"No Free Sandwiches"

Last Sunday was “Father’s Day”, a day which is dedicated to those men who led us through all of our lives, by their great examples of love towards family and integrity in their actions.

I always think about the man my Dad was when this day rolls around. My Dad grew up during the Depression, the third son of immigrant parents from Italy. His father did a number of things to make “ends meet” while he was growing up, and he learned that taking care of your family was the primary job of any good father.

My Dad went to work early in life and always did his very best on any job he had; it was a matter of integrity and pride in his family name. He enlisted during WWII, his only time out of the work force.  He always held down a full time job. He married my Mom when he was a young man; very young by today’s standards. In about two years I came along; he was a proud Dad, as most Italians are when it comes to their children. He seldom raised his voice to us growing up; a glance in our direction was enough to know we had done something he wasn’t pleased with, and that was sometimes a chilling feeling.

My Dad never asked for a “handout” from anyone and believed that you needed to work for things in life through effort and determination. He always said “Nothing in life is free, except for a beating, and people will always be willing to give you one of those”, and he was certainly right about that. When I said I wanted a car, his response was “Get a job”; there were no “free sandwiches” as far as he was concerned. He was right again because we always value something a little more when we actually have to work for it. This may all sound a little austere, but this same man would always sacrifice his own needs for that of his family; he would repair his own work shoes so he would have more money to spend on his children. He took in his mother and uncle when they retired, not out of obligation, but because of love and respect for family. My Dad carried quite a bit on his back, yet he never complained; he was a great Dad!

Today we are living in a society that looks at life quite a bit differently than my father did. Even as far back as the 60s, my Dad said a few things about the “welfare society”, and they weren’t too complimentary! We see a society today that cries about their lives, but does very little on its own to take care of its own problems. Our society wants the government to fix everything for us. Our young people seem to want a free ride through life; they want the government to clear a path for them so life will be easy and smooth. It seems there are too many hands outstretched and too few hands willing to get a callous or two by working hard. It seems everybody wants a paycheck, but nobody wants to work for it.

 

I have an extremely successful daughter, and from the time she was young, she knew nothing in life was free; I passed on the same message I received from my Dad, and it worked! America will only recover from our current state of lethargy if we instill the message of hard work back into our lives. We need to forget about government “evening things out” for everybody and getting up off of our collective butts and working for our goals!! America works better when people work toward their own goals. It is like my Dad said, “There are NO FREE SANDWICHES!”