Let's Listen to Abe

Truth is truth. 

It doesn’t change though the years. We can learn a lot from wise men of the past. Listen to the wisdom of our one of the greatest President’s and one of the greatest men who ever lived…

Abraham Lincoln in a speech once said:

"You cannot help the poor by destroying the rich. 

You cannot strengthen the weak by weakening the strong. 

You cannot bring about prosperity by discouraging thrift. 

You cannot lift the wage earner up by pulling the wage payer down. 

You cannot further the brotherhood of man by inciting class hatred. 

You cannot build character and courage by taking away people's initiative and independence. 

You cannot help people permanently by doing for them, what they could and should do for themselves." 

We never learn.

He obviously wouldn’t have written these thoughts if they hadn’t been theories promoted during his lifetime. In simple, unadorned prose he was trying to set the record straight as to what worked and what did not. What’s amazing is that over a 100 years after he lived we still have people still pushing the same old and failed agendas…

Still trying to “…help the poor by destroying the rich.”

Don’t they understand the poor all want the same chance to be rich themselves and if you destroy the rich there is nothing for them to model? 

Still trying to “…lift the wage earner up by pulling the wage payer down.”

If you take away the incentive away to open and run businesses through excessive restrictive government regulation and taxation you’ll drive entrepreneurs out of business and kill the spirit of those who would start new businesses? Then where will people work?

Still “…taking away people’s initiative and independence”

Entitlements and handouts kill people’s fighting spirit and strength by “… doing for them, what they could and should do for themselves."

In all the public policy discussions where is even the mention of giving people a chance to “…build character and courage."

We all know the strength of any country reside in the individual strength of its citizens. If public policy turns the masses into weak and needy, constantly looking for their next handout our country is going to suffer.

President Lincoln saw the big picture.

In these words he offered his wisdom and I think its worth a few minutes to think about what he said because his words are as true today as when he wrote them.