Allright - I think today's post will be a rant:
I try to keep up with some of the happenings in my home state of Texas...and this one is just sad.
Yesterday (October 31, 2008) a 52 year old man jumped off the "Spaghetti Bowl" (this is a place where several highway interchanges meet and they usually stack up over each other) in El Paso and left behind a note to Barack Obama saying "Obama - Please take care of my family."
I don't know anything about this man (his name hasn't even been released), nor do I normally comment on things like this because of the pain that people are experiencing at the time. Typically prayer and support are the order of the day and I truly hope that this family is receiving that. I have buried family members who died at their own hand and I know the pain, confusion and guilt that it brings so please don't write me that I have no compassion.
But here's where this story frustrates me: What a sad day when a husband and father feels so lost and incapable that he feels free to remove himself from the lives of his wife and children and turn them over to the care of big government. Is this the end result thinking of socialism - "I refuse to take responsibility for my family - that's why the government exists." Here's a thought: It's NOT the government's responsibility to take care of our families - that responsibility belongs to us. It doesn't take a village to raise a child - it takes a family. The thing that we see across our country that so scares and saddens me is that many of our moms and dads are willing to stop doing what moms and dads need to do and capitulate that responsibility to someone else.
Yes, sometimes we need other people to help us out in hard times but I know that as a mom when it comes to the care of my family "The Buck Stops Here." This is my home, my husband, and my kids...and it's my job to take care of them to the best of my ability and with the help of God.
Just my two-cents worth.
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I agree, "the buck does stop here." Working for those years at the middle school made me see first hand the number of parents who don't 'parent' and are raising kids who think they are 'entitled' to things without having to put forth any effort. 'It takes a village' has certainly been used as an excuse for parents to not parent.
ReplyDeleteIt is a real tragedy that this man thought his family better off without him.
What a tragic story. I am humbly reminded that the early church in the book of Acts took care of member's needs (Acts 4)and bore one another's burdens (Galatians 6)very well. But they did it under the leading of the Holy Spirit, not by government compulsion.
ReplyDeleteIf one looks to how Barack Obama has not taken care of his Kenyan Aunt living in the projects of Boston or his half brother in in the hut in rural Kenya, that Texas man's family is in serious trouble.