What Happened To The Pioneer Spirit In America?

Two hundred thirty seven years ago a group of English citizens residing here on the North American continent got fed up with an overly intrusive and burdensome government and said "ENOUGH!"

The king had said the colonists couldn't manufacture things like cloth. Their raw products had to be sold to English businesses where they would be turned into cloth and sold back to them. They were told that the English government could put troops in their homes to live and they would have to shelter and feed them. Those very same soldiers who would enforce the king's laws over them. They were told that the government could come to their homes and places of business and search them without cause. And on, and on, and on it went. Until finally a group of English traitors said "NO MORE!"

And a funny thing happened. The mouse roared! This tiny group of rebels stood up to the most powerful force in the world.........and WON! Virtually no one thought it was possible, but it lit a flame that turned into a beacon for the world. It became an example for people to aspire to. It gave hope to the oppressed and showed what a FREE people can accomplish when not repressed and restrained by government.

In America an individual could go as far and rise as high as their talent, ambition and effort would let them. People were not restrained by where they were born or where they went to school. Our history is littered with stories of individuals who have risen from modest beginnings to great heights. That has been the glory of this nation. That is why people have sought to come to this country for generations.

But I have to ask myself, "What has happened to this nation?"

Where did the pioneer spirit go? There seems to be a decided lack of individuals who want to achieve on their own terms and an accompanying rise in the number of folks who want what others have without doing what it takes to get it on their own. They want the government to do what, if they did it themselves, would land them in jail. Take from those who earned and give to those who didn't.

In exchange for this unchecked government expansion, the receivers cede more and more of their individual freedoms, making them ever more dependent on the government. This is a vicious cycle in which corrupt government officials suck up more and more power as they make a perpetual under class ever more dependent on them. They encourage this dependence, even advertising to get more people on their food stamp and welfare roles.

This loss of the pioneer spirit has led to a general malaise where large numbers of the population believe the government should care, cloth and feed them. Somehow they are owed these things from society. That they have a "RIGHT" to health care, housing, a cell phone, an education, a flat screen HD TV, transportation, and on, and on!

Well if those things are "rights" than this ain't America any more! It has become the United Socialist States of America, because in the United States of America that I knew, you had the "right" to Life, Liberty and the Pursuit of happiness. Emphasis on pursuit. There were no guarantees of success, only the right to try and the opportunity to succeed.

Or so it would seem to an old Farmboy.