Sunday April 6 2008 General Conference
Today is General Conference. My wife is up at her sister’s house for the weekend. I dearly miss them, but I had to “work” Saturday and my little tin can of a car isn’t reliable enough to make the journey. So, here I am home alone.
Flashback: I went to Priesthood session last night and left, as always, uplifted and inspired. And of course with a great urgency to improve my life.
If you are a client trying to reach me, please try back first thing on Monday morning. You can get my undivided attention.
I am also looking up the voting record of my congressman, Chris Cannon. There’s too much money flowing to the Feds. I can’t believe what is going on up on “the hill”. Let me be specific, the budget for this coming year is about $2,200,000,000,000. I think it should be more like $800,000,000,000. It’s like getting an alcoholic to put down the bottle. They are drunk on our money.
If I compared it to a household. I think the budget needs to get scaled back from a roaring $8800 a month to about $3200 a month.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z6NfXk7Bvc8
Yeah, you heard me, I’m talking about both religion and politics on the same day.
Mike (one of the BTP painters) and I are going to form the “Torch and Pitchfork” society. We don’t know what we’re going to do, but we’re headed up to the capitol sometime soon. Initial goal: get a membership of 15 good and stalwart men. I’m talking about fiscal responsibility here.
I am ever so tired of seeing my pie get taken away by force, then pecked over by rancid vultures, then returned to me in the form of so-called government services, which aren’t even fit to be spit upon.
.
Exhibit A: Social Security.
.
Exhibit B: A “Ward” in the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints (Mormons). Within our community we are not only able to stay off the government dole, but also to pay our onerous taxes AND STILL take care of our own. I belong to a Ward of about 600 people. I am convinced that almost every problem can be taken care of by a community of that size. We could do an even better job if a fifth of our crops weren’t stolen by bandits every year.
.
How does it work? Each individual is expected to be self-sufficient. If there is a problem you rely first on yourself, then on your family, then on the church. In times of need, my wife and I have gone to the bishop, who has counseled with us, and in each case within 48 hours taken care of us in an immediate and substantive way. But we were expected to get back on our feet post haste. .
.
And we did.
.
My point: money is most efficiently managed on a local level. The more local the better.
Every month we fast and also make a donation to the Fast Offering fund. It is from that fund that we take care of our own. And not only that but the church gives all sorts of aid and service worldwide, quietly and with no publicity. My point is: if people are left alone, they will take care of themselves. Government is only needed for a very narrow and limited range of operations.
Back to the church welfare program: In one case I was eating some pears from the Storehouse, when I cast my mind back to my days as a new Mormon, sixteen years old, and working as a volunteer at the pear orchards in Oregon.
What goes around comes around.
PS- If you’re going to start your own business you had better have a backup plan for food.