly we Americans treat the poor and disinfranchised. I see a large chunk of my paycheck being forcibly taken by the federal and state government with the purpose of taking care of the less fortunate. I see long lines at the foodbank. I see people getting subsidised housing. I see more people going without today after over seven years of President Obama than before. With over seven years of ever increased socialism, I see fewer opportunities for people to provide for themselves, and more tax burden for those left working to support those that are not.

After Observing what I have in my life, I have come to the conclusion that poverty is slavery. A poor person is reliant on someone else for his food and housing. The government becomes the master. Freedom comes from self reliance. The less reliant you are to someone else, the more free you are. And the inverse it true…the more reliant you are to someone else, the less free you are.

Here, in 2016, you have but one choice for the future. Vote for more government/less freedom or less government/more freedom. Hillary Clinton represents more government and more socialism. How ironic that a country founded on freedom, has become less and less free. Remember, Gilligan et al had to rely on themselves to survive. There was no government to give them food or clothing or housing. And the war on poverty was not…NOT supposed to make more poverty, but that is what it has created.