Last Week:
Fight for Issues:
Don't Make it Personal!

Next Week:
Skirting the Natural Law
and the Minimum Wage

June 26, 2017

During Rudy's twenty second birthday lunch his best friend Pete reminds Rudy, "Well, you know what my dad always said, Having dreams is what makes life tolerable." Rudy, the "five foot nothing[g]…" with hardly a speck of athletic ability, dreamed his whole life about playing football for the University of Notre Dame. Since graduation, his dream remained sidelined, working a "mill job" in Indiana. Driven by his dream, the barely athletic young man found fame by his exceptional attitude. He did dress one game playing two plays in the last game of his senior year at Notre Dame. The movie about his life has left a far more important effect on us than perhaps any football player from Notre Dame. He became the first college graduate in his family after which all of his younger brothers followed.

But dreaming is but one attribute essential in finding ones value. The "good book" teaches us that, "Where there is no vision, the people perish:" True vision is more than physical seeing; it requires sight with wisdom, sight with understanding of natural law, the physical natural law, plus the moral natural law.

Dreams and vision accomplished through courage open opportunity's door. Who hasn't seen the movie, Rocky Balboa, and not been touched by Rocky's definition of courage. In his tough love chat with his son, Rocky lets loose, "Let me tell you something .. .The world ain't all sunshine and rainbows. It's a very mean and nasty place and I don't care how tough you are it will beat you to your knees and keep you there permanently if you let it. You, me, or nobody is gonna hit as hard as life. But it ain't about how hard ya hit. It's about how hard you can get hit and keep moving forward. How much you can take and keep moving forward. That's how winning is done!"

Recently, Ben Carson, the Secretary of HUD, strangely created a media fire storm for his comment on the importance of these very life changing attributes. In a recent interview, he commented, "I think poverty to a large extent is also a state of mind. You take somebody that has the right mindset, you can take everything from them and put them on the street, and I guarantee in a little while they'll be right back up there." Several from all sides of the political spectrum, who have essentially, like Carson, pulled themselves up from poverty by their bootstraps; came out supporting this important reality. In a more recent interview, Carson added that privately sponsored vision or opportunity centers will become a part of lower income areas. His goal is to help people to move up the ladder of opportunity, defining the word help to include more than just instruction.

Providing help without vision stunts positive change. We wish the Secretary great success. "For as he thinketh in his heart, so is he."

Mark, Bill and John