Inspiring Challenge

Posted on 09/02/2022 by Grumpa Joe
What would you do?….you make the choice. Don’t look for a punch line, there isn’t one. Read it anyway. My question is: Would you have made the same choice?

At a fundraising dinner for a school that serves children with learning disabilities, the father of one of the students delivered a speech that would never be forgotten by all who attended. After extolling the school and its Dedicated staff, he offered a question: ‘When not interfered with by outside influences, everything nature does, is done with perfection.  
Yet my son, Shay, cannot learn things as other children do.?? He cannot understand things as other children do.  Where is the natural order of things in my son?’
The audience was stilled by the query. The father continued. ‘I believe that when a child like Shay, who was mentally and physically disabled comes into the world, an opportunity to realize true human nature presents itself, and it comes in the way other people treat that child.’ Then he told the following story:
Shay and I had walked past a park where some boys Shay knew were playing baseball. Shay asked, ‘d o you think they’ll let me play?’ I knew that most of the boys would not want someone like Shay on their team, but as a father I also understood that if my son were allowed to play, it would give him a much-needed sense of belonging, and some confidence to be accepted by others in spite of his handicaps. I approached one of the boys on the field and asked (not expecting much) if Shay could play. The boy looked around for guidance and said, ‘We’re losing by six runs and the game is in the eighth inning. I guess he can be on our team and we’ll try to put him in to bat in the ninth inning. ‘Shay struggled over to the team’s bench and, with a broad smile, put on a team shirt. I watched with a small tear in my eye and warmth in my heart. The boys saw my joy at my son being accepted.
In the bottom of the eighth inning, Shay’s team scored a few runs but was still behind by three. In the top of the ninth inning, Shay put on a glove and played in the right field. Even though no hits came his way, he was obviously ecstatic just to be in the game and on the field, grinning from ear to ear as I waved to him from the stands In the bottom of the ninth inning, Shay’s team scored again. Now, with two outs and the bases loaded, the potential winning run was on base and Shay was scheduled to be next at bat. At this juncture, do they let Shay bat and give away their chance to win the game? Surprisingly, Shay was given the bat. Everyone knew that a hit was all but impossible because Shay didn’t even know how to hold the bat properly, much less connect with the ball. However, as Shay stepped up to the plate, the pitcher, recognizing that the other team was putting winning aside for this moment in Shay’s life, moved in a few steps to lob the ball in softly so Shay could at least make contact.The first pitch came and Shay swung clumsily and missed. The pitcher again took a few steps forward to toss the ball softly towards Shay. As the pitch came in, Shay swung at the ball and hit a slow ground ball right back to the pitcher. The game would now be over. The pitcher picked up the soft grounder and could have easily thrown the ball to the first baseman.  Shay would have been out and that would have been the end of the game. Instead, the pitcher threw the ball right over the first baseman’s head, out of reach of all team mates. Everyone from the stands and both teams started yelling, ‘Shay, run to first! Run to first!’ Never in his life had Shay ever run that far, but he made it to first base. He scampered down the baseline, wide-eyed and startled. Everyone yelled, ‘Run to second, run to second!’ Catching his breath, Shay awkwardly ran towards second, gleaming and struggling to make it to the base. By the time Shay rounded towards second base, the right fielder had the ball. The smallest guy on their team who now had his first chance to be the hero for his team. He could have thrown the ball to the second-baseman for the tag, but he understood the pitcher’s intentions so he, too, intentionally threw the ball high and far over the third-baseman’s head. Shay ran toward third base deliriously as the runners ahead of him circled the bases toward home. All were screaming, ‘Shay, Shay, Shay, all the Way Shay’. Shay reached third base because the opposing shortstop ran to help him by turning him in the direction of third base, and shouted, ‘Run to third! Shay, run to third!’ As Shay rounded third, the boys from both teams, and the spectators, were on their feet screaming, ‘Shay, run home! Run home!’ Shay ran to home, stepped on the plate, and was cheered as the hero who hit the grand slam and won the game for his team.
‘That day’, said the father softly with tears now rolling down his face, ‘the boys from both teams helped bring a piece of true love and humanity into this world’. Shay didn’t make it to another summer. He died that winter, having never forgotten being the hero and making me so happy, and coming home and seeing his Mother tearfully embrace her little hero of the day!
AND NOW A LITTLE FOOT NOTE TO THIS STORY: We all send thousands of jokes through the e-mail without a second thought, but when it comes to sending messages about life choices, people hesitate. The crude, vulgar, and often obscene pass freely through cyberspace, but public discussion about decency is too often suppressed in our schools and workplaces. If you’re thinking about forwarding this message, chances are that you’re probably sorting out the people in your address book who aren’t the ‘appropriate’ ones to receive this type of message. Well, the person who sent you this believes that we all can make a difference. We all have thousands of opportunities every single day to help realize the ‘natural order of things.’ So many seemingly trivial interactions between two people present us with a choice: Do we pass along a little spark of love and humanity, or do we pass up those opportunities and leave the world a little bit colder in the process? A wise man once said ‘Every society is judged by how it treats it’s least fortunate amongst them. ‘ You now have two choices.

