Reflecting back on the 2008 election makes my leg tingle, not in excitement as with Chris What’s-his-name, but with jangled nerves of apprehension. And I’m not talking about the candidates. I’m talking about the voters.

Voters marched to the polls with hands out, just waiting for somebody to start piling on the goodies. Or perhaps that’s just another media mirage wherein they show only the gimme interviews. Anybody who loves this country has to hope and pray we have more backbone than a taste for the gimmes.

America’s amazing history comes from a can-do attitude. See a problem and fix it. See an opportunity and take it. See a possibility and make it happen. We’ve never been a people to sit around hoping somebody else will make things right.

If America’s citizens lay down our can-do attitude and wait for others to act, we’ll become a mediocre country like the rest of the world’s countries. They all have the people and the resources to achieve excellence. What they lack, with few exceptions, is the can-do spirit of independence.

I frankly don’t care what mediocre people say about me. And I don’t care what mediocre governments say about my country. Mediocre people have zero, zip, nada understanding of excellence.

Mediocre people whine about what other people have, say and do. They seem to think someone appointed them to decide what’s “fair.” These are not happy people. They don’t do a lick to make the world a better place, and I can’t understand why they don’t get over themselves, realize the glass is more than half full, and start climbing whatever mountain’s in front of them.

To illustrate how bad it is: Mediocre people think that “I’m from the government, and I’m here to help you.” is a wonderful concept, not an invitation to doom.

And what does this have to do with the Bible–which is where I hang my hat? The Bible frowns on sloth and covetousness, the two bulwarks of the gimme attitude that kills, steals and destroys.



Read more about author Bette Dowdell at http://BetteDowdell.com