People, People Helping People

Yeah, I know, I just paraphrased a Barbara Streisand song, I'll have to turn in my VRWC(tm) Membership Card.

Still though, in an age during which pretty much anyone and everyone goes running to the federal government as a solution to each and every single problem, I receive an email from the Grandmother which reminds me of how it used to be, and how it needs to be again.

If it is any interest for you, one time Grandad Earl and Danielle had ham and potato salad (Earl even made his into a sandwich!) for Christmas lunch in San Diego. This was in an upstairs bedroom, shared bath, and a closet for a kitchen after World War II was over.

Money was more than tight. Earl had a friend (your mom has that capability also--to make friends along the way) in the Navy who worked part time in the ships store, that is the best that I can remember. So I left Danielle with this friend's wife who lived in an apt. across the street and took a bus across town to this Navy store. When I finally got to the counter, waiting three or four hours, this friend handed me this 20 or so pound ham! I said to myself, I can't take it because I don't have enough money, but he calmly marked $2.00 on it. Then I felt like a thief who be caught any minute and could not buy anything else because it was all I could do to carry this ham, thinking they would catch me before I got out of the fenced area.
Remember, I really was a skinny little girl, nineteen years old. So I baked the ham and went to the corner store about five times to get stuff for the salad. You would have loved it as it had practically nothing in it. More later.

Your eternally optimistic grandmother with love, MM

MM stands for Mee-Maw (what I have called her since I first learned to talk, sweet no?) Danielle is my mother and my Grandpa (she calls him Granddad, which is something I never called him) Earl was a WWII Navy veteran, and people ask me just how I got involved in the military, well there's one answer for you. Unfortunately my Grandpa is no longer among the living, he died when I was 12 or 13 years old, I can't remember, but anyway what really stands out in that email for me is this: My grandmother didn't have the money to pay for the X-Mas ham, the merchant then sells this ham at a loss to my grandmother and my grandmother feels like a thief because of it (more telling about the moral code of my family than anything, let me tell you). That right there tells me more about how an individual will always help another individual if they are truly in need of help. This is how it needs to be folks. Today, with our welfare system most people have the "I gave at the office" mentality, and you really cannot blame them for that, but Americans are still the most charitable minded people in the world. Imagine what would happen if the state mandated wealth re-distribution went the way of the dodo. Those on the Left would have you believe there would be bodies in the streets, whole families would starve, and would become homeless. Conservatives believe that private charities and individuals would step in to the fill that void, and you know what? We, they, are absolutely friggin correct. Sure it was after WWII when that little anecdotal story from my Mee-Maw occurred, but can you honestly tell me we, as a nation have changed that substantially? The charity figures do not bear that thinking out. So, you tell me who really believes in the promise of America? Those on the Left or those on the Right?

Your eternally optimistic grandmother with love, MM

Optimism abounds in my family, can't you tell?