Self-made Haves freely giving to the Have-Nots...You better believe it means something!

I was at work a while back when, during the course of a political discussion, I remarked that people don’t realize how much money wealthy and successful Americans give to charity. The responses of my significantly liberal co-workers went something like this: “So? They can afford it! That doesn’t mean anything!”

If I were better at responding under pressure, I would have said the following: Yes, it does mean something. It very much means something, especially when it’s coming from their own pockets. Many CEO’s and affluent conservatives in this country quietly donate much of their income to charities and humanitarian organizations. They do it, because they believe in the freedom to be able to give it. They do it, because they believe God (not Government) is the one who will and should hold them accountable if they fail to “clothe the naked, feed the hungry, help the sick and afflicted.” They believe they have a duty to feed the hungry, on top of the jobs they already create for them. They do it to show thanks to God, and demonstrate that it is He (not government) who has blessed them, and that all they have belongs to him, not to the government. Their wealth is His to give, and His to take away. When it comes to “helping” the poor, their Judeo-Christian beliefs is a much more powerful moral compass than any Washington-based threat that says they’ll be stripped of everything if they fail to fund welfare and entitlement programs to help the economically disadvantaged.

Yes, it does mean something when our president and many of our elected officials do not live this way themselves. They do not use their own money to help the homeless and the hungry. They do not donate anywhere near as much of their own income as rags-to-riches Christian-living Americans. They want us to pay for it, legally. They want to take our money and give it to those who do not have it. Their version of compassion involves stealing money from the haves and giving it to the have-nots. They got to the top through government programs, not through American hard work and ingenuity. If the poor cannot have a beautiful house, the rich should not be able to either. The “compassion” that many liberal politicians say motivates them in public service is really a mask for the shallow and hollow jealousy that actually drives them. Instead, they use our money to go on extravagant vacations to reward themselves for how hard they are working for us.

To my friends at work, I say: you better believe it means something that self-made Americans freely give to the have-nots. The freedom to give to those in need and the freely given gift itself represent all that is good and right about America. It means more than just anything or something. It means everything. And the fact that fewer in my generation understand how much it means scares me. It scares me bad.