The Audacity of Sacrifice. The Audacity of "Nope"

At this time, when many Americans are already intimately familiar with the term,"sacrifice" (maybe too much so), our President has the "audacity" to request that we sacrifice for the good of the country. It is no long the message of, as in his book, "The Audacity of Hope." It's more like, whatever your heart desires, just say, "Nope!":

"I'm asking you for your good and for your Nation's security to take no unnecessary trips, to use carpools or public transportation whenever you can, to park your car one extra day per week, to obey the speed limit, and to set your thermostats to save fuel. Every act of energy conservation like this is more than just common sense -- I tell you it is an act of patriotism."

"Our Nation must be fair to the poorest among us, so we will increase aid to needy Americans to cope with rising energy prices. We often think of conservation only in terms of sacrifice. In fact, it is the most painless and immediate way of rebuilding our Nation's strength. Every gallon of oil each one of us saves is a new form of production. It gives us more freedom, more confidence, that much more control over our own lives."

"I do not promise you that this struggle for freedom will be easy. I do not promise a quick way out of our Nation's problems, when the truth is that the only way out is an all-out effort. What I do promise you is that I will lead our fight, and I will enforce fairness in our struggle, and I will ensure honesty. And above all, I will act."

"We can manage the short-term shortages more effectively and we will, but there are no short-term solutions to our long-range problems. There is simply no way to avoid sacrifice."

GOTCHA! I guess I forgot to mention which president said the above words. The words were spoken by not the 44th Teleprompter of the United States. Oh no! These were from Jimmy Carter's "Malaise" speech, July 15th, 1979. TRICKED YA! You thought that another liberal icon, Barack Obama, had spoken those feel-good words, didn't you?

I think it would be wise to rediscover the word, "sacrifice." A sacrifice is simply the surrender of something of value. And full sacrifice is full surrender of everything you own of value. To achieve the full virtue of sacrifice, you must not seek any return gratification for your sacrifice. Any return of gain eliminates the virtue of sacrifice.

If you achieve the career you want after years of schooling, training, and hard work, it is not sacrifice. If you give up that career for the sake of a stranger, who doesn't deserve it, it is. If you give someone a penny for a dollar, it's not a sacrifice. If you do the opposite, it is. Sacrifice doesn't mean refusing what is evil for what is good, but what is good for what is evil.

Now how do you feel about "change" or Obama's "sacrifice"? We are being set-up!

Sacrifice is when the government takes money from one person who earned it (under the ultimate threat of imprisonment), and redistributes it to another person who didn't earn it.

I have some news for the current President. "Sacrifice" will not jump start the economy. It will not increase demand for our products or automobiles. It will not create American jobs, and it will not improve investor confidence. Sacrifice does not inspire creativity. Nor does it spawn ingenuity or excellence.

There is only one thing that will turn the economy, and it has zero to do with the government, which is why he's against it. It's called good ole' free market capitalism, and no, it's not what caused the current mess. Government caused the current economic collapse, but you will never hear them admit it. Doing so would truly sacrifice the power over us that they currently enjoy.