For many generations my family farmed. It was hard work. They worked from dawn to dusk. They did this to live. They knew that if they did not work to their full productive potential that they might die. When they had a good year they’d set aside a portion of their earnings, so that if the next year was a poor one, they could live through it. They balanced the profits from good years between savings and the purchase of equipment and land to increase their productivity. Such decisions were serious decisions because they were decisions of life and death. And my family was not alone. Much of our traditional work ethic came from the desire to live. We worked hard, were creative and inventive to avoid death. Today in America almost no one really works for a "living." Think for a minute what it would take for you to die of your own volition. You could kill yourself. You could pay a hit person to kill you. You could visit some bad neighborhoods and yell out, "fuck you, assholes!" But could you just sit there, do nothing and die? No, I’ve tried and believe me you could not. Our governments would not let you die. You’d get welfare and food stamps. Refusing that, you’d be declared incompetent, institutionalized, force fed, tube fed, hooked up to an IV… From the beginning of mankind until the late 20th century the avoidance of death was the most important motivational factor in human behavior. How has the diminution of death as a motivational force affected our personalities and our behavior? If we did not live, we could not die. If we did not die, we could not live. Life would be dull, it would be rather dry, if no matter what we could not die. If the thought of death we could not feel, life would not be such a big deal. So we dare it to happen; we stare into its face. We flirt with death; it makes our hearts race. We seek it out; we try to cheat it. With acts of bravery we attempt to defeat it. And these things that we do would not thrill us without the thought that they might kill us. So while death will always be our final fate, it is death that makes living great. Life without death, like summer without fall, would not be intriguing at all. In the old days before our governments guaranteed a living, if a neighbor suffered a setback, everyone knew that this neighbor might die. This stimulated compassion and neighbors joined together to care for the ones in need. The personal participation in this act of compassion and charity strengthen important features of character. The neighbor who received this charity looked his or her benefactors in the eye and thanked them. They too developed a more loving character because of the love that was extended to them. But in truth we were probably not doing a good enough job of looking after our neighbors. And some neighbors, because of a tradition of oppression, were unable to care adequately for themselves, much less for neighbors. So our governments took much of this responsibility from us. They took it from us because we, the people, could not meet the needs of our downtrodden. They took it from us to avert a revolution. But also taken from us were the good feelings derived from acts of caring for our fellow man. And it took from the recipients the gratitude and love for the ones who loved and cared for them in their time of need. Gone were many of the situations which served to form important traits of character. Today few if any recipients of government charity are grateful for the charity of the taxpayers who made this possible. Today few if any taxpayers feel good about paying taxes so that those in need might live and have the chance to prosper. To restore some of the good traits of charity, I think that anyone who receives government assistance should be required to write a thank you note to a taxpayer each month. The name and address of a specific taxpayer, picked at random, would appear on each assistance check. After receiving the thank you note, the taxpayer should write back to the recipient acknowledging the note, and adding a few words of encouragement. And to make this easier, I suppose it could be done via fax or email. *Exchange of pictures, while encouraged, should be sent in jpg, gif or png format. **********