May your day, be a Shay Day.

Filed under: family, Society, Warm and Fuzzy | Tagged: , , | Leave a comment »

An Excellent Essay

Posted on 14/05/2021 by Grumpa Joe

I only wish I would have written this essay. It is logical, and presents answers to Leftist claims that all people have a right to equal outcomes.

Two Americas

The Democrats are right, there are two Americas.The America that works, and the America that doesn’t.The America that contributes, and the America that doesn’t. It’s not the haves and the have nots, it’s the dos and the don’ts. Some people do their duty as Americans, obey the law, support themselves, contribute to society, and others don’t.  That’s the divide in America. It’s not about income inequality, it’s about civic irresponsibility. It’s about a political party that preaches hatred, greed and victimization in order to win elective office. It’s about a political party that loves power more than it loves its country.  That’s not invective, that’s truth, and it’s about time someone said it.

The politics of envy was on proud display a couple weeks ago when President  Biden pledged the rest of his term to fighting “income inequality.”  He noted that some people make more than other people, that some people have higher incomes than others, and he says that’s not just. That is the rationale of thievery.  The other guy has it, you want it, Biden will take it for you.  Vote Democrat.

That is the philosophy that produced Detroit.  It is the electoral philosophy that is destroying America. It conceals a fundamental deviation from American values and common sense because it ends up not benefiting the people who support it, but a betrayal. The Democrats have not empowered their followers; they have enslaved them in a culture of dependence and entitlement, of victim-hood and anger instead of ability and hope. The president’s premise – that you reduce income inequality by debasing the successful – seeks to deny the successful the consequences of their choices and spare the unsuccessful the consequences of their choices.  Because, by and large, income variations in society is a result of different choices leading to different consequences.  Those who choose wisely and responsibly have a far greater likelihood of success, while those who choose foolishly and irresponsibly have a far greater likelihood of failure.

  Success and failure usually manifest themselves in personal and family income. You choose to drop out of high school or to skip college – and you are apt to have a different outcome than someone who gets a diploma and pushes on with purposeful education and/or employment. You have your children out of wedlock and life is apt to take one course; you have them within a marriage and life is apt to take another course.

Most often in life our destination is determined by the course we take. My doctor, for example, makes far more than I do.  There is significant income inequality between us.  Our lives have had an inequality of outcome, but, our lives also have had an in equality of effort.  While my doctor went to college and then devoted his young adulthood to medical school and residency, I chose another avenue. He made a choice, I made a choice, and our choices led us to different outcomes.  His outcome pays a lot better than mine.  Does that mean he cheated and Joe Biden needs to take away his wealth?  No, it means we are both free men in a free society where free choices lead to different outcomes. It is not inequality Joe Biden intends to take away, it is freedom. 

The freedom to succeed and the freedom to fail.  There is no true option for success if there is no true option for failure.  The pursuit of happiness means a whole lot less when you face the punitive hand of government if your pursuit brings you more happiness than the other guy.  Even if the other guy sat on his arse and did nothing.  Even if the other guy made a lifetime’s worth of asinine and shortsighted decisions. President Biden and the Democrats preach equality of outcome as a right, while completely ignoring inequality of effort.  The simple Law of the Harvest – as ye sow, so shall ye reap – is sometimes applied as, “The harder you work, the more you get.”  Biden would turn that upside down.

