OK, let me preface this blog by stating that this will not be one of my typical humorous blogs, but I will get back to that before Christmas (Yes, Christmas rather than the Holiday Season). A conservative African American writer, Walter Williams, recently wrote an editorial that really resonated with me. I so hated to see Thomas Sowell retire, but Walter Williams is an excellent replacement. In my next paragraph, I’m going to just pull a few of his comments, but will not bother with quotation marks. Just recognize that all of the comments in the next paragraph all come from his latest editorial.

A recent Victims of Communism Memorial Foundation survey found that 51% of American millennials would rather live in a socialist or communist country than in a capitalist country. The number of people who died at the hands of Josef Stalin may be as high as 62 million. However, almost one-third of millennials think that former president George W Bush is responsible for killing more people than Stalin. Young people who weren’t alive during WWII and the Cold War aftermath might be forgiven for not knowing the horrors of socialism. Some of their beliefs represent their having been indoctrinated by their K-12 and college professors. When tragedies of socialist regimes such as those in Venezuela, the USSR, China, Cuba, and many others are pointed out to leftists, they hold up Sweden as a socialist role model, but Sweden recognized that this model didn’t work, and they soon rolled back to capitalism which is what made them a wealthy country to begin with. Are Americans who admire the most brutal regimes miseducated or stupid? Or do they have some kind of devious agenda?

OK, we are now back to my writing. I was absolutely appalled that Bernie Sanders received as many votes as he did in the last election because he completely espouses socialism. Wasn’t it Margaret who said that socialism works until you give out of other people’s money? I certainly hope they go after all of the liberal tech billionaires first, and give me time to hide my piddly nest egg.

I did serve on two University of Georgia boards, but I term limited out on one. I should have long since been termed out on the other one, but they keep making an exception, perhaps because they need me on the investment and quasi endowment committee. I have gotten to know a lot of tenured college professors during the past 15 years, and they are nice folks. Let’s just suffice it to say that I share a different worldview than most of them do. I truly believe that one of the requirements to be a professor or a politician is that you must have first had to make a payroll, and be responsible for meeting a budget and managing people, but I realize that is a pipe dream.

I truly believe that the few of us who still make our living in an agrarian economy have a better understanding of capitalism than most folks. They say that farmers are the only folks who buy retail, and sell wholesale. But, we all understand that crops do not just grow on their own. It requires a lot of toil, long hours, technology, and prayers to bring a crop to harvest. I do believe that God intended for us to work for our daily bread rather than waiting on it to be given to us. Hard working farmers make more money than lazy ones, and that’s the way it should be.

I believe that there is a joy and sense of pride in a job well done. I also believe that it is my moral responsibility as a Christian to help those who are more unfortunate than I am. However, I believe that I should have the right to give my money to those folks rather than giving it to the government to dispense it as pork in return for votes. The elderly, handicapped, and folks, who through no fault of their own, deserve our financial support. The able bodied and illegals don’t deserve any of the money that I earned by taking risks and working much longer hours than 9:00-5:00.

I wish that I could change the direction of our country, and I’m praying for a great awakening before it’s too late. That’s my sermon for the day, and I will avoid anymore “Debbie Downer” blogs in the foreseeable future. If you need to step away from it all for a while, come visit Riverview, and remind yourselves of the beauty God has created.