[steps to lectern] [taps microphone]
We are in the midst of a serious values crisis.
The decay of personal responsibility threatens to collapse our government, our economy, our democracy, and our very identity as Americans.
This decay is spread by corrupt, irresponsible, selfish, and childish people.
Such people will tell you that you should "get yours" and "devil take the hindmost."
They will tell you that investing in your country is wasteful, that our nation cannot be trusted to care for its people.
They will tell you that the only person you can rely on is yourself.
I have just two words for these people:
Grow. Up.
Tell me, where can one find this kind of selfish, me-first, irresponsible, bullying behavior?
The playground.
Only a child can be so selfish. Only a petulant, spoiled child thinks of himself first and only.
As adults, we know that we have responsibilities to our families, our co-workers, our churches, and our communities. Part of maturity is shouldering that burden and following through on our responsibilities.
Abandoning our responsibilities is not only childish. It is the sign of a total lack of moral values.
This lack of values produces chaos, anarchy and brutality. You can see it in the daily news of violence and crime. For what is crime, but the ultimate expression of selfishness and lack of values?
This lack of values corrupts the leaders of corporations whose single-minded pursuit of their own benefit leaves our forests in ruin, stains our air and lungs, poisons our water and blood, and leaves our families and neighbors jobless, sick, and without hope. Only a child needs to be told to clean up after himself!
Grow. Up.
This lack of values forces us to fight other peoples, rather than enticing them to join us as they once did when America still stood for something good, something moral, a place where values and opportunity exist for all. Only a child picks a fight to get his way.
Grow. Up.
Those who seek to eradicate our unity, to erode our sense of responsibility to one another, scream at us about the "free market," when what they really want is a free ride. Listen to them closely, and you will hear it.
"I don't WANNA pay my fair share! I don't WANNA help out! GIMME my money! GIMME my American way of life! For FREE!"
Grow. Up.
Grownups know that nothing is free. You pay the price of admission, and you get to see the show. You don't pay, you don't get in.
America is the greatest nation on earth. We have the best of everything.
That. Costs. Money.
To these people I say, quit your whining and do your part.
I pay MY taxes. I do MY part.
So suck it up and deal.
You don't like what it costs to have a safe, healthy, prosperous society? Then move. Because we got no room for freeloaders here. You do what you can, you pick up a wheelbarrow and help, or you take your whining elsewhere.
Greedy, selfish, spoiled children are running this country. Join me in telling them:
Grow. Up.
Thank you and good day.