I saw Gov. Chris Christie of New Jersey lambasting the House of Representatives for not voting on a measure to pass a $60 Billion, pork-laden, "relief package" for the victims of Hurricane Sandy.
$60 BILLION.
On September 8th, 1900, a massive hurricane crashed into Galveston, TX. It claimed the lives of between 8,000-12,000 people (reports differ, but most agree on this range). It was the deadliest natural disaster in United States history.
This was before FEMA. This was before we were $16.4 Trillion in debt.
How did Galveston rebuild? The same way that Americans used to recover from tragedy: through tenacity and hard work. They picked themselves up from their bootstraps and rebuilt their city, erecting a seawall that, at the time, was a marvel of engineering.
During World War II, the beautiful city of Dresden, Germany was firebombed as part of an Allied Campaign to break the back of the Nazi Regime. One of the most notable casualties was the Frauenkirche, a landmark Lutheran Church in Dresden reduced to rubble. When the bombers were done, the citizens of Dresden began to collect bricks. Brick by brick, they rebuilt the church. Men, women, and children ventured out of shelter, dusted themselves off, buried their dead... and began collecting bricks.
Now, in New York and New Jersey, the epicenters of Blue State America, the victims don't venture out. They don't gather bricks. They demand that their government come in and fix it. Make it all better. Build them a new house. Pay for repairs.
See... when you vote for promises, sometimes you get disappointed when those promises don't materialize. When you become dependent on government for more and more in your daily life, you don't go collect bricks when tragedy hits. You want someone to collect bricks for you.
Look, I don't want you to get the wrong idea. I feel compassion for the victims of Hurricane Sandy. I do. I mourn the family members they lost, I am saddened by the damage that was done, the dreams and investments that were shattered. I am angered that two months later, some places still have no electricity or water. I am further angered that after the Galveston disaster more than eleven decades earlier, water was restored just four days later. But what I reserve my deepest compassion for, what I mourn more than anything else, is the death of the American Spirit. I mourn the demise of the can-do attitude, the "I can do this" work ethic. I will pray for those families.
Elections have consequences. Can somebody help me pick up the bricks? We need to rebuild the Old America.