Those who achieve are to be punished as enemies of society and those who fail are to be rewarded as wards of society. Entitlement will replace effort as the key to upward mobility in American society if President Biden-Barack gets his way.  He seeks a lowest common denominator society in which the government besieges the successful and productive to foster equality through mediocrity.  He and his party speak of two Americas, and their grip on power is based on using the votes of one to sap the productivity of the other.  America is not divided by the differences in our outcomes, it is divided by the differences in our efforts.  It is a false philosophy to say one man’s success comes about unavoidably as the result of another man’s victimization. What Biden offered was not a solution, but a separatism.  He fomented division and strife, pitted one set of Americans against another for his own political benefit.  That’s what socialists offer.  Marxist class warfare wrapped up with a bow. Two Americas, coming closer each day to proving the truth to Lincoln’s maxim that a house divided against itself cannot stand.

Filed under: Conservative, Education, family, Government | Tagged: , , | Leave a comment »

We Can or We Can, Not

Posted on 11/07/2010 by Grumpa Joe

During President Barack Obama’s campaign to the presidency, he promoted the catchy phrase “yes we can.” He used many positive affirmations throughout the campaign. Being a student of positive thinking, I thought here is a guy who is living the positive message.

In the past, few months I have heard a string of cannot dos that are very untypical of the positive Barack of the campaign. We cannot secure the border. We cannot prosecute illegals. We cannot prosecute voting fraud by blacks, browns, yellows, and reds, only whites. We cannot have God on our money. We cannot have God in public places. We cannot have God in schools. We cannot pray on the National Day of Prayer. We cannot make our own end of life health care decisions. We cannot live by the Constitution of the Founding Fathers. We cannot run the government with heads of departments vetted by Congress. We cannot read two thousand page bills before we vote to approve them. We cannot have capitalism because it is evil. We cannot define marriage as a union between a man and a woman.

The slogan “Yes We Can” has become a matter of definition. There are those who believe “We Can,” means one thing and there are those who believe “We Can,” means something else.

Barack and his liberal Congress believe in stripping us of our liberty. They believe they can teach us that big government is good for us. They believe in destroying relationships we developed with our allies. They believe they can talk themselves out of any situation. They believe they can pass laws to control us. They believe those who choose to earn a living must support those that do not. They believe every law should be in the interest of promoting a socialist state. They believe once elected, they should own the office until death. They believe they know what is better for you than you do. They believe in a form of slavery known as liberal-progressive-socialism.

I want to believe that we can make the USA a better place to live. We can have freedom of speech. We can have choices in our health care. We can start a business without the government regulating every move. We can choose to live where we want. We can own a gun. We can have God in our schools. We can have God in our public places. We can have God in our schools. We can prosecute racism of white against black, and black against white. We can gather on the National Mall, and pray on a given day. We can vote for a union privately. We can live by strict interpretation of the Constitution. We can encourage immigration into the country via a set of rules. We can limit the power of the Executive branch of government. We can limit Congress to terms of employment. We can give people an education without government dictating what is in a history book. We can hold a child back. We can discipline kids without fear of retribution by a nanny state. We can live without fear of a radical religion promoting its theism upon us.  We can adopt English as the national language. We can promote the exceptionalism of our people and country. We can limit the size of government. We can live without a Department of Energy. We can live without a Department of Education. We can live without a Department of Homeland Security. We can live without a Department of Health and Human Services. We can have a Department of Justice that enforces laws. We can have a president who knows how to lead. We can have a Congress that listens to the voice of the people as well as to special interest groups. We can limit campaign funds of the President and Congress. We can make elected officers give back all unused campaign funds immediately after election to office.

Which definition of We Can do you choose to accept? We can, or we can-not?

Filed under: Conservative, Election, Government, liberals, politics | Tagged: , , , , | 2 Comments »