It’s Their Fault!

By Gene Raymer

 

finger2Ask any American what’s wrong with the US and he or she will say, “It’s their fault.” “They” are always the other people. No one acknowledges any personal responsibility.

Big business says government regulations and employee demands force them to send jobs overseas. Or spending $200,000 for a machine to replace a $50,000 per year employee it will pay for itself. Machines don’t call in sick, or get paid vacations or go on strike. They work twenty four hours a day without overtime or a pension plan or health insurance. Big business says they aren’t to blame. Government regulations and labor are to blame. “It’s their fault.”

The unemployed worker says he needs that $50,000 a year to feed his family. And those benefits are necessary, too. No one works forever. He needs a pension to continue to live comfortably after 65. That company CEO doesn’t really need a seven figure salary and a “golden parachute.” It’s not the common man who caused the problems, it’s those fat cats. “It’s their fault.”

Any respectable liberal will tell you that it’s those rich conservatives hoarding the wealth and preventing the poor from earning a living. I still don’t understand how liberals have just as much money, but they’re not hoarding. If those conservatives would just pay a little more in taxes, the impoverished could prosper. And the economy would grow. “It’s their fault.”  

Conservatives will tell you that if the liberals would quit giving away our money, those free loaders would take those $7.00 an hour jobs and earn their own money. But if they can make $250.00 a week doing nothing, why work for $280.00 a week? If those liberals would quit giving away our money, people would go back to work. “It’s their fault.”  

Many born in the US say our problems are caused by immigrants. They forget that a generation or two earlier, their ancestors were immigrants. Since 9-11, every bad thing that has happened here has been blamed on Muslims. Yes, those were Muslim extremists on 9-11. But were those boys at Columbine or Sandy Hook Muslims, too? Was Senator McCarthy wrong? Should he have been going after Muslims in the 50‘s? “It’s their fault.”  

And Latinos are crossing the border. They’re working for $5.00 an hour and taking jobs from Americans who would do the same thing for $10.00 an hour. If they would go back where they came from, agricultural prices would double and every one would be rich. They are also putting a strain on our health care system. Perhaps the next time I’m at Seguro Popular getting my free blood pressure medicine, I should tell them “It’s their fault.”  

I always fancied myself a Republican. Perhaps because someone gave me an “I Like Ike” button when I was nine. I wasn’t a big fan of JFK but I did like what he said in his inaugural address, “Ask not what your country can do for you, ask what you can do for your country.” Not many folks are doing that today. Most have turned it around. Maybe greed and its associated evils are the real problem.  

If more political experts asked, “What can I do better?” rather than waxing rhetorically about what those others are doing wrong, we would have a better nation. As long as extremists, left or right, emphasize “I’m right, you’re wrong.” there will be no harmony in the US. The USA will become the DSA —the Dysfunctional States of America.

And when we do, “It’s their fault!”

(Ed. Note: Mr. Raymer earned a Bachelor of Divinity from Southeastern Baptist Theological Seminary in 1969. He has been associated with the Little Chapel on the Highway for the past few years.)

 

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