When did America become the country of widows and orphans?

When I was a kid, my father never missed an opportunity to watch John Wayne. I grew up in the 60’s and 70’s so we had one TV. At first, it was black and white, then in the mid 70’s, my dad bought a color TV. We were lucky in that Los Angeles had 8 channels, 2, 4, 5, 7, 9, 11, 13 and sometimes 14. There was no cable TV, just whatever that ugly rooftop antenna could pick up, so when John Wayne was on, you watched it.
The movie ‘McClintock’ is still one of my favorites. There is a part where the indian chiefs are being tried by the territorial indian affairs and chief Puma asks G. W. McClintock to read the following:

“We are an old people, and a proud people. When the white men first came among us, we were as many as the grasses of the prairie. Now we are few, but we are still proud. For if a man losses his pride in manhood, he is nothing.
You tell us now that if we let you send us away to this place called Fort Sill, you will feed us and care for us. Let us tell you this, it is the Comanche law that no chief ever eats unless first he sees that the pots are full of meat in the lodges of the widows and orphans. It is the Comanche way of life. This what the white man calls charity is a fine thing for widows and orphans, but no warrior can accept it. For when he does, he is no longer a man, and when he is no longer a man, he is nothing and better off dead. You say to the Comanche you are widows and orphans, you are not men. And we the Comanche say that we would rather be dead.
It will not be a remembered fight when you kill us, because we are few now and have few weapons, but we will fight, and we will die Comanche.”

I think these are wise words. Yes, I know it is a line from a movie, but that is, or at least was, Comanche law. The Native American Indian tribes lived that way. Look at that for a moment. If a man looses his pride in manhood. This is not to say that a man cannot need help. It is not disgraceful to need help. But a helping hand up, not a hand out. When an able bodied man or woman relies on the government for a living, they become slaves to the government. They are saying to the rest of us in America that they are widows and orphans…they have no pride. Any member of government that encourages that mentality is guilty of stealing the pride from the American citizens. Also, if the statistics are correct, and 43 % of Americans rely on the government for some sort of assistance. That means that the remaining working citizens must pay more of their hard earned money in taxes to help pay for the widows and orphans. And you wonder how the government grows so much, that it has to borrow money from China to pay all of those government handouts.

“This what the white man calls charity is a fine thing for widows and orphans, but no warrior can accept it. For when he does, he is no longer a man, and when he is no longer a man, he is nothing and better off dead.”

What that means is that there is a certain amount of pride one obtains when he is self sufficient and does not rely on others to live. When an able bodied person does nothing for him or her self, there is an emptiness, because they are getting something they have not earned.

Which is better, giving a man a fish or teaching him to fish? I say give him a fish… a fish, not a lifetime of fish but feed him a meal, then teach him to fish for himself so he never relies on anyone but himself for that fish. That is the compassionate thing to do. That is the humanitarian thing to do. That is the christian thing to do and that is the conservative thing to do. Otherwise, he relies on the charity of others and what if that charity runs thin? His survival is now endangered. It still reminds me of the story of the kid who helped the butterfly out of the cocoon. Because that butterfly did not fight to get out of the cocoon, it did not shed the fluid in its wings and never became strong enough to fly. That kid had to care for a damaged butterfly that never reached its potential.

“This what the white man calls charity is a fine thing for widows and orphans, but no warrior can accept it. For when he does, he is no longer a man, and when he is no longer a man, he is nothing and better off dead.”

What Puma is refering to is that once a warrior looses his ability to care for himself, his family and his community, he fails to live up to his potential and becomes a burden for the rest of the tribe.

Don’t misunderstand… there are times when a person needs help up. There is nothing shameful in needing help. What is shameful is not helping yourself up. Think of it this way.., a man is walking but falls in a pit and cant get out on his own. Another man comes by and offers a hand to lift him out of the pit. It does require effort to accept the help and climb out of the pit. But if that man decides not to accept the help out of the pit and decides instead to live in the pit, he must convince others to care for him, feed him and protect him while in the pit. 43% of America is in the pit. Are you one of them? Are you asking for a handout or a helping hand up and out of that pit? Are you a slave or a man? Are you a warrior or a burden to the tribe? Decide now before you are no longer given the choice.