Takers and Givers

I found a strip that I wanted to post, but I had a few comments I wanted to make ahead of it to express my pet peeves in this area of life. Therefore, I'm taking the opportunity right here. Call it political if you'd like, but it's not. It's life! In a recent song released by the Gaither Vocal Band (recent being within the last 2 years), one of the verses as this phrase in it...."there are two kinds of folks, takers and givers..."

Well, we have reached the society where there is a distinct difference between the takers and givers. It seems every time you turn around, you find masses of people who are "standing in line" for the next handout. This attitude in life kinda rubs me the wrong way! Now it may be different in your state of the union, but in Alabama, laziness and being sorry is probably the most awarded disability that exists. It hit home with me early in my career when I realized exactly how abused the system is these days. I would work 12 hour midnight shifts in the emergency room and normal, healthy men and women would be lined up in there for a runny nose, a zit that needed to be popped, or something else stupid that you can come up with. Then get mad when a chest pain or some trauma got put in line ahead of them and their belly-aching self. Being that I lived in a rural community, there were many of them that I knew personally and I knew they held down no job! Not for lack of abilities or strength. It was merely a lack of will....otherwise known as laziness or being sorry! Their provided insurances happened to be government paid. This made me fume every time I looked at my pay stub at how much was being deducted to pay for their sorry hides to sit at home, feeding bad habits detrimental to their health, all paid for from their disability checks, (excuse me, my / our checks) while their families lived in shacks falling down in unbelievable places.....Then there were others who had major medical problems, who couldn't get a dime without going through an act of Congress to get a small bit of help. These warped concepts drive me INSANE!! THIS IS MY SOAPBOX!! I'll climb down now! Now you know why Alabama ranks pretty high in the poverty states. Why have motivation to improve when bad behavior is rewarded?

Back to the song, I love to give. But I want to give whatever I give to someone other than one who takes it with an attitude that constantly leaves the impression that whatever they get is owed to them. Well, I have discovered that this attitude is not only present in our human race. It's even made it to the animals - well, kinda.....with a little human help! Obviously, the author sees it the same way I do.

I simply couldn't resist this strip to make my point!!