Every Sunday after church my mom and dad would take us to visit our grandparents. We’d first visit my grandpa and when we’d get to his house, my uncle would take me to the panaderia a few blocks away. He’d pick me because I’d let him buy a soda, which he was strictly forbidden from having, and he’d let me pick whichever sweet rolls I wanted. They were usually the marranitos, the softish cookies shaped into little pigs.
Last week, a friend of mine asked me where I got my political views. I was reminded of this story because everything you need to know about life, obligation and God, you learn on Sunday afternoons.
After visiting for what seemed like an eternity, we would climb into the truck and head to the home of my grandmother (on my mom’s side). After spending what seemed like a second eternity, we’d say goodbye and sometimes, even after spending our entire Sunday afternoon with relatives, we’d make one last stop at my great-grandmother’s house. There, my mother’s uncles and aunts would pull out their electric guitars, amplifiers and mics. As they strung up the impromptu concert, I would run and play with my cousins, great cousins and kids I didn’t even know. Eventually someone would fall, slam the door on someone’s unsuspecting finger, or get into a fight. It was always time to go when some kid started to cry.
Just as we’d huddle back into our truck and head home, exhausted and tasting of salt, our dad would tell us what assignments he had picked up for us. Next Saturday, we’d be heading to our grandmother’s house to cut the grass and clean her yard.
Sure enough, first thing Saturday morning, we’d get up, put on our shorts and tennis shoes, and head to grandma’s. That’s when I learned that tube socks weren’t just a great fashion accessory, they also doubled as protective gear. They were great shields against flying rocks and jet-propulsioned flying debris hurled at us from angry Weed Eaters and lawn mowers.
Once we put the tools back in the truck, I made the mistake I was never brazen enough to repeat: asking my dad whether we would be getting paid for cutting my grandmother’s grass. He hit me upside the head and solemnly told us sternly that we don’t get paid to take care of our family. We don’t get paid to do what’s right. We just do it.
When I think about my current political values, I can’t help but be reminded of this lesson. Rely only on yourselves and your family – not government.
Yet the government gets mixed up in our daily lives and obligations. For example, the government pays entitlements to people just for taking care of their family members. Daughters and sons get paid to take care of their fathers and mothers. Even spouses get paid to care for each other. I don’t get it. I thought caring for our loved ones was our responsibility, not that of Uncle Sam. Government ought to exist by extracting the bare minimum from its citizens in the form of taxes to perform the most basic of public services. We’re raising a generation of kids entitled to get paid for doing the bare minimum required of them while simultaneously feeding the beast of a bloated government.
The current administration created DOGE, the department of government efficiency to weed out waste, fraud and corruption. I hope it finds more. It started by looking into USAID, the government agency overseeing the disbursement of over $40 billion in taxpayer dollars. And boy, have they found some doozies. It’s amazing what bureaucrats do when no one is looking.
Government is like any living organism. It requires oxygen and food to survive. It grows by demanding more and more taxpayer dollars. It is a Leviathan, an angry and chaotic beast with the sole purpose of self-perpetuation. It uses elected officials as pawns or guardians at the gate to protect it. The only way to tame the beast is to cut off its food source – and self-reliance is the sword.
If you don’t like how government spends your money, then strengthen your self-reliance. Depending on government for the most basic needs means giving up freedom. As with the devil, the genius of any government Leviathan is making you believe he doesn’t exist – which a government can do best when doling out checks. What’s a couple trillion more so long as you’re getting your piece of the pie? People get a pat on the back each time the government sends them a check for taking care of their family. Too bad no one was there to knock some sense into them each time they asked, “Don’t we get paid for cutting the grass?”
Javier Sanchez is a former Española mayor and an El Rito Media investor.