A thought for President Obama,

I presume you have heard the old adage of “Give a man a fish and he will eat for a day. Teach a man to fish and he can eat the rest of his life.”

Too much of what is happening or being planned by you and the congress fits the category of “give a man a fish.”

This nation was founded by, and grew to where she is because ordinary people faced problems and overcame them. This has built, strong people and as a result a strong society and a strong nation.

The people of America have learned from their challenges and excelled. And through it all, we have helped to make the world a better place.

There have been problems to be sure. There are areas where we as a people and a nation still need to find the solutions for day to day challenges. There will be new challenges to overcome and learn from.

But if the government, as appears to be the current intent, steps in and tries to solve all the problems for everyone, that growth and learning will cease. The best and the brightest will atrophy and our nation will be weaker for it.

Take the butterfly as an example.

If you see a butterfly struggle to escape from its cocoon, it seems to slow, to painstaking to watch. It leaves you wanting to help it get free of the prison it is fighting to escape. And you could. With little effort, in seconds you could free the butterfly and save it from all the pain and struggle. You could make it so much easier for the butterfly to be free.
And by so doing, you would kill it.

The butterfly requires that struggle to develop the strength to survive once it is free of the confines of the cocoon. Without that struggle, it does not develop the strength, the capacity to survive on its own.

If government steps in and “solves” all of the difficulties that we face as humans, it prevents us from developing the strength, the skills to survive on our own.

If government grows too large, does too much and protects too much, some part of us, as humans dies and makes us less able to grow. It makes us less able to cope. It makes us less able to meet the challenges that face us as we go forward.

I know that you feel that you are just trying to help. You are just trying to make things easier.
But consider more than tomorrow. Consider longer than next week, next month or next year.

Don’t, by trying to be kind, leave us less able to survive in the future.